Fired after re-entry to med surg nursing. Anyone have success re-entering nursing?

HRM672 · Apr 7, 2008

Try posting in some other forums, you may find more experienced nurses with experience with this problem. Good luck!

rn/writer, RN · Apr 7, 2008

Moved to General Nursing Discussion. Hope it will draw a bigger response here.

rn/writer, RN · Apr 7, 2008

I re-entered nursing after a 25 year hiatus. I took a nurse re-entry course with a 60 hour clinical component where I essentially worked on a med surg floor as a NA. I decided to see if i could do the job so I asked to be hired on the same acute med surg floor. I was fired after 5 months because I did not pass three telemetry tests to read heart monitors. I don't want to make excuses. I had much to learn and thought I could do it. I regret not resigning but believed until the last days that I could be a safe and effective nurse. My question is this. Does anyone know of a good nursing reentry program? Has anyone been successful in nursing re-entry? I have come to the conclusion that I should have gone back to a diploma school where I could have relearned the clinical part of nursing. I have a BSN and feel the clinical part was inadequate. Any comments are appreciated. TY MalloryJane

I'm so sorry to hear what you're going through.

It's difficult to come back into nursing where meds, equipment and treatments are constantly changing. I took a refresher course about four years ago. I hadn't been out all that long, but I'd worked psych for a number of years before taking a break, so I hadn't practiced in acute care for almost ten years.

I'm thinking that med/surg was not the best fit for you. In some ways, it's more demanding (and draining) than critical care. In ICU or CCU the acuity is higher (although sometimes not that much), but you're concentrating your care on 1-3 patients rather than 6-8 (or even more!). Just the running alone in med/surg is a challenge. Now factor in the lifting, the number of call lights, the number of family members, the patients with multiple co-morbidities, and this becomes a real horse race for anyone over 40. Not that it can't be done (no flames, please), just that it's going to be tough to do keep up that pace while trying to re-learn the nursing role.

With that in mind, you did well to last five months.

I have three questions for you.

How long did you work as a nurse (and in what area) before you took time off?

Are there any other areas that interest you in nursing?

What did you do while you were away from nursing? Do you have any skills that would combine with nursing to give you some kind of edge?

I am now working in postpartum. There are shifts when I'm running pretty much the whole time, but we don't do much heavy lifting, we work with a limited number of standard meds, and we have some very nice teaching opportunities with the moms. The babies are bonus.

Are there other departments in the same facility that might be willing to give you a chance? Depending on the size of the hospital, there could be outpatient clinics or other more older-nurse friendly units that would appreciate what you have to offer.

Don't give up hope. Keep looking till you find your niche. It IS out there.

sharlynn · Apr 8, 2008

I also wondered how long you worked and where.

I took a refresher course after being off for eight years, but I had worked for twenty years and had a wide variety of experience. I had no problems with returning to nursing.

I eventually ended up in LTC after a divorce, because it was the only place I wouldn't run into my ex.

I agree, don't give up hope!

BrokenRNheart · Apr 8, 2008

Don't let that knock you down. Being fired or chasing nurses off seems to be the norm.

So, go to http://www.skillstat.com/learn.htm and practice those ekg's and try a simple book like Rapid Enterpretation of Ekg's by Dubin. There is another popular easy book out there - can't remember but hopefully someone will post it. There are more and more med/surg floors taking telemetry and you can learn it. I avoided it for years and when I took a PCU position it finally clicked. Try learning just one rhythm at a time. I just checked this site out to get my ACLS and I like it.

Also, try another position. There are units out there that will welcome you back as a "new" RN and take into consideration that you are re-entering. I had other nurses that struggled with telemetry when I started. Their jobs were threatened too. They did finally get it. You will too.

I seemed to have a block as far as learning it but I had no desire. Then it just clicked.

Since nursing has become heartless and administrators do not appreciate that there is a shortage, there is a lot of this going on.

Maybe you can luck out and land a position without telemetry.

Good Luck Re-entry RN. Nice to have you back.

medsurgrnco, BSN, RN · Apr 9, 2008

There are med/surg units where you don't need to know telemetry or have ACLS. Suggest you pick up one of those pocket guides for Med/Surg nursing or ECG info as I found those guides to be more concise and easier to understand.