Published Feb 14, 2008
mark3274
67 Posts
I am a new grad RN quess who is supposedly training me? other new grads who maybe have like 9 months of experience in fact on my floor all I see is new grad RNS very few experienced nurses and this is a med-surg cardiac floor... most of the RN are not cardiac certified why? because we all all new grads for the most part.. very few have acls
and my training so far? hey thats how you do something now get to it chop chop faster faster faster make sure your head to toe is done in 5 minutes ect ect.. go faster so we can give you 5,6,7, or even 8 pts.... uggggggggggggggg is all I have to say so far.
llg, PhD, RN
13,469 Posts
Now you know what sorts of questions to ask when you interview for your next job.
If you have a great sense of adventure, you might want to stick with your current job for a while and give it a shot. It sounds like there might be great opportunities for advancement and for getting valuable leadership experience there. With everyone so inexperienced, you will be looked upon as an experienced nurse much sooner in your career -- and have the potential for some sort of promotion. That might be a valuable "step up" for your future career as you would get leadership experience.
When new grads work on units with tons of experienced staff, they may get lots of nurturing, teaching, and "protection" for a while. However, the downside is that they remain "junior staff nurses" for a long time and won't enjoy the benefits of seniority or opportunities for career advancement for a long time. With your situation, it's just the opposite. Each situation has its advantages and disadvantages.
The question is: Are the benefits of your current situation worth the disadvantages?
butterflies2
1 Post
I can relate completely, I am a new grad (coming on 6mths) at 1st job; the majority of nurses are new (
Jovichick
9 Posts
My first nursing job has been a nightmare for me too. I left my floor after almost a year, took about a month off to rest my mind and body. I needed the time off to regroup myself and really try to find that ideal unit for me. I have 2 interviews coming up. My excuse for leaving is "Distance from home." There's no way I could really say why I didn't like my job, that would make me look horrible and I would be labeled.
I was made fun of and embarrassed countless number of times. The staff just was not accepting of myself and the others that started with me. The other girls that started with me have already found jobs on other units. I took the position I did because I was unsure of what I really wanted, and HR suggested that unit, AND that unit has one of the highest turnover rates. As I read through the First Year in Nursing forum, I see so many people like me. We are not alone. Why do other nurses have to make it hell for us?
All I wish for is to find a unit with nice staff. I don't want to drive to work anymore hating it. I too have wished sometimes to get into a fender bender so I could miss work.
Why must it be so hard. Why can't other be nice and accepting. All I want to do is take care of people, and enjoy those I work with.
jjjoy, LPN
2,801 Posts
Floor nursing is a unique beast. In many jobs, you don't rely upon your co-workers in the immediate way that you do in floor nursing. Everyone, everywhere has some obnoxious colleague but in other environments, you may be able to avoid them more easily than in floor nursing. And you usually have more time and space to recover from a problematic exchange you may have had with a colleague.
Also, with floor nursing, the make up of the staff changes from shift to shift as well as patient load. Meaning the interpersonal dynamics and work stresses are always in flux. In other environments, you usually are more able to fall into a tolerable pattern with difficult colleagues because it's not constantly changing day to day.
Finally, in floor nursing, you are handing off your work from shift to shift. In other jobs, you usually collaborate but you don't actually take turns working on the exact same things. When you do this, you have to not only worry about your own mistakes but you also at times have to correct other's mistakes and they yours. And that's a tough position to be in on a regular basis.
There are many other factors as well, but thinking about that helps me feel a little more accepting of the difficulties of interpersonal relations in floor nursing. I may not like it more, but it helps curb the "why can't people be more civil like in xyz field?!" feelings.
TraumaNurseRN
497 Posts
document and cover thine orifice....is all I have to say.....New grads in the ER too.....scarey stuff.
madwife2002, BSN, RN
26 Articles; 4,777 Posts
I am so sorry to hear of your problems I do think you are highlighting a huge problem which is general. The lack of experienced RN's
When I came to the US from the UK having 17 yrs of prior experience my preceptor was a new grad of four months. God love her she really tried but she couldn't answer a lot of my questions because she didnt have the experience. What she didn't comprehend is I didnt need to learn how to nurse I needed to learn how to nurse in the USA.
You can only teach if you have a variety of good solid experience and a lot of good experienced nurses have burn't out, and moved on in nursing. I hear horror stories from the new grads and I do feel we try to rush them before they are ready. Unfortunalty this has been occuring since nursing began.
JJJOY: Disagree with about everything you said..sorry......I work ER....have you tried that kind of work?
I don't usually consider ER as floor nursing... it's a whole other ball game.