Hi everyone, pretty new here, and to the ER. I had 2 yrs experience in ICU and am in school to get my bachelors. I recently switched to the ER because i needed a change and new challenges. I finished my 4 week orientation last week, and am finally on my own. While in orientation, because of my critical care experience, i was almost exclusively assigned critical rooms and rooms where only experienced nurses would work, i worked pretty much on my own, and asked for help or questions to my preceptor. Now that i'm on my own, for 4 days in a row, i have been assigned the same, and probably most difficult and frustrating area of the ed. It is an area with less critical pts, very high turnover, and can have up to 7 or 8 pts at a time, because it is also in an isolated area, most of the other staff forget you are even there, it's so crazy, even the experienced ER nurses who work this assignment are used to getting at the most a 15 min break on a 12 hr shift (where other areas its almost guaranteed 2 (15 min) and 1 40 min lunch break. i'm exhausted and feel taken advantage of. Though i know i'm the new guy, it's not fair to be in the area everyone hates to be in most every day. One of the reasons i left the ICU is because i work in a small community hospital, where most nurses have been there from 10 to 30 years, so even after being there a few years, you still got dumped on- worked every holiday, and you better believe if there was a psych pt jumping out of bed, or a 600 lb vented pt, they were the newest person on the units pt.
I know i'm new, but i was specifically sought out and recruited to the ER because they have so many new grads and so little people with critical care experience, and the assignments i'm getting don't use my skills. I'm feeling dumped on already. Should i just bear it and hope i won't always be at the bottom of the totem pole, is it too early to speak up about my assignments (which in the area i'm in, it's usually standard to only keep someone there 4 to 8 hrs, and never 2 days in a row, but i've done 4 (12) hr shifts in a row there? Anyone else have this kind of experience when new?
