How fair is your transfer policy?

madwife2002, BSN, RN · Mar 20, 2009

also be aware if there are any layoffs and you have transfered you will be first in line again

JBizzleRN, ADN, RN · Mar 20, 2009

Fair? Lets talk fair. I put in a transfer to the ICU from my med/surg floor. Well to start with my manager offered me a day PCC position, I refused and told her I just wanted to transfer. Two days later I call HR to see if they ever got my transfer paperwork. They say no. I call my manager and she tells me that she didn't see any paperwork, even though I had slid it under her door the night before. So I go up to the hospital, fill it out, and hand it to her this time. 3 days later I get a call from HR that my file has no information in it. Apparently my CPR card, skills checklist, all my education stuff, even my nursing liscense could not be found. Strange to say the least. SO after spending 20 minutes on the phone asking them how they lost my folder, they gave me no reasonable explanation. Well I keep copies of EVERYTHING I turn in (ecuation, tests, dr. excuses, EVERYTHING). So I go to HR with a new file and plop it on the manager's desk along with a copy of my transfer paperwork. Three days later I get a call that I can interview with the manger of the ICU. Well it's schedule for a Tuesday @ 8:30. I get up and am getting ready at 8:00 HR calls and says it needs to be pushed back to 1:00. I'm cool with that. At 12:00 they call and tell me it will have to be moved to the following Monday. Ok. That Monday I get a call that says the interview will have to be cancled and that they really don't know when I'll get to interview for the 4 spots that are open in ICU. Seriously? Two weeks go by and I call the ICU manager myself and we set an appointment up. I interview, she says I have a job to tell my manager that I am putting in my 30 day transfer notice. I do. My manager is NOT very happy about it. I tell her, sorry, but I'll be leaving this unit in 30 days. New schedule comes out and I'm still on the schedule...seriously? I approach my manager about it and she says that she can't let me go right now. I tell her she doesn't really have too much of a choice, she then shows me a letter from administration she got that gives her permission to hold me on the floor until such time as she is fully staffed. The floor I work on has the highest turnover rate of any floor in the hospital...it will never be fully staffed (mainly because fully staffed is still very understaffed. Fully staffed is taking 8-9 pts with one CNA and no secretary) that's fully staffed.

So three months later I get to go to the ICU. . .

oramar · Mar 21, 2009

Fair? Lets talk fair. I put in a transfer to the ICU from my med/surg floor. Well to start with my manager offered me a day PCC position, I refused and told her I just wanted to transfer. Two days later I call HR to see if they ever got my transfer paperwork. They say no. I call my manager and she tells me that she didn't see any paperwork, even though I had slid it under her door the night before. So I go up to the hospital, fill it out, and hand it to her this time. 3 days later I get a call from HR that my file has no information in it. Apparently my CPR card, skills checklist, all my education stuff, even my nursing liscense could not be found. Strange to say the least. SO after spending 20 minutes on the phone asking them how they lost my folder, they gave me no reasonable explanation. Well I keep copies of EVERYTHING I turn in (ecuation, tests, dr. excuses, EVERYTHING). So I go to HR with a new file and plop it on the manager's desk along with a copy of my transfer paperwork. Three days later I get a call that I can interview with the manger of the ICU. Well it's schedule for a Tuesday @ 8:30. I get up and am getting ready at 8:00 HR calls and says it needs to be pushed back to 1:00. I'm cool with that. At 12:00 they call and tell me it will have to be moved to the following Monday. Ok. That Monday I get a call that says the interview will have to be cancled and that they really don't know when I'll get to interview for the 4 spots that are open in ICU. Seriously? Two weeks go by and I call the ICU manager myself and we set an appointment up. I interview, she says I have a job to tell my manager that I am putting in my 30 day transfer notice. I do. My manager is NOT very happy about it. I tell her, sorry, but I'll be leaving this unit in 30 days. New schedule comes out and I'm still on the schedule...seriously? I approach my manager about it and she says that she can't let me go right now. I tell her she doesn't really have too much of a choice, she then shows me a letter from administration she got that gives her permission to hold me on the floor until such time as she is fully staffed. The floor I work on has the highest turnover rate of any floor in the hospital...it will never be fully staffed (mainly because fully staffed is still very understaffed. Fully staffed is taking 8-9 pts with one CNA and no secretary) that's fully staffed.
So three months later I get to go to the ICU. . .

Wow was she messing with you or what. I have seen this before and what went on is pretty much what you document here.

caliotter3 · Mar 21, 2009

Fair? Lets talk fair. I put in a transfer to the ICU from my med/surg floor. Well to start with my manager offered me a day PCC position, I refused and told her I just wanted to transfer. Two days later I call HR to see if they ever got my transfer paperwork. They say no. I call my manager and she tells me that she didn't see any paperwork, even though I had slid it under her door the night before. So I go up to the hospital, fill it out, and hand it to her this time. 3 days later I get a call from HR that my file has no information in it. Apparently my CPR card, skills checklist, all my education stuff, even my nursing liscense could not be found. Strange to say the least. SO after spending 20 minutes on the phone asking them how they lost my folder, they gave me no reasonable explanation. Well I keep copies of EVERYTHING I turn in (ecuation, tests, dr. excuses, EVERYTHING). So I go to HR with a new file and plop it on the manager's desk along with a copy of my transfer paperwork. Three days later I get a call that I can interview with the manger of the ICU. Well it's schedule for a Tuesday @ 8:30. I get up and am getting ready at 8:00 HR calls and says it needs to be pushed back to 1:00. I'm cool with that. At 12:00 they call and tell me it will have to be moved to the following Monday. Ok. That Monday I get a call that says the interview will have to be cancled and that they really don't know when I'll get to interview for the 4 spots that are open in ICU. Seriously? Two weeks go by and I call the ICU manager myself and we set an appointment up. I interview, she says I have a job to tell my manager that I am putting in my 30 day transfer notice. I do. My manager is NOT very happy about it. I tell her, sorry, but I'll be leaving this unit in 30 days. New schedule comes out and I'm still on the schedule...seriously? I approach my manager about it and she says that she can't let me go right now. I tell her she doesn't really have too much of a choice, she then shows me a letter from administration she got that gives her permission to hold me on the floor until such time as she is fully staffed. The floor I work on has the highest turnover rate of any floor in the hospital...it will never be fully staffed (mainly because fully staffed is still very understaffed. Fully staffed is taking 8-9 pts with one CNA and no secretary) that's fully staffed.
So three months later I get to go to the ICU. . .

Yes, this certainly happens. But three months later you got what you wanted. Thank goodness you didn't respond to the messing around by resigning. I would have been looking for a new job if she had done all that to me.

madwife2002, BSN, RN · Mar 21, 2009

Yes, this certainly happens. But three months later you got what you wanted. Thank goodness you didn't respond to the messing around by resigning. I would have been looking for a new job if she had done all that to me.

Me too

taz628, BSN, RN · Mar 21, 2009

Two weeks ago I put in my application for transfer, I interviewed this past Monday, found out (officially) that I got the job on Thursday, and I start my new position at the end of April (that schedule had already been put out). I've been at this hospital since July, and by the time I will transfer out I'll have been off orientation on my current unit for a little more than 6 months. My facility seems pretty fair when it comes to transfers. Another coworker was held an extra 4 weeks because he worked d/e (which is short staffed) and my shift, nights, is pretty fully staffed (finding OT is near impossible!). I guess they figure if they don't let us transfer, we'll just quit. They'd rather keep the nurse in some other department than loose a nurse altogether.