I have been in nursing exactly one year. My goal when I started was to be the best nurse I could possibly be and learn the aspects of my new career.
My new goal for the upcoming year is to get out of the hospital setting and work on an advanced degree so I'll never be forced to work in one again.
I'm learning my job, I feel that for one-year in, clinically, I'm where I'm supposed to be. I am very proud of my charting, I feel that I manage my time well, I am always willing to help anyone that asks. I am always very, very professional.
So why am I leaving?
1. Rude co-workers. If they don't like their job, they need to find another one.
2. A hospital that spends tons of money recruiting us to work for them, but doesn't spend a penny on retention and then work very, very hard to cheat you out of every dime they possibly can.
3. The BS that comes from all kinds of crap that has nothing to do with my job.
I have realized that I have just had it. I hate being the scapegoat for another nurse that comes in the morning and takes it out on me. I'm tired of having to sit with my paycheck every two weeks and a calculator to make sure I'm getting paid for all the hours that I put in and having to put in requests MONTHLY to correct something and it's never fixed the first time.
So, if nurse recruiters and managers want to know why they are short-staffed or have a staffed that doesn't give a flip...this is why...it's because the ones that DO care about their job are being run off, which sometimes leaves those that don't care and are there to punch a clock.
Of course, that doesn't put everyone in that category that is a senior nurse...I have had several that bend over backwards to help me and I would do anything I could to help them.
I spent today upgrading my resume and figuring out how I can cut back things, even necessities in order to do less and be happy than to come home every day miserable and never wanting to go back.
It shouldn't be like that...it's not the work, it's the people and the environment, not the patients, the families or anything that is required to take care of them.
