Job Switching Advice Needed!

[jenmicurn]

Hi! I'm an experienced (a few years) MICU Nurse. I recently moved to a new city and thought that I would like to try PICU. I loved the variety of patients I got in the MICU, and thought I would get this with peds, and I always thought I would like to work with kids! I was offered a PICU job at a great hospital and after two months...I HATE it! I miss the MICU so much. I feel like I am losing all of my adult nursing skills and I have no autonomy - I really only see congenital conditions (which I DON'T like!) and the doctors step on my toes all day throughout the entire day. I miss making my own clinical decisions so much (for example - in the PICU, we use no protocols and I can't even titrate my drips!). The staff are so unfriendly and every time I bring up something I do in adults (like keeping the HOB at 30 degrees for vents, which they don't do with infants), I get so much attitude. One nurse even pulled me aside and told me that if I do adjust to how they do things in the PICU, no one will trust me with the patients, and that the staff is notoriously mean and that this could be an issue. I've really tried to adjust to the unit, but I know that this PICU isn't a good fit for me. The problem is, I have only been working in the PICU for 2 months. I hate to leave the hospital I am at, but when I talked to HR, they told me that there is a 6-month wait to switch to a different unit (even though the MICU and SICU have openings right now). Do I have to switch hospitals, or is there some way around these standard rules? I'm so frustrated now, and hate to start a months-long job search all over again....

[CTICU-RN]

I'm kinda in the same boat....new job, same area though and HATE the hospital:(( I have no advice, we can cry together!! Mehhhh!!!

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

I definitely empathize with you. I remember the 'reality shock' when I decided to try working in PICU. It kinda came as a shock to me that the transition was so hard... I assumed that they would be just mini-adults. Even though I already had my CCRN by that time, I had to work very hard to master all the Pedi differences. Heck, I even tried out NeoICU for a while before I scooted back into adult ICU. As it turned out, I had some major 'issues' working in those units. Dealing with the ill-informed, hysterical parents was a real PIA for me. I also had major ethical issues - particularly about pain management & 'informed consent'. In NICU, it just gutted me to see families fall apart trying to deal with severely ill/terminal prognosis newborns.

You may want to talk to HR to see if there could be any extenuating circumstances to shorten the 'eligible for transfer' period. I would downplay the co-worker conflict. They may be more amenable if you attribute you need to transfer to something like - extreme stress due to profound moral distress; inability to cope with the ethical issues that are unique to that environment, etc. That type of circumstance would point out how compassionate you are & how much you care about your patients... rather than coming across as a whiny baby who is unable to get along with co-workers - LOL.