I worked in a LTC facility for a full year right after graduating as an RN. Then I was lucky enough to secure a job on the dayshift in MedSurg at our local hospital. I was so excited and eager to begin my new job.
As any new nurse, I asked a lot of questions and paid close attention to other nurses and how they did things. I was assigned to several different nurses as preceptors during this orientation. I thought things were going well. I did not get a mid-orientation review until I only had two weeks left of my 12 week orientation. At that time, I was shocked to hear from the DON that "more than one" nurse had told her that I did not seem to have the self-confidence that I should have in the job.
She also stated that one of the nurses told her I had made a med error with an injectable drug. The only such error that had been made, was one in which I caught my own mistake while still in the med room! I was shocked and disheartened.
She did not tell me any names or exactly what had been said about me. I then became very self-conscious and lost all semblance of self confidence. In essence, my excitement and happiness to be working in med /surg just went down the tubes that day! I told the DON how much I wanted to be a nurse in Med/Surg. She told me that it was nothing against me, but perhaps I would be better in an office setting or in Psych. She also stated that I was a wonderful person and the patients loved me! Unfortunately, instead of fighting for my job and showing that I have what it takes, I resigned my position the next day.
I spent a few days crying and feeling sorry for myself, but then went out and got another job in LTC. I work in the skilled area of the facility with responsibility for 22 patients, as compared to 4-5 in the hospital. I have since deeply regretted my decision to give up at the hospital. I am not happy at the facility at which I work and really want back into the hospital setting! I am not a young nurse - 60 years old, having graduated at age 58 with honors.
I am afraid that I have burned my bridges! The DON told me she would give me a good reference. Two positions at this same hospital in Behavioral Health became available, for which I applied hoping I would get a "bite." I called my former DON to ask if she would indeed give me a good reference for one of these jobs (had to leave a message on her voicemail, and did not receive a reply back from her).
I did not receive a call from HR to interview for either of these positions...I did call three times to let them know I was very interested! Sorry this is rambling, but I need to know what to do! In applying to other jobs elsewhere, I would just as soon leave the Med/Surg position off of my resume since I did not complete orientation. However, I did work at that hospital in a different capacity for four years and would hate to leave that off as well! I am just in a quandry here to the point that I am not even sure I want to continue in this line of work!
I do love nursing and caring for people, but the facility at which I work is not close to home, I work 12-14 hour overnight shifts, am tired all the time, and have just lost my zest for life! My husband is very understanding, but is not able to work, so all the responsibility is on my shoulders! I find myself resenting him, too! I KNOW I am a good nurse, but how do I resolve this??? Please help!!!
It's an embarrassment to nursing. What happened to you at the hospital job probably was an effort to get rid of you, and it was going to happen no matter how good of a nurse you were. It's a disgrace. And it happens often.
netglow, it’s interesting you should say that, just as I was finishing my other reply to Punch, I came upon your response, and it brought unsympathetic memories into mind. Here we go again into the diplomacy or political correctness realm of which I choose not to partake. It has been my experience over the years that when young female Nurses who work together and frequently spend long hours together, they tend to form cliques and pity those females who are outside of this clique, especially if one of the members happens to be the charge nurse, because they often make the other staff members life uncomfortable to say the least. I remember a specific instance where one particular staff member made it her goal in life to, “get that tired old bltch off the floor and out of nursing all together.” Her target was a perfectly nice lady, in her mid to upper 50’s, who never had a cross word to say to any one, but had somehow managed to cross one off the younger nurses, who was not half the nurse the older lady was and wouldn’t be if she tried, which she would never do. She was one to put her time in and leave, period, only here for the check. She would come in and regale us with her nightly escapades with her Sports Star boyfriend. Always too busy chatting to answer her own call lights and fully expected others to answer, someone else to pick up her slack. More often than not, her target would be the one, off running down the hall answering the lights, not because they were anyone’s lights in particular, just because they needed answering. But, I’ve seen the Charge Nurse break up blocks of Patients, not for acuity but because they were easier patients to give to her chums, so they could sit around and chat more. This kind of manipulation of the other staff members is a type of unprofessional behavior that should never be allowed to manifest itself. Cliques shouldn’t be allowed to form and Charge Nurses should remain above the level of the other staff on the floor. They aren’t there to be friends, they are there to be the Supervisor of whatever shift they are assigned. They can be friendly of course but when push comes to shove not friends, they are to maintain that professional distance and follow their job description.
next time your boss tells you that several people have said the same thing about you, ask for specific examples of what you are doing wrong and ideas on how to correct it. Be objective and stay oriented toward fixing the problem, not beating yourself up.I had this happen to me before, and I knew the so-called complaints against me were unfounded. Unfortunately, you have to learn to stand up for yourself in these situations. If you don't, who will?
the med surge unit would have been hell it seems... if these nurses are telling the DON this stuff about you, then you know what? you dont wanna work with a bunch of b--ches like that anyways. i would have quit too. its a negative toxic unsupportive environment by the sounds of it, where nurses are running to the DON about anything. as a nurse new to any new unit, you would not have the confidence in the beginning.. i know i wouldnt! i think you are better off not working at that med surge unit. keep looking for something else, it wasnt meant to be. there is something better out there for you. keep looking
you really sound like a nice person, and since the patients loved you on the med surge unit, the other nurses were probably threatened and jealous of that... that is what i have witnessed at places i work too. its awful that nursing is like this, the patients suffer in the end and lose good nurses like you
I get the feeling that you brought the insecurity to the job and were a victim before things began to happen. It was all unfair. Collect your mind, leave the past, move on, don't bring it up. I work in LTC and love that others are leading me to personal wisdom about my own aging. I am also in my late 50's. If you apply anywhere for nights you can work alone and they will be glad to have you. Try part time for a start?
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
I worked in a LTC facility for a full year right after graduating as an RN. Then I was lucky enough to secure a job on the dayshift in MedSurg at our local hospital. I was so excited and eager to begin my new job.
As any new nurse, I asked a lot of questions and paid close attention to other nurses and how they did things. I was assigned to several different nurses as preceptors during this orientation. I thought things were going well. I did not get a mid-orientation review until I only had two weeks left of my 12 week orientation. At that time, I was shocked to hear from the DON that "more than one" nurse had told her that I did not seem to have the self-confidence that I should have in the job.
She also stated that one of the nurses told her I had made a med error with an injectable drug. The only such error that had been made, was one in which I caught my own mistake while still in the med room! I was shocked and disheartened.
She did not tell me any names or exactly what had been said about me. I then became very self-conscious and lost all semblance of self confidence. In essence, my excitement and happiness to be working in med /surg just went down the tubes that day! I told the DON how much I wanted to be a nurse in Med/Surg. She told me that it was nothing against me, but perhaps I would be better in an office setting or in Psych. She also stated that I was a wonderful person and the patients loved me! Unfortunately, instead of fighting for my job and showing that I have what it takes, I resigned my position the next day.
I spent a few days crying and feeling sorry for myself, but then went out and got another job in LTC. I work in the skilled area of the facility with responsibility for 22 patients, as compared to 4-5 in the hospital. I have since deeply regretted my decision to give up at the hospital. I am not happy at the facility at which I work and really want back into the hospital setting! I am not a young nurse - 60 years old, having graduated at age 58 with honors.
I am afraid that I have burned my bridges! The DON told me she would give me a good reference. Two positions at this same hospital in Behavioral Health became available, for which I applied hoping I would get a "bite." I called my former DON to ask if she would indeed give me a good reference for one of these jobs (had to leave a message on her voicemail, and did not receive a reply back from her).
I did not receive a call from HR to interview for either of these positions...I did call three times to let them know I was very interested! Sorry this is rambling, but I need to know what to do! In applying to other jobs elsewhere, I would just as soon leave the Med/Surg position off of my resume since I did not complete orientation. However, I did work at that hospital in a different capacity for four years and would hate to leave that off as well! I am just in a quandry here to the point that I am not even sure I want to continue in this line of work!
I do love nursing and caring for people, but the facility at which I work is not close to home, I work 12-14 hour overnight shifts, am tired all the time, and have just lost my zest for life! My husband is very understanding, but is not able to work, so all the responsibility is on my shoulders! I find myself resenting him, too! I KNOW I am a good nurse, but how do I resolve this??? Please help!!!
I don't know you, but based on your post, I'm going to offer up some advice. Please take it in the spirit in which it is intended: I'd like to help.
You say that you asked a lot of questions -- asking questions is a good thing. I don't trust a new nurse who doesn't ask questions. But did you ask them in a manner that showed you had put some thought into the situation and had perhaps done some research first? Or did you just fling out questions as they occured to you. There's a difference between "Mr. Goodman's Coumadin is due at 6PM, but his INR isn't back yet and it was trending upward. Should I go ahead and give the dose or wait for the INR?" and "Should I give this Coumadin?" There's also a difference between "Mrs. Furos just peed 1500 cc and her K+ is 2.1. Should I give this potassium that's ordered?" (Yes!) and "Mrs. Furos just put out 1500 cc. Her K+ is 2.1, and I'm planning to give her the 40 mEq of potassium that is ordered and recheck her potassium when it's in." I don't know you, and I don't know if your questions were well-thought-out or just pesky. Pesky questions, besides irritating the preceptors, show lack of self confidence and lack of critical thinking. Of course you don't have a lot of self-confidence in a new position, but your questions SHOULD show that you're possessed of critical thinking skils and willing to use them.
You already know you made a mistake in resigning your job the very next day. Now that you're at a new position, you pretty much need to stay there until you locate another job, and that won't be easy at our age, in this economy and considering it would be your third job in two years. In fact, I'd advise staying at your current position for two years. Did you move after you took your current job, or did you somehow fail to realize how far away it was?
There are some very good threads on how to survive and thrive on the night shift. Read them, and perhaps you can maximize your sleep and feel better. The feeling tired all the time and losing your zest for life is consistent with a new job, changing shifts and also with depression. The depression -- if that is the case -- is probably the easiest to address at this time. Look into treating that.
Good luck. I hope you can make things work for you. It's not easy changing your life around at your age, and I commend you for being willing to step up and do so when your husband couldn't work.
Its sad what you wrote but, its true. The RN's that I use to work with tried to power trip with the residents. If the male residents didn't give them the attention they were looking for they would call the staff doctor at home claiming that a patient was critical and they've been paging the resident and he isn't calling back. Then they'd sit around laughing at the lie. Then for the female residents they would question them alot in front of everyone trying to make them look stupid, and refuse to follow through with ligitimate orders. They kept calling the staff doctor complaining. When the residents asked about a patient some of the RN's would get up and walk away with no response. At times I would have to look for the answer for the residents, and apologize for the other nurses behavior. Its really disgusting and not funny you morons. Thats why later when the residents establish themselve they pay nurses back and treat them like idiots. Word gets around with doctors when their eating in the doctors loung about what kind of ******* you are. Then when you get handled like **** you start crying. Well, you reap what you sow.
futurern34
343 Posts
This sounds like my story, sorry this had to happen to you as well. Good luck!!:hug: