I started at a large prestigious hospital ICU unit 4 months ago. Previously I have worked at a small community hospital ICU for about a year. I had no issue at my prior job and I made the change because I was young and wanted the "big hospital, high acuity" experience. For the first two months, there had been no concern about me, everyone on the unit was saying how fast I would adopt to this environment. Then an incident occurred where there were questions about my critical thinking ability. I won't go into details due to patient privacy but I have fully taken responsibility for it and there were no harm done to the patient. I met with the educators, debriefed over the incident and discussed what had went wrong.
The orientation since then had been quite rocky since I felt like I was being watched over all the time and i was not too sure if my preceptor had ever really trusted my ability since then. Fast forward to this week, I was called into a meeting with my manager regarding my progress, apparently my preceptor had significant concerns about me and this was documented in a very detailed journal. I was not aware of a lot of concerns she had and i felt like even things that I have said (unrelated to patient care) was documented. I was surprised but maintained myself during the meeting. The manager said they would extend my orientation and if it doesn't work out then she will ask me to resign. My question is that I still work per diem at my old place, and there will be a temp full time position opening, I havent technically been let go yet at this new place. However I felt like thats the direction we are gonna go into. I am wondering if I should call it quit now or give it a try? My coworkers at the old place are aware the orientation aren't working at this new job and they are quite supportive of me returning. My family and friends said I should not quit this new job and this is a prestigious hospital and I wont be able to be re-hired. They told me its practically a career suicide. Any suggestions? I would appreciate any help!
P.S this new job had been a 1.5 hr commute each way plus I get very minimal break at work so I am constantly tired, having trouble sleeping. My old job is a 5 mins commute and my work life balance then was much better.
I also think if they wanted to fire you, then they would, they wouldn't offer you a longer orientation. I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that when someone was in orientation, you could be fired at any time, for any reason.
It sounds to me like it might have a lot to do with you just not fitting into the unit culture. Which is fine, everybody isn't going to fit in everywhere. And you made a good decision staying PRN at your old job!
Many times "doesn't fit in the unit culture" is just code for "this unit is full of b____ and we've decided we don't like you."
Sorry this happened to you. I am now working at a Magnet hospital with connections to MD Anderson but guess what? It is worse than my old hospital and I'm trying to get rehired. Unless they are paying you 20+ more an hour, the 1.5 hr long commute is not worth it!
I was in very similar circumstances...VERY similar...about 4 years ago. Don't have time to go into it right now and don't want to go into in an open forum, but if you want, I can make contact via PM at a future time.
I will tell you this: I resigned and it wasn't a problem for me. In fact, I was rehired by the same healthcare corporation (in a different state) last year. My resignation was tendered in 2011.
I emailed my manager to set up a meeting for Friday. Now I'm wondering if I should just email her during the week and see if she would be interested and then talk more on Friday?? I don't want to sound desperate tho. I still have 4 more days to work at this new place this week and I'm starting to get incredibly stressed out
I emailed my manager to set up a meeting for Friday. Now I'm wondering if I should just email her during the week and see if she would be interested and then talk more on Friday?? I don't want to sound desperate tho. I still have 4 more days to work at this new place this week and I'm starting to get incredibly stressed out
Your #1 priority at this point should be regaining a full time job at your previous hospital. Your current unit is looking to ax you. You don't want to be left unemployed or in a limited PRN only situation.
VANurse2010
1,526 Posts
Many times "doesn't fit in the unit culture" is just code for "this unit is full of b____ and we've decided we don't like you."