I'm almost one year into my first RN position. While I love my job (most days anyway!), I moved to the other side of the country to work here and I'm honestly not really loving this city. So, I'm looking for a new job closer to friends and family.
My question is, how should I handle professional references on employment applications? Since this is my first and only nursing position, I feel like my references should come from managers and colleagues at my current position. BUT I don't really want to tell anyone that I'm thinking about leaving until I actually have an offer or at least an interview.
Thoughts? What do you guys think I should do? Thanks!
I spent two years as a tech and two more as a new RN at my last job. When I wanted to leave, I had the same concern - how to approach this delicately but still have dependable references to list on a new application? I traded references with other nurses - mostly other per diems, agency nurses I knew from float pool, techs who loved me back and a nurse or two who had since left the organization - with the understanding that I was looking to get into a specific specialty in the near future. Per diems and agency nurses tend to understand that you might want to move on or try something new; I found that long-time coworkers seemed to resent when others wanted to leave and tattled on them if they knew in advance. JME of course.
I left my manager out of it entirely until giving notice. She was awful to work for and I was one of many to leave this past year. Our work reference was managed through a third party, so once I had approved it, the new job just contacted them and left my manager out of the loop anyhow. The new job understood that I wanted to wait until an offer was on the table before checking my current job reference and honored same. No biggie, just remember to give enough notice on your way out and keep quiet about any criticisms you have of the unit/facility - they don't really want to hear it and you'll just end up a 'not-for-rehire'.
amarilla, RN
318 Posts
I spent two years as a tech and two more as a new RN at my last job. When I wanted to leave, I had the same concern - how to approach this delicately but still have dependable references to list on a new application? I traded references with other nurses - mostly other per diems, agency nurses I knew from float pool, techs who loved me back and a nurse or two who had since left the organization - with the understanding that I was looking to get into a specific specialty in the near future. Per diems and agency nurses tend to understand that you might want to move on or try something new; I found that long-time coworkers seemed to resent when others wanted to leave and tattled on them if they knew in advance. JME of course.
I left my manager out of it entirely until giving notice. She was awful to work for and I was one of many to leave this past year. Our work reference was managed through a third party, so once I had approved it, the new job just contacted them and left my manager out of the loop anyhow. The new job understood that I wanted to wait until an offer was on the table before checking my current job reference and honored same. No biggie, just remember to give enough notice on your way out and keep quiet about any criticisms you have of the unit/facility - they don't really want to hear it and you'll just end up a 'not-for-rehire'.
Good luck.