Med/Surge/Tele to ER

[Pistachio830]

I'm currently a new grad nurse working on Med/Surge/tele for the past 5 months. This hospital is a community hospital in a low income neighborhood where heroine use and homeless people are prevalent. I am getting tremendous experience and I'm very thankful to have a job but I fear for my safety daily as I deal with criminals, gang members, etc. I call a code gray almost every time I work and we have very scarce resources. (Lack of security, no leadership etc) Recently this hospital has been losing a lot of money so they have been doing some illegal stuff to make more money (creating a floor for one race, only hiring people of that race, discrimination etc) and I have also not been receiving my full time hours as they have hired 3 more groups of new grads after me. I have never received a full paycheck, as I have been cancelled every other week for the past 5 months.

So I started applying for other places, and I received an interview at a magnet hospital in the emergency department and was offered the job based on passing an EKG test and 5 referrals.

I've read everywhere that it looks bad to leave a hospital if you haven't completed your one year. And I know its something that doesn't look good on your resume.

Am I making a huge mistake by leaving this hospital and accepting this ER job?

[PeakRN]

If you are fearing for your personal safety I would be finding a way out of there as quickly as possible. This place sounds like a legal disaster waiting to happen and you don't want your license caught up in that either. I think that leaving a job after a short period of time isn't a huge detriment as long as it isn't a pattern, but I wouldn't even worry about that given how you are describing your current work situation.

[dream06]

Take the risk. I quit my first nursing job 3months in and happy to say it's the best decision in my life.