Need advice- to leave or stick it out?

[arnie1234]

Hello. Several months ago, I decided I needed a change and applied for a transfer to another department, a totally different specialty. I had been working in the same specialty for over 12 years. I was contemplating going back to school and decided I would be more successful pursuing my education while working 12 hr shifts, something I could not do in my previous job. Things didn't work out and I didnt get into the program I applied for. I have since decided that I am not interested in going back to school.

I have been in my new department (ED) for 3 mos. I hate it. I feel that the environment is unsafe, the rooms are not being properly cleaned between patients ( one wheels out on a stretcher and the EMS wheels right in behind it ) and the patient ratio is high. We are constantly short staffed, and in order to get a lunch, I have had to ask for coverage. Many staff members get hungry enough that they leave their zone unattended so they can get dinner. I wont do that.

Communication between the charge nurses and the staff stinks. I have had two occasions where my patient who was soon to be discharged was moved to another area in order for them to stick a new patient in my room. Without telling me! On one of these occasions, my patient's son called to see if he needed to come get his mother to take her back to the nursing home or if we would provide ambulance transport. I could not find his mother! The charge nurse moved her and didn't tell me. What an idiot I looked like... The charge nurse could have called my assigned cell but did not deem it important enough.

Many of the staff members are transferring out, the rest are just burnt out. The patients are angry- its a three ring circus.

I most likely will have to leave the organization in order to find a new job. I am used to a little more control in the environment. I have started looking for other jobs as I have emailed the director about some of my concerns and have voiced various concerns to the charge nurse to no avail.

I am considering going back to my previous specialty at another organization. Is it too soon to know that this is not for me? will it look bad on a resume that I left a specialty and then want to go back?