need help getting out of dangerous job!

[Cali_Nurse05]

I graduated from nursing school about 5 months ago. I have been working at a brand new small hospital in the MICU. I was really excited about the job but it has been a NIGHTMARE! My first week out of orientation I was designated the code nurse!!!! At our hospital a nurse from our unit goes to any code blue that happens in the hospital and coordinates it until the doc comes. While I have had ACLS I do NOT feel qualified for such a huge responsibility. I verbalized this to the charge nurse but was told I had to do it since we were short staffed that day. Thank God there were no codes that shift. When starting the job I was told I wouldn't be responsible for codes for at least a year.

The hospital also has a 6 month no pull policy which states you are not allowed to be pulled to another unit until you have been there for at least 6 months. This also is not honored. A girl from my floor got pulled to the CVICU her first week out of orientation and was given 3 heavy duty cardiac patients. She quit soon afterwards. I am terrified of that happening to me. I have verbalized multiple times that at this time I don't feel qualified to be pulled to such places and get assignments like that. I was told each time that if our census is low I will be sent there and I don't have a choice. :angryfire It's not a matter of me just not wanting to go there but a matter of patient safety. They don't even seem to care about the patients' safety! :angryfire

Me and the other new nurses' orientation period was very brief due to the lack of staffing at the hospital. I don't feel that the little training I received qualifies me for most of the assignments that I get. It would probably be better if I had been a nurse in a different area for several years first but I am a new graduate! I am terrified of going to work every day and cry every night when I get home.

I've decided I need to get out of the job ASAP. I don't have a written contract with them so I'm not sure how long of a notice period I should give. I'm also afraid that once it is known I'm leaving my assignments will get even worse. I am afraid to stay there for any longer. The whole situation is a big fat lawsuit waiting to happen and I fear for my patient's safety and for my license! Any guidance about what you would do in the situation would be appreciated!!!!

[Jennerizer, ASN, RN]

Start interviewing at other hospitals. Ideally, you should give at least 2 weeks notice, but I understand about the fear of having heavy patient loads if they know you are leaving.

There was a time last year in which I went to part-time status at my current hospital so I could check out another hospital. It took me less than 6 weeks to see that the new hospital was a toxic environment with the way the staff ran the place. Since I already had a job at my existing hospital, I quit the new hospital when it got to be too much. I have to add that I wasn't actually on the schedule when I quit because I hesitated turning in a schedule at that time...knowing I would be leaving there soon. So they weren't left scrambling to get someone to cover me, if that makes sense.

Let us know what you end up doing. Good luck to you.

[PANurseRN1]

Most of the time I think it's best to give notice, but if your situation is as you describe, I'd leave as soon as I had another job. This facility is putting your license in jeopardy. You owe them nothing.

If they try to pull you to a floor and give you an assignment, you absolutely have the right to refuse. They could send you home or even fire you, but that's better than assuming care for pts. you don't feel adequately prepared to care for and something bad happening.

You do need to speak up for yourself, though. There is no way you should have accepted the responsibility as code nurse on your first week, let alone as a new nurse. Don't let people take advantage of your newness.

[jetsetter]

definitely start looking.... and give at least 2 weeks notice. You don't want a bad "rep" as you look for other jobs later in your career.

[PANurseRN1]

I simply would not stay in a job that compromised my license. It's a lot easier to rebuild a resume than it is to reinstate a license that's beein revoked.

[SilentfadesRPA]

"....... I am terrified of going to work every day and cry every night when I get home. I've decided I need to get out of the job ASAP. I don't have a written contract with them so I'm not sure how long of a notice period I should give. I'm also afraid that once it is known I'm leaving my assignments will get even worse. I am afraid to stay there for any longer. The whole situation is a big fat lawsuit waiting to happen and I fear for my patient's safety and for my license! ......

I want you to really look at the words you use .... not only are you as you say being set up for a lawsuit and threat of your license but you are being professionally manipulated and abused to the point it is damaging to your emotional health.

NO ONE SHOULD LIVE IN FEAR THAT YOU HAVE NOT FOR ONE SECOND.

Clearly you are a smart and intelligent woman who is graduated with a college degree and also from a professional RN program.

Though I dont presume to know your economic status staying here is clearly harmful -- SO WALK --- IT IS THAT SIMPLE. I would care less about a reputation as if you stay the potential reputation that you harmed a patient is much more.

Now if your saying what will I do for $$ -- teach at an LPN program/ tutor at a local high school or get a per diem job teaching if that is available / temp doing ANYTHING / borrow / network from your school work as an RN per diem / YOU MUST LEAVE AND WITHOUT HESITATION.

I have no idea where those in our profession get the notion that it is unprofessional to leave without a resignation concerning situation like this

-- As long as you do NOT leave while you are on duty you owe them nothing -- legally not even a phone call. Do you see they have put you in great risk and caused you pain. More so they have caused patients to be put in repeated dangerous situations.

YOU OWE THIS KIND OF INSTITUTION NOTHING EXCEPT TO TAKE CARE OF YOU.

It is not abandonment to leave and not come back and if you are so terrified (and I do believe you are).

If you cant then go to an attorney and have him write a letter that you can not return due to ethical conflicts or a physician who can write a letter saying that due to your health (it is not necessary to state what the medical problem is ) he advises you not to return.

You are worth more that being treated like this and by staying one more shift (with all due respect ) you are on some level contributing to this hazard to patients.

I promise you they will not back you up if anything happens and if you have an emotional collapse they will not care about you either.

This idea that it is unprofessional to leave without notice when we are being emotionally abused to the piont of mental torture is without reason or logic.

Continuing like this in a system is clearly self l sabotage potential/ potentially professional suicide and if you feel you cant leave then it is pathologic codependance.

GOD -- Your crying everyday -- YOU USED THE WORDS TERROR AND FEAR OVER FOUR TIMES --this is a dangerous sign and deeply it concerns me as a fellow human that you are in such distress --

Your not in a concentration camp you have more control then your able to see clearly. I sincerely feel for you but also objectively know you have power more power than you realize in this situation. when you are out you also have option for the patients safety ie -- write to your senator -- your state nursing board and for sure the joint accreditation of hospitals -- even anonymous if you feel safer doing so. Once you have protected your self then you in my opinion do owe your patients and fellow nurses the benifit of an outside agency looking at this system

I genuinely hope this has helped in someway.

Marc

WITHOUT A VISION ONES SPIRIT WILL DIE -- IT IS NOT ABOUT THE REACHING OF THE GOAL BUT AS WELL THE JOURNEY TO IT.

[zacarias, ASN, RN]

Calinurse05, are you in WA? WA has some of the best staffing, nurse satisfaction in the country. I'm eager to know what hospital you are talking aobut. Maybe a small community hospital?

I agree with the other posters. You deserve to be in a job where you feel able grow, learn, and enjoy nursing. This job is certainly not that and plus the conditions put you in fear most of the time. I would have a serious talk with the nursing manager and ask her if she understands what is happening on her unit (albeit in a "with all due respect") manner. Do this after you've secured another job.

[mom2gabriel]

if you are still on probation, you do not have to give notice... they could let you go at a moments notice and you can do the same.

i hope you find a great place to work... all hospitals are not like this. i work at a wonderful facility.

take care of yourself!

[Morning-glory]

Go, and go quickly. Don't wait another day. I've had a job like that and put up with it for months. Then, when they were about to fire me, I quit. No looking back. I was working agency nursing the next week. I was holding out for the patients and my co-workers, but I was scared the whole time. I wasn't sleeping, I was gaining weight and I was an emotional wreck. From that I learned that nothing and no one will ever walk over me like that again. And this was from a nurse.

So don't wait. Go now.

[vloho]

Silentfades, Bravo

[SmilingBluEyes]

Leave and do not look back. It is not like this EVERYwhere.

[aimeeinorbit]

Someone said on here one how "disheartening" it is for a preceptor to put all her efforts into a new grad in the ICU just to have them leave. Well I say how much MORE disheartening is it when a new grad comes to ICU with so much intelligence and ability, ready to soak it all up, just to have all of her hopes crushed because of poor staffing, absent management, lack of proper orientation, and burned out preceptors? And to think this is your first true nursing experience! It is so not worth it.