I'm a new grad who was lucky enough to get hired for an ICU position. I was super excited because critical care was what I wanted to focus on after school except that I wanted to work with kids. I was fine to work with adults in the meantime because I get experience and probably change to peds later on.
I've been at my current hospital for 3 months and I won't say that I hate it but I'm not very happy. Orientation used to be 6 months which they shortened to 3 months, you feel pressured to get off orientation sooner than later and I hate that everyone keeps saying "when I started I never got 3 months blah blah blah.....". It's not a supportive environment. There's no organization. Oftentimes we start our shift and 20 minutes into it we have our assignments changed. What's worse is it already takes 15-20 minutes to get our assignments in the first place. You're not starting your work until about an hour into your shift, which sucks!!! The culture of the unit is not very nice in my opinion. The physicians sometimes say the most insensitive comments on the floor. It's an open floor concept everyone including other patients and family members can hear the comments. It's difficult to hear some of the comments that I hear. We're in this profession to care about people. I'm not sure what's going on maybe everyone is jaded. The unit is severely understaffed and many times the nurses end up with 3 patients.
What I want to know is how bad would it be to quit? I wouldn't quit before I get a new job but what could I say during the interview that would be acceptable. Can I say that I'm worried about the nursing patient ratio? I wouldn't bad mouth the unit/hospital because that's a no no but what is acceptable? Additionally, I really want to work with kids. Should I just stick it out and get my 1 year of experience? Any suggestions/comments/advice I would greatly appreciate it.
My wife has been a nurse now for 2 years and I can tell you that she too was going to ICU when she started. She later changed to the step down unit. She had the same shock as you at first!! What your saying about some of the Dr's was her biggest adjustment. She went into nursing because she has a strong passion to help people. She has decided to go into hospice soon if that tells you how compassionate she is. So, when she went to work as a new nurse and she heard Dr's saying negative things in a patients room in front of their family it really made her upset.
She heard a Dr. say in front of the patients family "well even if we give him xxxxx medication, it probably won't be worth the effort because he isn't going to make it more than a week." Yes, a Dr. actually said that and it nearly brought her to tears. To my wife it seemed like the Dr. was insensitive and didn't even want to try to save this guy. Later after being on the job a couple of years she has learned that more times than not, the Dr. was right.
My wife learned that most newer Dr's are driven in med school to be as truthful as possible and not to sugarcoat details even in front of family. it wasn't always that way, most old school Dr's were hesitant to tell family that it was going south. Not these days, most Dr's she works with have a very "matter of fact" attitude. Not all but more than a few.
Just wait till you see a Dr. sling a clipboard across the room or one night a Dr. got scolded by a nurse because he ordered some medication which she felt would be harmful to the patient so she made a point of telling the Dr. that she was not going to administer it. He ripped a phone off the wall and slung it across the room, lol. What's worse is the hospital brought the nurse and him into arbitration and the hospital stood behind the Dr., and told her she should have followed his orders. They stated that he had conferred with the patients main Dr. and they both agreed on that medication earlier in the day. So, she essentially had the medical opinions of 2 doctors against her own beliefs.
After a while you get used to it and you learn to just go with the flow to make your life easier. My wife has a 5-6 patient ratio on her current floor, so it is super busy most nights. The hospital sent a memo out last year stating they were going to a 4 patient max ratio but they can't hire enough nurses to make it work. Her hospital is severely shorthanded most weeks. They try offering triple win pay which is an extra $8 an hour and last week they were so short they offered double base pay. Still it doesn't work cause a lot of nurses there are older and don't want any overtime. My wife won't work overtime because it just isn't worth getting burned out in her opinion. We have a problem with a lot of nurses graduating local colleges and then leaving for bigger cities.
I probably didn't help you any, but just wanted to let you know that your not the only one who is shocked by Doctors attitudes. She's come home and told me a lot of horror stories over the last 2 years. We also have parties at our house where I'll do a fish fry and her nursing friends will come over and they all talk about this Dr. or that Dr., lol
I started on a ward I hated as well and quit after about 18 months. I wanted to quit like you after a month or two but knew at least a year would look better on my resume so planned to stick it out and complete the new grad program. then after 1 year it wasn't so bad after all that I made it another 6 months.
just knowing it's not forever and you only have to be there 1 year might make it better. Just try to absorb as much as you can and focus on your career without letting unit politics get the better of you. Look at it as a challenge with an end in sight and it'll help get you through
Get your year in first, then transfer to another unit. If after your second year, you still feel the organization is not up to your standards, then leave. If you quit after only a few months of work, you will find it extremely difficult for anyone to give you a second chance. Nowadays, with electronic applications, algorithms are set to automatically refer/disqualify applicants based on set parameters, you couldn't even plead your case with a nurse manager without going through an HR recruiter. I have knowledge of organizations that give the HR recruiter more influence than the hiring manager. stick it through!
Don't let anyone break your sanity, confidence, and compassion. I think it's best to stick it out to the end if you can find your support system ( encouraging nurses who remember how nervous it is like to be a new nurse). Otherwise, quit before you get fired. I am 100% positive that you will find another and better nursing job somewhere else!
You are very smart to be chosen to work in ICU, don't let anyone tell you the otherwise! Remember to speak up for yourself, ask a lot of questions and always come to work prepared! God bless!
Specializes in CNA 8 yrs LPN 6 geri, chemical dependency.
When I first started in nursing, I went through a huge depression because I was shocked to find a staff of co-workers who were indifferent, cruel, and downright abusive in a field centered around caring and healing. Those Johnson and Johnson commercials had me fooled. I went to a better place when I turned eighteen and it was a complete 180. Your coworkers may be a collection of apples so bad a gallon of febreeze is required to tolerate them, but know that your kindness and quality of patient care is appreciated by the patients. They matter more than your coworkers, right?
I wish I could type some words here to help you but honestly and sadly this is typical nursing. Enter the military nursing environment and it becomes even more punitive.The advice you have gotten is good. I'd try to stick it out and ignore the BS, but at the end of the day if you're not happy you gotta get out! In a relationship if you're not appreciated you don't stay in it!
Work there for 6 months and then start putting out those applications to pediatric units. No one will blame your for leaving a poorly staffed unit with all those issues.
The culture of the unit is not very nice in my opinion. The physicians sometimes say the most insensitive comments on the floor. It's an open floor concept everyone including other patients and family members can hear the comments. It's difficult to hear some of the comments that I hear. We're in this profession to care about people. I'm not sure what's going on maybe everyone is jaded. The unit is severely understaffed and many times the nurses end up with 3 patients. 
Totalnoob
4 Posts
My wife has been a nurse now for 2 years and I can tell you that she too was going to ICU when she started. She later changed to the step down unit. She had the same shock as you at first!! What your saying about some of the Dr's was her biggest adjustment. She went into nursing because she has a strong passion to help people. She has decided to go into hospice soon if that tells you how compassionate she is. So, when she went to work as a new nurse and she heard Dr's saying negative things in a patients room in front of their family it really made her upset.
She heard a Dr. say in front of the patients family "well even if we give him xxxxx medication, it probably won't be worth the effort because he isn't going to make it more than a week." Yes, a Dr. actually said that and it nearly brought her to tears. To my wife it seemed like the Dr. was insensitive and didn't even want to try to save this guy. Later after being on the job a couple of years she has learned that more times than not, the Dr. was right.
My wife learned that most newer Dr's are driven in med school to be as truthful as possible and not to sugarcoat details even in front of family. it wasn't always that way, most old school Dr's were hesitant to tell family that it was going south. Not these days, most Dr's she works with have a very "matter of fact" attitude. Not all but more than a few.
Just wait till you see a Dr. sling a clipboard across the room or one night a Dr. got scolded by a nurse because he ordered some medication which she felt would be harmful to the patient so she made a point of telling the Dr. that she was not going to administer it. He ripped a phone off the wall and slung it across the room, lol. What's worse is the hospital brought the nurse and him into arbitration and the hospital stood behind the Dr., and told her she should have followed his orders. They stated that he had conferred with the patients main Dr. and they both agreed on that medication earlier in the day. So, she essentially had the medical opinions of 2 doctors against her own beliefs.
After a while you get used to it and you learn to just go with the flow to make your life easier. My wife has a 5-6 patient ratio on her current floor, so it is super busy most nights. The hospital sent a memo out last year stating they were going to a 4 patient max ratio but they can't hire enough nurses to make it work. Her hospital is severely shorthanded most weeks. They try offering triple win pay which is an extra $8 an hour and last week they were so short they offered double base pay. Still it doesn't work cause a lot of nurses there are older and don't want any overtime. My wife won't work overtime because it just isn't worth getting burned out in her opinion. We have a problem with a lot of nurses graduating local colleges and then leaving for bigger cities.
I probably didn't help you any, but just wanted to let you know that your not the only one who is shocked by Doctors attitudes. She's come home and told me a lot of horror stories over the last 2 years. We also have parties at our house where I'll do a fish fry and her nursing friends will come over and they all talk about this Dr. or that Dr., lol