New nurse, just told to find another unit

JKL33 · Oct 29, 2021

This is likely nothing more than a mismatch between their desires and reality.

It may not have been a great choice of position for you if they were not willing to provide training similar to what they would provide a new grad. In a way it was a bad position for them to give you and a bad position for you to accept. Traditionally resource nurses were very solid nurses with some experience and expertise that they were good at applying to different situations. More recently, some new grads have been doing well in resource/float positions when there is a plan and concerted effort to still give them the proper new-nurse training and support. I still think it's a roll of the dice, though, and in your situation if they had hoped you would operate more like an experienced acute care nurse, that was wrong on their part.

I'm sorry this happened, but you just have to chalk it up to something that happened. Don't be creating some deep personal meaning from it.

Where do they want you to go? Are they releasing you from their employ or do they just want you to move to a position in a single unit?

emtpbill, ASN, RN, EMT-P · Oct 30, 2021

Only 3 weeks of orientation????? Wow, my job its 10-12 weeks.

TippyTappyMeow, MSN · Oct 31, 2021

This is why I'd never take a float pool assignment. The few times I had to go task due to low census the nurses didn't understand I never worked true in-patient. They expected me to be competent similarly to the float pool team.

I started in an obs unit and sometimes I felt like those nurses didn't appreciate a new grad with zero in-patient experience. The skills I lacked wouldn't show up often and when they would I'd need to wait on a experienced nurse to assist.

I work in a clinic, but if for whatever reason I had to go back bedside I'd need more than 3 weeks.

NotMyProblem MSN, ASN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN · Oct 31, 2021

Find another unit??? As a member of the resource pool, you don’t just find another unit. The expectation is you go where the powers-that-be assign you to go...within your skill set. I think you need to have a meeting with your manager to discuss your previous work experiences and current skills (or lack thereof) and the need for training. An effective manager will see to it that you get what you need to succeed in the unit because If something happens on your watch, you will be hung out to dry for accepting assignments where, for now, you lack the required experience. At the very least, you need to vacate the resource pool ASAP in lieu of a more permanent assignment until you acquire these skills.

If their response is a determination that you’re not a good fit, trust it as the gift horse that it is and thank your lucky stars, as they may be saving you from legalities, battles with the BON, humiliation, bullying, etc.

Good luck!

2BS Nurse, BSN · Nov 5, 2021

"An effective manager will see to it that you get what you need to succeed in the unit".

I've noticed promotions are happening very quickly, like I've never seen in the past. Are there many effective managers left?

Kooky Korky, BSN, RN · Nov 6, 2021

On 10/28/2021 at 6:54 PM, MariannaCNMstudent said:

Hey fellow nurses,

I started my first hospital job a month ago as a resource pool nurse. I graduated a year and a half ago and went to work outpatient as a mental health nurse. So, whatever skills I had after hospital clinical rotations, they have faded away. Today I was told, I've been too slow to work in my unit. In other words, by the end of the week 3 I was expected to be mostly independent with 3-4 patients, have all the charting done by 1330 pm, meds, cares.

Can I vent here? I just don't understand. I hanged IV piggyback all by my own alone the first time on Tuesday, I learned how to place and remove Foley, I learned what to check when I give certain meds. Every week was another floor, patients with so many and so different problems. I know I had only half the load, but it was just three weeks. I never had more than 2 patients as a student. I am also not a native speaker, so, I struggle when people are talking to me very fast with a lot of acronyms over the phone. I just barely started grasping what was going on with my patients and what to pay attention to. Am I really unacceptably slow? Did I make a mistake switching to acute care. I do like that job and I love to learn but it does not matter if I cannot do it well enough.

Floating is very hard, even if you are at the same facility. Imagine being a Float Pool or an agency nurse, with absolutely minimal or no orientation, walking in the door totally cold, not knowing a blessed thing about the charting method, the doctors, the med dispensing method (Pyxis or something else), where are supplies kept, personalities, what time are meals served, where are the wheelchairs and stretchers hidden, does Lab draw blood or do you, how and when exactly does Pharmacy receive new orders and process them so you get the meds you need to give, and a lot more issues that sound easy and basic but which vary from hospital to hospital and ward to ward.

As a new grad basically, you need to not float for a good long while. you need to work one floor and master it before being floated. Pick one ward and master it, then float if you prefer variety. At least you will know the charting system in that facility and all of the other things mentioned above.

Do NOT let someone tell you you are too slow, do NOT let anyone undermine your confidence. Some people do like to do stuff like that. I have worked with some very nice and good nurses, I have worked with some real B's. Just because they are miserable people does not mean that YOU are not a good, smart nurse with great potential. But just as living plants need certain soils and sun and rain and nutrients, so a new nurse needs a good environment in which to learn and grow.

If you find someone talking too fast, tell them to please repeat what they said. Be courageous to let them know "There must be a bad connection" and you didn't catch that, please repeat. If they get impatient, too bad. "There's a lot of static and I didn't hear what you said. Please repeat."

Are you being transferred to one particular unit? Fired? What?

Best wishes to you and God bless you. Remember - we were all new grads and new employees at one time.

Kooky Korky, BSN, RN · Nov 7, 2021

On 10/31/2021 at 4:51 PM, TippyTappyMeow said:

This is why I'd never take a float pool assignment. The few times I had to go task due to low census the nurses didn't understand I never worked true in-patient. They expected me to be competent similarly to the float pool team.

I started in an obs unit and sometimes I felt like those nurses didn't appreciate a new grad with zero in-patient experience. The skills I lacked wouldn't show up often and when they would I'd need to wait on a experienced nurse to assist.

I work in a clinic, but if for whatever reason I had to go back bedside I'd need more than 3 weeks.

Yes! Especially if you were floating!

Kooky Korky, BSN, RN · Nov 7, 2021

On 10/28/2021 at 6:54 PM, MariannaCNMstudent said:

Hey fellow nurses,

I started my first hospital job a month ago as a resource pool nurse. I graduated a year and a half ago and went to work outpatient as a mental health nurse. So, whatever skills I had after hospital clinical rotations, they have faded away. Today I was told, I've been too slow to work in my unit. In other words, by the end of the week 3 I was expected to be mostly independent with 3-4 patients, have all the charting done by 1330 pm, meds, cares.

Can I vent here? I just don't understand. I hanged IV piggyback all by my own alone the first time on Tuesday, I learned how to place and remove Foley, I learned what to check when I give certain meds. Every week was another floor, patients with so many and so different problems. I know I had only half the load, but it was just three weeks. I never had more than 2 patients as a student. I am also not a native speaker, so, I struggle when people are talking to me very fast with a lot of acronyms over the phone. I just barely started grasping what was going on with my patients and what to pay attention to. Am I really unacceptably slow? Did I make a mistake switching to acute care. I do like that job and I love to learn but it does not matter if I cannot do it well enough.

Since you are not a native English speaker, please do not take offense if I offer you the following corrections.

You have hung (not I have hanged)

On my own (or "by myself" , or alone) (not "all by my own alone")

Why did charting have to be done by 1330? What were/are the shift hours?

Please read the Nursing/Medical dictionary. Read it page by page, letter of the alphabet by letter of the alphabet. Eat, sleep, breathe all the info you can get about acronyms and procedures on which you are rusty or inexperienced. Study just as you must have in school.

Keep on putting one foot in front of the other, Girl. Let NO ONE put you down. You never should have been hired for Float Pool if you have never worked in the inpatient ward.

PMFB-RN, RN · Nov 7, 2021

I agree you should look for another employer. Obviously your current one is either ignorant of, or just doesn't care about evidenced based practice.

You are essentially a new grad and need to be invested in like a new grad. 3 weeks for a nurse with no previous independent practice as an acute care nurse is nowhere near enough.

You should be in a residency or training program for new acute care RNs, not on "orientation" as if you are an experienced acute care nurse moving to a different unit or hospital.

Your employer has chosen to inadequately train and support you. It's not your fault, at least not yet. We have all known nurses who are ill-suited to acute care nursing. You may be one of them, but you haven't been afforded the opportunity to know yet.

Please read about Dr. Patricia Benner's Novice to expert nursing theory.

https://nursing-theory.org/nursing-theorists/Patricia-Benner.php

Ruby Vee, BSN · Nov 8, 2021

Is it possible to transfer out of the float pool and into one specific unit? Float pool jobs are more for experienced nurses; it's an awful place for a new grad. You need a consistent patient population, consistent environment and preceptor. This job just seems to be a poor fit. It happens.

Career Columnist / Author · Nov 8, 2021

Just for reality-testing...new grads where I work are not floated for 1 year post hire.