NG Feels Taken Advantage of in Clinic. Wants to be School Nurse

[SnowDark38, BSN]

After I passed my NCLEX exam it took me six months to find an actual nursing job in a surprisingly medically over-saturated area. I held a position as a home-healthcare provider for an agency where I wasn't paid as or given the duties of a BSN nurse. The job paid really poorly but I didn't have much choice as I wasn't getting any calls from the hospitals or clinics I applied to for jobs. My mother had a connection with a doctor who had just opened a practice and was looking for a secretary assistant, so I went in and got an interview with them immediately because of my mother's business-relationship with them.

I got the job "part-time" with the agreement that I would assist the office scheduler with her duties as well as perform some nursing duties and assist in every other aspect in the office. They asked me what I was making before and gave me $2 more than what I made for the home-health agency, which was $13. Well, not long after, they realized that I was really good at doing the nursing stuff (not like I went to school for it or anything, lol) and appointed me as the ASC Manager for their new surgical center, gave me a $3 raise, promised to move me to full-time once the ASC was fully-certified and give me $21/hr and then $25/hr based on benchmarks that I met, and had me assist them in setting a lot of it up...until they realized that I'm a new nurse and probably shouldn't be managing something when they don't even know what they're doing themselves. I should note that I didn't do anything wrong or mess things up, they just felt bad for putting a whole load of crap on my shoulders as a new nurse.

Well, my new title is the Clinical Nurse Specialist (they added onto my list of duties without giving me any say and no pay raise), and the office keeps getting busier, we over-schedule patients (most are patients waiting for approximately 2-4 hours to get in), and I feel like I'm basically working full-time because the office is so backed-up. I'm seeing up to 50 patients a day on our office days (many of whom the doctor doesn't even see and it's only 1-2 days because he does surgery on the other days), I don't get scheduled breaks for lunch, and the PA keeps delegating all of her work to me.

This doesn't feel like an office, but a miniature hospital with the way they're running things, some days I'm staying for almost 11 hours. I've offered multiple ideas on how to streamline the patient care and make the days more balanced, but all of my ideas get shot down and I'm constantly told that the doctors will run the office the way they want to and that if I say that "it's too many patients" or it's too much I could get fired. They just brought in this random woman to be the HR person and she just made some new policies about raises, part-time vs. full-time hours and the benefits that follow with those. Based on these new policies, it doesn't look like I'm getting my promised raise or the benefits I was originally promised when I started working. What makes me very upset it that the work I have been delegated goes above what my current pay-grade is, it's not what I signed up for, and I keep getting delegated more work. There's also the fact that they make sure now to send me home early to keep me at part-time now, because my hours were legit almost an hour under what is considered full-time (other people who go home early are salaried and they still get paid the full day for going home early).

I'm getting to the end of my patience with this office. The people are nice, but they take advantage of my quiet-spoken nature and I get handed more work than I have agreed to. I really don't want to work in a hospital, the stress would drive me from nursing permanently.

I really want to get into school nursing, but my current specialty deals in Pelvic Neuroscience (extreme urology stuff--not really my ideal field). I have a lot of experience working with children and volunteering at church (sometimes caring for injuries that occur), but I really don't know how to get to where I want. I'm near Baltimore, which would seem like a great place to find positions, but it's over-saturated with so many new grads and it's difficult to find a way in. Is there any chance of me getting a School Nurse position with my current experience? My titles haven't been just for show because I have done a lot of stuff independently in the office. I even direct and educate the medical students who come in on rounds to our office. I'm also a really fast learner. What can I do to get to where I want to be?

[ivyleaf]

Start applying to positions that interest you once you update your resume.

[Redhead,RN, BSN]

Be careful what you wish for...school nursing isn't all rainbows and unicorns, especially inner city schools. I know from experience. I worked early childhood in the suburbs part time but wanted to work full time so went to an inner city elementary. Lasted a month. Worst job I've ever had. The parents don't provide inhalers for the kids and are looking for a reason to sue. Teachers don't like the nurses, kids are always peeing their pants and you have to clean them up. Never work inner city. You will regret it!

[Becmg]

That sounds like a messy situation . I would start sending out resumes and applying for other jobs. It's always easier to find a job when you already have one. Usually Less stressful to the money flow too. Apply to large companies that have multiple offices and/or locations to increase your odds.

[shibaowner, MSN, RN, NP]

If Baltimore is saturated, why not look at other areas? Move if you have to. I doubt that Western Maryland or the Eastern Shore are saturated. A lot of RNs who live in Harford County work in PA and vice versa. If you work in an underserved area, you may be eligible for state or federal loan forgiveness programs.d

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/05/where-the-jobs-are-rural-hospitals-desperately-need-more-nurses.html