"Not sure what unit you will be hired into..."

[TitaniumPlates]

So this just happened to my best friend.

Jane has been looking to relocate back to her hometown after 3 years in the ICU at a major teaching hospital. She also has 3 years in a level 1 trauma ER.

She interviewed over the phone for a position that was POSTED AS ICU about a month ago. She was immediately asked for her references, which made her feel pretty confident that she would be hired. She told me that during the interview, she asked about how many slots were open, and was told "4".

Well, apparently, the Nurse Manager has written her half a dozen emails regarding her references not answering yet. Its been a week.

That isn't my main problem with this situation. It seems that the Nurse Manager has now changed the job description to....

You will relocate across the country, go through all of our "orientation" (she will not be specific on what that orientation entails) and then one of our educators will decide what unit you will be "eligible" for.

She also told Jane that there are "a dozen or more" nurses starting in a month and there is no way she could possibly give Jane an idea of which unit has openings.

Jane called me and told me all of this nonsense...and I advised her to tell the Nurse Manager to.....well.....file that job under....Uh....NO WAY.

This isn't the first time I have been hearing about this bait and switch in the past year. It's happened to me twice and I wasn't kind about telling the facility to take that job and....

Has this happened to anyone else lately? Is this the new trend in trying to cover the garbage shifts and positions that no one can fill? These positions are outright LIES and they want the highest qualified (3 yr ICU RN) for what....med surg???

[FlyAwayNow]

I like using small simple words.

Are you making a job offer?

Which position?

Which shift?

At what rate of pay?

* This may need to be directed to HR??

****

I also like keeping my business, my business.

(Gee, kinda like the area! - instead of have family here and really want to be close to them).

Otherwise, are there other options for employment in that area. Move on, I say. Manager sounds like a misery maker. Best avoided. When relationships start like that (games and cagey comms) ... run!!!

[Rnis, BSN, DNP, APRN, NP]

On 7/3/2019 at 2:08 PM, TitaniumPlates said:

I suppose you missed the part where the job was posted as ICU?

That's my point. I never said one disparaging thing about med surg.

...............okay you didn't. while unusual, I am guessing that perhaps her references left some questions about where her skills will lie or they recently got burned after relocating a nurse.

[FolksBtrippin, BSN, RN]

I didn't read all the posts. It seems like there has been a lot of subtopic discussion.

Going back to the original question, it seems like a problem that could be solved with communication. Not really a big deal.

It's best not to make assumptions, to ask for clarification when you need it and also to clearly state what you require.

If OP's friend is not willing to work outside ICU she just needs to let NM know that.

Example: "Can you clarify what the possibilities are for assignment to a unit? I'm only looking to accept a position in the ICU."

Simple, and no reason to get upset.

[lemur00, BSN, RN]

All this trouble could have been saved with an oxford comma ?

Ie "...garbage shifts, and positions no one can fill..."

Oxford comma ftw.

That said, I would guess like others that the position is for one of multiple ICUs, or floats between them. Otherwise something may have changed within the facility, *or* manager is trying to see how desperately she wants a job and what she'll accept. Either way, it's good that this was mentioned early. Now all she has to do is politely and firmly say she's interested in only icu--the position may materialize after that if she's that strong of a candidate. And if they really are pulling a bait and switch, it's not a place she'd likely want to be anyway.

Having a regional system we never deal with this, but experienced critical care positions are usually hard to fill. I can't see why they'd want to let someone that could fill one slip away and I would guess they'd find a position that was acceptable to her.

[subee, MSN, CRNA]

It's time nurses insisted on written contracts...

[klone, MSN, RN]

33 minutes ago, subee said:

It's time nurses insisted on written contracts...

Every place I've ever worked, once I was verbally offered a job, and I verbally accepted, I was given a written contract/offer letter with the specifics of the position spelled out. The OP's situation had not advanced to that point.

[falconersys]

So it was a shoddy job. I'd move on. It was just a telephone interview, so it's not like she wasted time dressing up and driving across town. It's unfortunate, but there's lots of less than desirable companies out there. Looks like she happened to find one.

[Redhead,RN, BSN]

I'd be furious if I applied for one position and was given another. As a new grad sometimes you get what you can, but not experienced nurses. I have tele experience and I'd never work med-surg either. No way I want to end up with 8 patients. Med-surg units rarely have decent staffing ratios. By the same token, I'm not interested in the stress of ICU either! If I specialize in something and think I'm applying for that, I wouldn't accept anything else. Life is too short! That's dirty of that hiring manager to pull a bait and switch on someone whose moving so far. Dirty! Personally if someone did me like that, I'd quit on the spot before accepting patient assignment.

[Lunah, MSN, RN]

Ha... I can relate, and then some.

Back in 2010 I spent 10 months working on commissioning into the Army Nurse Corps as an experienced ER RN. I also spent months ensuring that I came onto active duty with the ER RN job code/special identifier. I had only ever been an ER RN during my career, and I wanted to continue in the ER.

When I finally finished turning my life upside-down and was 1500 miles from home at officer basic in Texas, I met the person who would be my assistant DCN (like a CNO) at my first duty station in Georgia. He asked what kind of nurse I was, and I said "Sir, I am a ER nurse," to which he replied, "Oh, I just gave away the last ER slot." My heart sank. I said, "Well, what do you have?" He said, "Med/surg or mother/baby." I thought I might vomit! I would be totally useless in med/surg or mother/baby, the ER had already been my passion for years, not to mention my only job in nursing. I quickly said "Well sir, I have my CEN and my CPEN, and I commissioned as a 66HM5." (66H is an Army med/surg nurse, the M5 meant we were ER specialized.) He paused and said, "Hmmm, okay... Email me and remind me that we had this conversation." A minute later after we parted, I was on my phone to email him! I did end up in the ER so all's well that ends well, but that was quite a special moment. Lol. I would be pretty clueless outside of the ER!

[caliotter3]

I once worked a non-nursing job which was not much above minimum wage, a type of manufacturing, where the hiring was done at a cattle call hiring event. Every unemployed brother and his sister showed up and many were hired. Several months into the job, the employer decided to do a big change-up. They called us into a meeting and said that the herd would be culled to a certain number of permanent, versus seasonal or temporary employees, but there was a catch. Shifts and departments would be changed. Department managers would be choosing who would get who and there was no guarantee that one would stay on the same shift. Many of the employees had childcare, family, and transportation issues. What was said about that? "Inform your manager and your name will be included in the layoff." Was that bait and switch? I thought so at the time, even though this was not exactly as highly qualified as an ICU or ER nurse. Lowest on the totem pole, so, so, so expendable. Your friend is lucky she was not presented the changes after her hire and relocation.

[caliotter3]

Just for the record, when I read the OP, I did not automatically make a connection between the poster’s phrase containing the word garbage and the last term of the post, med-surg. I had to stretch to see how everybody got so offended so quickly.

[caliotter3]

On 7/6/2019 at 5:24 PM, klone said:

Every place I've ever worked, once I was verbally offered a job, and I verbally accepted, I was given a written contract/offer letter with the specifics of the position spelled out. The OP's situation had not advanced to that point.

The only time I have ever had a written employment contract was when I entered the armed service. The only time I received an offer letter was when I accepted a union job from an employer that prides itself on appearing “classy”. (The letter was very nice, typed on nice bond paper, worthy of keeping). I consider myself lucky that I haven’t gotten some terrible bait and switch job situations throughout the years, all things being equal.