New grad emotionally distraught and a wreck

Nurses Career Support

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Hi I am new to this site. I would like to explain my story and maybe get feedback from others.

I got a job in a public government funded hospital through a new grad internship med sur program. We had to sign a 3 year contract plus agree to an automatic pay deduction of 5% every pay check and I would be part of the float pool. I knew this hospital was no good but I applied everywhere else and I was not chosen because of no experience so I felt the need to take this job. The internship went fine but was a bit short to me (3months). During that time the hospital set a new policy that because of financial situations we would have to take mandatory 24 hour furlough days (days without pay or work) per month. I was upset at this because it took days from our internship, we complained but they did not care and our union did not win the fight against this policy. So I was put to night shift which I was ok with even though I knew the stress I would put my body through adjusting to this. Since I have been on my own with 7-8 Patients and the amount of paperwork to go with it along with the medications I just don't feel safe due to the lack of time to really find out about my patients their labs and their medications. I am in a specialized floor not medsurg like they promised me, I am on a neurosurgery/orthopedic/ortho trauma the floor is too fast paced for a beginner like me and with the amount of pain medication each patient gets along with all their other meds and every hour checking on their hemo VAC/ lumbar drains and turning all my quads and paras (with no pct at night) I just dont feel safe and see all the other nurses not being safe either. It terrifies me! Then finding the time to chart hourly along with all other needed task, I just don't feel I can do it safely, I worked too hard for my liscene to lose it so quickly. We have to write our meds on paper cause we have no electronic computer on wheels to scan patients half the charting computers are broken,you cant understand the chicken scratch the doctors write and when u call them to varify the orders they scream at you and degrade you.

My fellow nurses are not supportive and question everything I do but never offer advice or help when they see me drowning. Every day before work I spend hours crying in bed my husband is worried about my emotional well being and honestly I am too. I don't sleep or eat well, I spend my days crying even in the middle of the night. During my shift I have to walk to the bathroom and recOver myself from my break down into tears, many times they start to occur as I'm in a patients room or in the medication room. I end up getting all the new admission in the night which is a whole other paperwork to fill out. Now the hospital will start deducting an additional 3% from our pay checks. I can't take this any longer for my own health I am being over worked, treated badly,taken advantage of, and all the patients treat us nurses badly(we have a terrible population of patients). I don't even enjoy my days off because I know I will have to go back to that terrible nightmare. I love nursing but I don't think bedside or hospital nursing is for me.

I am looking into getting my MSN/MBA with health care management or getting into case management. But I need to get out of this contract even if I have to pay those $5000 they ask for even though everything they promised me has been a lie plus additional deduction of money!That should be a completely different contract and should therefore void mine. I am getting paid 31 dollars with differentialS and it is not worth what I am going through. I am miserable and it only been 6 months, no one should feel this way its not healthy. I need to get out before I have a complete breakdown physically and emotionally.

Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

You are right. YOu need to get out. Good luck.

Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

Yes. Quit. Soon.

Give them an appropriate notice in order to avoid any negative consequences of walking away without proper notice. Check your employee handbook (and your contract) to see if they specify that a certain amount of notice is necessary. If there is no specific policy on the subject, give 2 weeks notice.

Talk to a lawyer about the contract. Have him/her review the contract to see if they violated any terms of it that would give you the ability to avoid (or decrease) the $5000 payback requirement.

Specializes in neuro.

First thing to ask yourself in any nursing job- are you and your pts safe? Neither of you are safe, and it'll be your license the govt run hospital takes. I worked in HR before going back for my BSN and I think you have a couple legal outs. 1- look at the contract you signed. Does it state any specific amount of hours they guarantee you? State how long orientation would be? State you would be on med surg not in the icu? Anything that they promised that they haven't followed thru with voids the contract or would allow you to counter sue for breach of contract. 2- I'm sure you've heard this in nursing school, but in an HR capacity, document everything. When u asked for help, PT load, talking to your manager, hours worked. No court will enforce a contract that goes against the governments regulation standards. You need to get out. Message me if you want. Best of luck

the way i see it. THEY broke the contract by not giving you the med-surg position that you were promised.

Specializes in neuro.

Two things i forgot....First if they are only allowing you to work 5-6 days per month you can file for partial unemployment. You have the LEGAL right to be compensated regardless of their mandatory furlough. FILE for unemployment IMMEDIATELY!*Second thing- you have the legal right to seek other employment, contract or not. * I hired plenty of people with contracts that stated they could not seek work w/in X amount of miles w/in my last company and EVERY time my former company tried to enforce those contracts the judge ruled them invalid bc everyone had the legal right to work a job so that they can survive financially.*Remember your license is YOUR license and they are putting YOUR future as a nurse at risk every time you are working outside your ability. DO NOT let them bully you into anything that compromises your license!*

Update: after sticking it out for a few more months the hospital went into a bit of trouble and laid off over 500 nurses. Lay offs were based on seniority so of course I was one of the "unfortunate" ones, not such bad news for me since I had been looking to leave this institution. But now I am in the predicament of finding a job, been looking for work for the past month since I was laid off, seems it will be difficult to find a job in Florida. But I do have an interview with a hospital in Orlando for a PEDs unit and another interview in Naples FL. Can't be picky with jobs, since most places aren't hiring unless you have 1+years and I only have 6 months :-/ well wish me luck. Thanks for the support :)

Specializes in Med/Surg, Tele, Dialysis, Hospice.

Now I'm curious about something; if they laid you off after you signed a contract to work there for three years, what obligation do they have to compensate you for breaking the contract on their end? Hmm...might be worth checking into. It doesn't seem right that you would have had penalties if you had left before the contracted amount of time was up but they don't have any penalties for forcing you out before the contracted amount of time was up. To make an analogy, if a tenant breaks a lease and moves before the contracted time is up, the landlord can sue them for the balance of the rent. However, if the landlord kicks the tenant out, say, so his brother can move into the unit, before the contracted time is up, and assuming that the tenant has done everything right (paid the rent on time, kept the place clean, followed the rules, etc.), shouldn't the landlord be penalized for taking away someone's home before they said they would?

Maybe it's a poor analogy, but I still think this bears some looking into.

Good luck, and congratulations on getting out of that awful place. It truly sounds like hell on earth!

I am at peace being out of that terrible county run hospital, I took it as a blessing. But unfortunately since it was due to financial difficulties and there was no terms in the contract about lay offs they do not give severance pay or any compensation. But I am taking this as an opportunity to get into a better hospital. I currently have 2 interviews one in Orlando fl and the other in Naples fl. The job situation here in Miami fl is terrible especially after this hospital laid off 500 nurses, there is too much competition especially for a new nurse. So I have had no choice but to look north bound of Miami I have gone as far as Gainesville FL. Hope my interviews this week go as planned, one will be for a peds units which is my passion! Wish me luck :-)

Specializes in ICU.

Well the only Hospital that I recall in Dade county with a recent layoff was Jackson Memorial. Thank you I will never apply there if I was to ever end up in Miami.

"The numbers to be exact were 1,115 positions which represents 10 percent of Jackson’s workforce. The cuts include 539 nurses, 195 vacant positions, 31 medical professionals and 14 doctors."

Yep thats the hospital! And yes avoid it at all cost not worth your time, effort or tears

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