New job- to quit or not?

Nurses Career Support

Published

  1. Quit or Not?

    • 10
      Just quit now- don’t go back
    • 41
      Wait for definite new job
    • 3
      Suck it up and stay

51 members have participated

in need of opinions.

i relocated recently and started a position in a local well respected hospital.

same specialty of nursing that I've always done, just different obviously as it's a new shift & facility.

My co workers are not very friendly and I dread going in each shift.

overnight shift sucks as it is, it's 1000x worse without decent company or help.

I have two interviews for day shift at other nearby hospitals in the next two weeks.

due to the way the schedule was made & personal conflicts, I am going to be going 24 hours without sleep for a couple of shifts this week.

Additionally I am being put through hell every shift i go in. I am still technically orientating to the hospital but I am working the floor with a preceptor & I almost feel like I am being hazed being the new person.

Of course everything takes me slightly longer to do, I am new and do not know exactly where to find what I need on the floor or in the EMR. I don't understand the heavy accent of the doctor on call or know the first names when he refers a consult, or the little things that makes life easier once you're seasoned at a facility. Instead of helping it's an eye roll and "you better get used to it."

anyway, I am contemplating not going back because it is so bad and just going on my interviews for the new jobs on day shift.

i am confident I will be hired at one because I interviewed at their sister hospital and had my foot in the door but declined for my current position due to more pay and closer to home.

Now they have an opening on day shift 10 mins from my house so I am going back to interview with a director of nursing then scheduled to go directly to HR after interview.

so my question is-

would you all go back for a week of hell or just say screw it & quit?

either way I'm sure I won't be on good standing because I am leaving so soon after hire... I am still technically on orientation.

i just can tell the overnight shift isn't for me especially with the lack of team players & decent co workers.

Wait for a job offer, give a proper notice of leave and don't burn a bridge! I've regretted bridges I've burned years later. Best of luck!

Your manager is absolutely crazy for scheduling you like that. Nurse fatigue causes fatal mistakes... they are foolish for welcoming that kind of liability. I'd only tough it out if they were more reasonable with the schedule.

I've been through pretty much every one of the top 10 life stressor events and more than half of them occurred in the past 3 years. So I am trying to keep my stress level low and I am not willing to take on anything over the top for a job. I've been there, done that. I really need to keep added stress to a minimum & stay healthy & try to enjoy life. I am not trying to prove anything to anyone at this point in my career. I am a full time only parent to top it off so I need to be able to leave work at work and take care of my kids while home. I need to get decent sleep and have time to exercise. Those are the things that keep my stress level down and this job interfering with that and my ability to take care of my kids & it isn't worth it to me.

Nurses in general stretch themselves thin and I always did as well until I had multiple tragedies and life changing events occur.

Now I'm at my limit and I am not willing to accept anything that's heading towards toxic for me. I am giving notice and going to sleep sleep sleep lol

I dont understand why as adults and professionals it seems to be preferable to quit an employer, rather than simply communicate with your coworkers? Why not just openly tell someone you feel is being bullying or antagonistic how you feel and work through the problems?

You arent going to like nor get along with every single person you come into contact with during your career, but trying to resolve differences (at least initially) seems easier and preferable than simply quitting and getting put on a "do not hire" list.

I recently quit while on orientation. I did not have a definite job set up, but I was able to find one within a few days of quitting. Just make sure to put in your two weeks, even though they will more than likely send you home after you do so.

I guess I'm just pushed to the edge with stress level. Relocating is stressful in and of itself so add to it adjusting to a night shift and new negative work culture is breaking me down. I think being awake all night is affecting my hormones and making it harder to handle. I'm just like why am I doing this to myself? I don't know if I can handle another week or two. I am debating giving notice this weekend before I have my next job lined up although I'm sure they will say don't bother because like you all said, I am still technically orientating. Which I see as a relief because this week is going to be terrible if I work without any sleep in both my home & work life. I'm afraid going 24 hours without sleep. I had to do it for a mandatory class last week and I was falling asleep sitting upright in class, don't remember the drive home, and I was falling asleep sitting upright watching my kids when I needed to be attentive, 2 days AFTER I had worked. I can't shake the exhaustion & mind fog.

Your facility situation sounds a lot like mine. Except I have been at my facility for 6 months and will resign soon. My orientation was very similar to yours lots of hazing and bullying and my preceptor would just sit at a computer and watch what I did or didn't do. I only had 6 weeks. In my opinion, I say leave now! I wish I left during orientation! I kept telling myself it would get better but it hasn't and management doesn't care and is very unsupportive of the employees. Now I am trying to resign before getting terminated and looking for a new job. At this point I don't care if its a rehab or a nursing home. I wanted to stay a full year but I couldn't. They don't care about new grads and constantly find anything to scrutinize me over and I have no one to ask for help. Its become a dreadful experience. I say quit before it gets any worse, because that is what is bound to happen

Specializes in Med-Surg., LTC,, OB/GYN, L& D,, Office.

Due to the way the schedule was made & personal conflicts, I am going to be going 24 hours without sleep for a couple of shifts this week.

The statement above is reason enough to leave...unhealthy and unwise both in and outside of hospital.Better to leave sooner when the unit is not counting on your hours and presence, than to have a damaging blemish on your record due to fatigue misconstrued as carelessness or have a mistake occur that you cannot take back.

I would compose a thoughtful letter explaining my decision with the most professional representation of my observations, and provide both the Nursing and HR departments their copy, graciously thanking them but remarking that you are unable to continue under the circumstances.

Peachtreern, thank you for the conscientious reply. I decided to provide my notice tomorrow. That's a great way to do it.

Hopern84, I agree some places are like this with the personality and culture of the nurses. And you can tell when it just won't be better.

My initial preceptor was great.

Then I moved to my shift preceptor who was awful & downright rude the entire 12 hr shift. I gave it 2 shifts and could not handle it, i couldn't ask a question without getting a rude response. So I requested a different preceptor stating just personality mismatch, different learning / teaching styles. I was placed with another person to precept and given a new schedule that went from bad to worse and while the personality was more approachable, there are passive aggressive things to make my job difficult.

I'm in the ER and the techs/paramedics don't answer call bells or respond to STEMI's or code strokes?

I don't mind doing it all, I am not above anything but i am used to the techs / paramedics being a right hand man and assisting the nurse by doing EKG & vitals while I triage, line & lab, and medicate for a STEMI.

Or grabbing the monitor and connecting it for transport to CT while I triage, line & lab for a code stroke.

These are time sensitive things.

I thought that's what er techs are there for.

I've only seen them transport patients here.

For me anyway, that's all they do.

Charge nurse even called me while I was in with an ambulance she had just sent me to answer a call bell two doors down.

She didn't call the techs to answer the call bell. She called me. Knowing she just sent me a critical ems rescue.

I haven't even had anyone clean the room after transporting a patient. Not once.

I clean every room after every admission and discharge. Again I don't mind but it's odd to me. It doesn't seem right.

Again, I am not above anything. I clean rooms all the time & don't care. But when it's busy those little things help and I am used to a facility that the techs and nurses work together. So I cant imagine that their only job as an ER tech / paramedic is to transport patients to their assigned room.

It doesn't make sense.

I walk by their station and they are just sitting there playing on their cell phones... yet we could coordinate patient care faster for better outcome if we work together and they do little things like the EKG or fingerstick so we can get patients to the Cath lab or CT faster, and have intervention faster for the patient.

Yet when I ask about it, to see if I can delegate tasks to the techs for faster care, I get told "that's just how it is, get used to it"

But I wonder if that's really how it is or if that's just what they are telling me to make my job harder because I'm the new person.

So I suck it up and have been doing it all while my preceptors disappear for an hour at a time, wondering if everyone is in on it to give me a hard time and leave me to fend for myself as the new person.

One of the docs even called my preceptor out on it the other day. So I know it's not entirely in my head.

Specializes in ED, Pedi Vasc access, Paramedic serving 6 towns.

I have to be honest judging by your last post you think people that do certain jobs, like techs and paramedics, are beneath you. You also seem to think certain tasks are beneath you! Paramedics are more then capable of doing lines, labs, and meds (if allowed to in your hospital), and it seems like you just want them to do your grunt work, and that is probably why they aren't voluntarily helping you!! Stop treating them like your personal slaves and learn to do some things independently, or actually ask them to do something that requires skills and not just crap you don't want to do!

They may also be observing you to make sure YOU are capable of doing EKGs and what ever else you feel is beneath you. You also need to remember ER techs are often getting pulled in 100 different directions at one time and you are NOT the only nurse that needs their help. In a busy ER that can mean almost continuous transports upstairs. Like you they may also be to busy to answer a bell at any given time, thus since it is technicallyYOUR patient you have to answer it. The closest person to the patient should be answering it since it may be an issue that requires intervention or it adds to the risk of a patient falling!!

I am not sure how long you have been an ER nurse, but it sounds like it isn't really for you to be honest!

Annie

I don't think they are beneath me, but where I came from we worked together. The ultimate goal is to move the pt to treatment quickly. So we all did our part, what is in our scope, to move the pt quickly.

No, they are not allowed to line & lab at out hospital. So procedure was they'd do ekg & vitals while the nurse would throw in the triage & medicate. Because our census is high, nurses have 6-8 patients at a time.

We were supposed to go in together and get the time sensitive stuff done quickly for the better outcome. I don't mind doing anything and I answer call bells all shift long. I've always done things myself because it's faster than finding someone to do it for you. I am one to NOT delegate because it's just faster and I'd just as soon do it myself.

When I tell you that I've done everything by myself since I've started, that's the truth.

I haven't asked a tech or anyone to do it because they aren't anywhere around.

I don't think I am above anything. However when I have a brain attack and a stemi and an elderly patient climbing out of the stretcher every 20 mins to use the bedside commode, I wonder why the techs aren't utilized to assist with such things and why they are sitting at a station just waiting for patients to transport to a floor. So I inquired what the job description is for them in this hospital, if I was allowed to delegate some tasks or if the nurse was expected to do everything as I have been doing. To which the response I got was "yeah better get used to it."

I was friends with all the paramedics & techs at my last job and we worked together great. If I was there, I just did it.

Likewise if I answered a call bell 100x for the same thing I could say to them "hey so & so is really driving me nuts I just need 15 mins to go take care of my other pt, can you answer their bell & buy me some time?" Or if there was a pt they didn't want to transport or a task they were assigned to do but didn't want to, I'd do it for them if I had the time.

It's all about teamwork and best utilization of resources and time for the better outcome of the patient. I would never ignore a task or call bell because "it's not my job" or I'm above anything. I am there for the patient. Youre misinterpreting what I said, taking it the wrong way. If we have resources- techs and paramedics sitting on cell phones waiting for a patient to transport, i was wondering if I could delegate time sensitive tasks. I was wondering what the policy was here. Again not because I am better or above anything, but to get the fastest care for the patients when I have several critical patients at one time.

I have to be honest judging by your last post you think people that do certain jobs, like techs and paramedics, are beneath you. You also seem to think certain tasks are beneath you! Paramedics are more then capable of doing lines, labs, and meds (if allowed to in your hospital), and it seems like you just want them to do your grunt work, and that is probably why they aren't voluntarily helping you!! Stop treating them like your personal slaves and learn to do some things independently, or actually ask them to do something that requires skills and not just crap you don't want to do!

They may also be observing you to make sure YOU are capable of doing EKGs and what ever else you feel is beneath you. You also need to remember ER techs are often getting pulled in 100 different directions at one time and you are NOT the only nurse that needs their help. In a busy ER that can mean almost continuous transports upstairs. Like you they may also be to busy to answer a bell at any given time, thus since it is technicallyYOUR patient you have to answer it. The closest person to the patient should be answering it since it may be an issue that requires intervention or it adds to the risk of a patient falling!!

I am not sure how long you have been an ER nurse, but it sounds like it isn't really for you to be honest!

Annie

I think you may have missed this part:

I don't mind doing it all, I am not above anything

Throughout her post she was trying to be clear that she doesn't mind doing those things, but not when RN duties are pressing and the tech is sitting there...

Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.

So, it's been a few days since there was a post on this thread. Did you put in your notice? After reading all you've been going through at that job I hope so.

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