Over my head?

[Madc]

I got hired doing exactly what I wanted out of school. Working with psychiatric ped patients. The hospital is a residential and acute for pediatric patients. I was hired as the residential charge nurse to help the house supervisor but there is no house supervisor so I’m acting HS every single day.

I was told my priority was residential but to help acute if needed. The past months I’ve dealt with sly comments from the nurses and the acute station. I smile through it and try to be respectful but one day I snapped on the LPN for being smart with me.

Another day I was attacked by this group that I don’t know what my job is and I’m not helping acute and I needed to learn my job. I asked a very simple question and the response I got was ridiculous.

Now I had an LPN refuse cart keys from another nurse unit on residential even though another nurse was coming in 3 hours.

All the children were asleep there were no meds to be given.

I was told if someone is insubordinate to send them home but I don’t want to take someone’s keys and do that to them. I try and talk out it. Well the HS coming on read my messages on the phone before I had even given over my shift and asked what happened. I told her I’m confidence HS to HS and she went and asked what happened and why she was being insubordinate. I was cussed out in front of everyone and I told that HS it wasn’t her business to tell nor was it the LPNs business to know until higher management handled as they said they would. I was pulled aside and told I should never disrespect her like that again. I just don’t understand how what she did wasn’t disrespectful. It was basically stirring the pot when it didn’t have to be that way. She told me it was her business to know everything that goes on but technically I am acting HS and there’s her and another. The one I trained over NEVER acted like that. It’s all overwhelming and it’s like I’m verbally abused everyday on this shift. I don’t have this issue on weekends or mornings. It’s this particular group of people that think I need to do everything for acute, but if children are fighting on other units they don’t come to my aid.

I’m fed up with it but it was my dream job everything else is great. And now who’s going to want a new grad who went straight and boxed herself into this field. I feel hopeless.

I just don’t understand how these people treat each other like this either. I try and treat people with the upmost respect. I’m just at a loss.

i want to apply for new positions but I’ve been a nurse for 3 months, went into psych ( which I still love dearly), and I’m afraid I look like I’ve boxed myself in and a flake.

[Madc, BSN]

1 hour ago, Nisa Kreuzer said:

I agree that you should never have been hired in that position as a new grad. It's important for most people to experience the position of an entry level nurse to establish your foundation and give you that knowledge base. You can easily explain when you apply for another position that after working for 3 months you realize that the position is not appropriate for someone with your level of experience. And there's nothing wrong with that, it's not a mistake on your part. It may even benefit you in an interview to express this, showing a level of insight.

I’ve had one interview already and they all ageeed that I shouldn’t have been thrown into that situation. They said they “applauded” me for being able to see the situation I was in. They also said it was smart to still work there as I look for other jobs.

So it seemed to be taken well

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

Sorry I'm a little late to the conversation but after reading your responses OP I'm going to throw out another option if you haven't made a decision to leave yet. Since it sounds like management has your back and is appropriately disciplining those staff that are being insubordinate maybe, just maybe it'd be worth it to stick it out and grow into the position. Darn near impossible without management support I think, but with support from above you doable and it'd sure the message you can't be scared off that easy. Having the kind of support you need to pull this off is a rare thing and I don't know that if I'd want to give that up.

[Madc, BSN]

8 hours ago, kbrn2002 said:

Sorry I'm a little late to the conversation but after reading your responses OP I'm going to throw out another option if you haven't made a decision to leave yet. Since it sounds like management has your back and is appropriately disciplining those staff that are being insubordinate maybe, just maybe it'd be worth it to stick it out and grow into the position. Darn near impossible without management support I think, but with support from above you doable and it'd sure the message you can't be scared off that easy. Having the kind of support you need to pull this off is a rare thing and I don't know that if I'd want to give that up.

Well I work with her Monday and I don’t know if they actually did anything or talked to her. I’ll see. Another issue though is that I’m actually “charge” nurse of residential and have been for four months and part of that description is being house supervisor when there is none. Well that has been for four months so I’ve been house supervisor with out getting paid for it and constantly dealing with employees like this. This one was just the worst incident that really broke me I think.

I decided to stay PRN and take a med surg position at a hospital making close to the same pay without having to be in charge.

I really wanted to stay and I loved the kids but the culture there and how other staff treat each other is so bad. I wanted to be the change that made it great bc this place has such a bad reputation but it was too much for me to take on ?‍♀️

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

On 7/13/2019 at 9:27 PM, Madc said:

Well I work with her Monday and I don’t know if they actually did anything or talked to her. I’ll see. Another issue though is that I’m actually “charge” nurse of residential and have been for four months and part of that description is being house supervisor when there is none. Well that has been for four months so I’ve been house supervisor with out getting paid for it and constantly dealing with employees like this. This one was just the worst incident that really broke me I think.

I decided to stay PRN and take a med surg position at a hospital making close to the same pay without having to be in charge.

I really wanted to stay and I loved the kids but the culture there and how other staff treat each other is so bad. I wanted to be the change that made it great bc this place has such a bad reputation but it was too much for me to take on ?‍♀️

Certainly can't say that I blame you! Good luck with the new job. Hoping you enjoy it!