Planning to quit

[rainyflowers]

I graduated as an ADN in June 2016 and it took me a long time to find a new job. I finally started working in March 2017. I had 8 weeks of preceptorship. The hospital didn't have a structured new grad program. Thankfully I had the same preceptor majority of the time. But she was just okay, I felt like I wasn't being taught enough.

I have been on my own for about two months now and I am just not happy there. I feel so stressed and defeated every time I am there. I am miserable. My nursing manager that hired me just recently resigned 2-3 weeks ago. They haven't hired a new one yet so a nursing supervisor is overseeing us occasionally. My charge nurses aren't really that helpful at times and occasionally rude. I do find a few of my coworkers asking if I'm okay but they're busy with their own tasks and don't really help me. The doctors are so rude and disrespectful too. Lack of communication between them and the patients make me so stressful. I feel that I am in a bad environment.

I work on the medsurg-telemetry floor. I have a two year contract with them and if I break it I would pay $5000. So then I am not sure if this is new grad blues or if this floor is not my niche... I just don't know what to do.

I really want to resign but if I resign I only have 4 months experience under my belt. I understand I might not be a new grad anymore and I also do not have that 1 year experience when I look for my next job. My family and friends are telling me to suck it up and stay there for two years but they don't understand how miserable I am.

In the policy it says the hospital is "at will employment" which means either party can leave or terminate with or without reason and notice. I was going to call in and tell them I resign. Will that leave a bad impression on me? I really don't think I can stick it out for another two weeks. I have called in sick a few times because of how much I dread going in to work. Please have give me some advice.. I'm a mess..

[JadedCPN, BSN, RN]

Out of everything you posted, the WORST thing you can do especially with someone with only 4 months of RN experience under their belt is to resign without giving 2 weeks notice. I would tell you to suck it up but it seems you've decided it's just too miserable, which it very well could be. It sucks to lose out on $5000 but that's not the end of the world. However burning your bridges, especially the only bridge you've built so far as a new grad, by not professionally giving two weeks notice is not recommended at all. Also, I would wait to resign with two weeks notice until I had another job lined up.

[Nature_walker, ASN, BSN, RN]

I agree with JadedCPN that you might want to stay at least until you have something else lined up. A good friend of mine left her first nursing job without having another one lined up and it took her months before she was able to find someplace else. Also you don't want to burn any bridges that might come in handy in the future. What about the possibility of transferring to another unit?

[Purple_roses]

It's hard to know what you should do because you sound truly miserable. The safest thing to do would be to stay at least until you have a year under your belt, find something else, and *then* give a two weeks notice (in person). I don't necessarily feel comfortable telling you to do this though, because I don't know how this job is influencing your mental health.

The hard thing is that you are not a new grad, so when employers see your resume (and that you graduated last year) they may not want to start you as a new grad. They may also wonder why you had such a long period of unemployment. Add quitting a job after just a few month into that mix, and your resume isn't going to look desirable.

You're in a tricky spot and I'm not entirely sure what you should do. Hoping for the best for you!

[Redhead,RN, BSN]

Definitely give notice, but don't stay anywhere you are miserable. I quit my first hospital job at 4 months and never looked back! I've since gotten other hospital jobs (hated them all) and realized that wasn't for me. Now I am a clinic nurse and have been so happy doing it for 3 years. Life is too short to waste it being unhappy...