Hi! Your comment, "Don't sign a contract then," is unnecessary and unhelpful to my post. It was clearly meant to be snarky and condescending. Please explore why you felt the need to comment that.
I also wouldn't call them "things I disagreed with," my hospital. I'd call it flagrant dismissal of sexual harassment, unsafe ratios (I just got this dang license, and I'm not risking losing it), and just overall disregard for the safety of their employees. I didn't feel the need to disclose that information at first, but clearly we have different definitions of unacceptable conditions and I felt the need to make that distinction.
New grad contracts are very common. In fact, all of the major hospital systems in my area have these new grad programs with these contracts. When they all have a contract with a penalty for leaving, it is normalized and not questioned. New grads like myself are naive, desperate for a job, and broke. That's why I call these contracts predatory. I knew it was a two year contract, and thought I could stick it out anywhere for two years. I had worked all sorts of terrible jobs with terrible bosses, how bad could it be? But two years of those conditions is unbearable, and I made the responsible decision to leave.
I also want to comment on this number hospitals keep throwing around to maintain that it costs so much money to train a new grad. Sure, I had a preceptor so that costs extra labor money. At the extra $27/hr for my preceptor and I to work one nurse's assignment for twelve weeks of orientation, that's still only roughly $12,000. I also orientated at the same time another nurse transferred from another hospital's medical-surgical unit, and they had a twelve week orientation as well. So it costs the same to train a new grad and an experienced nurse in that regard. I attended monthly 1 hour classes with some rudimentary information on pressure ulcers or strokes in a hospital meeting room. The unit educator checked in with me for about 10 minutes once every couple of weeks. Where are these numbers coming from? I just don't believe it when they toss around that $100,000 number.
I gleaned from your comment that you were hoping to give me a lesson or some advice for the future. I want to return the favor, and give you some general human-to-human conversation advice. First, have empathy for others. I didn't think I would need to say that on a nursing forum. Secondly, you had nothing to offer me in regards to my request for stories. You just chastised me, and belittled my experience. If you have nothing helpful to say, don't say it.
If you feel the need to respond defensively to this, please note: you are a stranger on the internet to me. I'm a stranger to you. What you say will not keep me up at night. I am at peace with my decision to end my contract early. I know I made the responsible decision. Peace be with you. I hope you find whatever you are looking for when trolling these forums.
