thebratpack

I've worked at my current unit in an acute care hospital for almost three years. Reasons that I am wanting to quit include the following: 1- Management never recognizes when I do a good job, only when I've made mistakes. They are never mistakes that result in a sentinel event and I've learned from each one. Now (today) they are contacting me about an incident that happened a FEW MONTHS AGO and accusing me of not doing the assessments that I was supposed to do (when I did indeed do them). That in combination with a few other things that happened these past few years makes me think that they are building a paper trail to try and let me go- am I overreacting? I also posted a few months ago about getting a lower review score and not getting a merit raise. 2- The environment on my unit is not friendly at all- I've really tried my best 2A- They stick me with the same assignment types, never getting an opportunity to work with the more sick patients. 3- I've felt very burnt out- tired, I can never sleep right, feeling like I'm just not myself. I go away on vacations and feel SO happy, but m when I get back I'm miserable again. 4- The pay (or lack thereof) is not worth the above to me- it has me thinking of quitting the profession and going back to school for tech or consulting, but I don't really have money for school right now. — Options that I have: I work pediatrics which complicates things a little bit. 1- Travel nursing: I always wanted to do it, but travel contracts for pedi are not good at all right now. Also where do I start? I also have doubts about being good at it. 2- apply on a different floor of the same hospital 3- apply to different hospitals, but be open to adults again (out of necessity) 4- just quit nursing and go back to school for tech or consulting - I remember my mom saying that it wasn't ever going to get better; I'll also feel like a failure if I quit It's hard because I fundamentally like what I do it's just this environment is getting to me. I don't really have people in my life that can help me in this situation. What do I do? Any advice?

This is a rather vague/rambling comment, but a lot of times I feel like my white counterparts got into the specialties they wanted right out of nursing school, but this wasn’t the same for me. Even though I am grateful to have a nursing job and work in an SNF/LTC, it feels like I’m the only one and I face a LOT of criticism from those that don’t understand. I get called lazy and unmotivated which could not be the furthest from the truth. Hospital jobs don’t count my experience as “real experience”, and I am black and a lot of my coworkers are black too and sometimes discreetly I think it’s a way of trying to “shut out” black nurses from being a part of the staff. My mom used to be the only black nurse on her hospital unit. During clinical rotations in hospitals sometimes there were one or two black nurses, and oftentimes there were none.

Updating to announce that I got the official NLIC letter from Rady. I’m sure the letters are the same for each person but they encouraged me to gain some acute care experience and then consider the new to Pedi/NICU programs. Congratulations to those that made it to the second round interviews! What were your previous experiences/preceptorships if you don’t mind me asking? Oh and do you guys live in state or out of state?

CONGRATS on the interview!! I understand that line of reasoning as probably putting down a specific unit shows that you’re *really* interested in that unit. However it seems like once you are rejected from that unit your chances at getting in the residency as a whole are over. On my hand, I felt that I wasn’t super competitive as an applicant so I felt that if I had chosen a specific unit I wouldn’t have gotten in so I stated open to all in hopes of increasing my chances.

Applied to all, I also haven’t heard back yet. I suppose it’s a neutral sign but to be honest I sense the ultimate rejection letter coming. Seems like interviews for surigcal, nicu, and icus have already gone out based on the responses for this thread.

I was going to suggest LTC/SNF for areas of nursing that work with (generally) lower acuity patients and which accept a lot of new grads but based on your post those environments would be way too stressful for you. There is a bigger issue IMO.

I applied as well for the heck of it. I probably won’t get accepted but you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. I said open to all but also stated my interest in NICU. What other residencies are people applying to? It feels like there are so many where I look but so little spots available. I am also applying from out of state.

Hi everyone, This is my first post on here. I’ve been reading a lot of the nclex threads throughout nursing school and now I’m glad I can say that I’ve graduated nursing school too! So currently I’m preparing for NCLEX. I’m using Kaplan (my school uses it) and have done QT 1-3, the live class, and a few Qbanks so far. A problem I’ve come across when preparing for nclex is when i take a practice test, I do write down the rationales and write down/review the content related to the question.... I also notice/write down the mistakes i tend to make when practicing i.e. in my heart I know the answer is right and want to choose it but then i second guess myself and choose the incorrect option. HOWEVER, for some reason I’m starting to think this process isn’t helping me as much as it used to. Whenever I take a *new* exam I still find topics/medications/concepts that I’m not AS familiar with and as a result I end up getting tripped up. Even with disease processes I have heard of before, new questions tend to be presented in a different way. The decision tree is ok sometimes but other times it either leads me down the wrong path OR I end up evaluating anyways. Any advice, words of encouragement, or tough love would be appreciated. Thank you.