Elana

also by leave the facility, I mean leave after a contract. Not just up and leave in the middle. That wouldn't make any sense.

I have been away from medsurg for 2 yrs total. I quit inpatient oncology (step down) in august 2019. I have worked in a hell of an ED for 4 months- 500 times worse then where I had worked at prior. I am confident with my safe care- I might not remember how to program a PCA pump or place a irrigation foley, however if I did it once I would remember. However we release orders in the ED all the time because our pts may stay there 2 days before being transferred up to a room- so in a sense that is floor nursing. Just curious, if anyone else has done this before?

Soooo..... here goes. I worked inpatient oncology for 2 years from aug 2017 to aug 2019. I worked night shift. The work was rewarding but night shift was brutal on my body. I ended up quitting because my body couldn't take it any more and I backpacked abroad for almost a year. I ended up getting a job in an ER because I thought it would be a nice change. However the hospital I work in is a train wreck. Found out we are only better than 2% of the nation when looking at press ganey scores. I get slammed with 5 patients at one time. There is no communication at the front. You have 5 patients no matter if you are in critical or intermediate care. Team work is horrendous and they staff stand around and gossip all day. ESI scores are laughable- everybody is assigned a 3. All acuities are placed anywhere and everywhere including in hallway beds. I've had patient with b/p of 60 systolic chilling in the hallway on no monitor. Doctors can take up to an hr to see a patient with an ESI of 2. OK so enough of my rant. I have worked in the ER for now about 4 months. I am so desperate to get out but I am also terrified of taking another job elsewhere without really knowing the facility. My dream was to travel nurse but now I just want to get out. I just found out from an agency that I can travel med-surg however I have not worked med-surg since August 2019- almost 2 years. I have friends who say to go for it and others who are little more cautious. This ER job has killed my spirit and desire to work as a nurse and I'm fearful of transitioning to travel (having not worked Med-surg in some time), and possibly getting burned x2. Granted if I don't like a facility I can leave because that is the joy of travel nursing. But the concern as well is that I wouldn't be ready. I'm thinking if I can survive this place, where travel nurses up and quit their contracts half way through, I can do medsurg after a long hiatus. Thoughts?

Hi there, I have a background in Inpatient oncology. I would say 15% of my patients were on comfort care and a lot of them were headed there, though a lot of them were full codes. I loved the patient population and believe hospice nursing to be my calling. It was a year ago that I quit Oncology because I was working night shift which caused me to become very hormonally ill as did the stress of my patient load (one week I coded 4 patients- on a med surg floor). I felt like a crazy chicken with its head cut off. This eventually cause me some serious depression and I questioned whether nursing was for me. Long story short after quitting I went traveling abroad (did not work as a nurse) for 9 months. Coming back it is extremely important to me that I have a job with a good work life balance. I do not want to end up the way I did last time. The job is Home Hospice RN Case manager during days. Coming from inpatient I didn't know the right questions to ask about the company in the interview or really understand what a good case manager job looks like. They told me I would have 17-18 patients and will be on call once a week (except every third week). It is also salary. After researching it seems 17-18 patients is suicide (or am I missing something)? Can anyone offer up some advice? I am also in a nutrition program which I must dedicate 20 hrs a week to. The job offers a 5000 dollar sign on bonus and 3 weeks PTO your first year, and 8 paid holidays. They have not told me salary yet while they are checking my references. What do you think? Is the 5000 dollar sign on bonus and PTO all red herrings to a potentially unhealthy work life balance? Thanks!