frisky

Wow! Sorry this is happening. Where I work they did catch an RN who worked with us for 5 years stealing narcotics. The story goes she was hiding syringes of liquid morphine and dilaudid in trash cans and one of our aides found them. The DEA became involved and she lost her license. The really sad thing is that she was stealing the medication from terminally ill patients and lying about giving the meds to them. I can feel sorry for her because she has an addiction, but do not feel sorry for her because she was stealing from our patients who entrusted her to care for them. I felt she got what she deserved for this offense and I am glad she is no longer a practicing nurse.

What's even funnier is that the charge position only pays $1.25 more an hour

Thank you for your comments. I guess I really do need to develop a way that I can prove that I am management material. My gut reaction was that I was very disappointed. The nurse who got the job is a personal friend of the manager so I probably took the whole situation the wrong way. I felt it was one of my last chances to have an opportunity to do something other than direct patient care. But I can take pride that I do enjoy my time with my patient's and families. If the management track doesn't work for me, I do plan to seek other career options. I just can't see myself doing what if do now in 10 years from now.

Please! We all (nurses) need to support each other and work on ways that we can improve working conditions so we don't experience so much stress and burnout! So many nurses are good-hearted people who go into the profession to really help and serve mankind. Unfortunately, the disrespect from management and the powerful money-players who run the health-care industry is what burns so many nurses out!

This also happened to another older nurse who was denied a charge nurse position a few years ago. She felt the same way as I do, but after a while was glad not to have the responsibility.

thank you for understanding. The sting will be less as time goes on, but I still think it would be a good idea for me to try my hand at something different

Thank you for the support. Only a fellow nurse can understand

Thank you for the response. You have a good point. It does seem like so many younger nurses are being promoted and higher-level management may well be driving this. They can easily expect them to have their Master's degree in a short time because they are at the start of their careers. For us older nurses, getting an advanced degree so late in the game would probably not pay off.

I have worked at the bedside for nearly 30 years now (oncology, telemetry, med-surg , peds and hospice ) and just recently did not get a charge nurse position. It seems that the powers that be love a paper-mill. If you want to do something different than bedside nursing I would consider working on a masters or practitioner degree ASAP and doing clinical ladder program at your hospital. Also, being actively involved in committees and letting your manager know that your career goals include moving onto a management position eventually.

I just feel disrespected. I know I am a good nurse and give 100% when I work with patients. I just don't know if I can do floor nursing when I am in my 60's. I feel I should have been the 1st pick due to my experience and wanting to now do a management track. I am going to look into other fields in nursing, but I also have been interested in other careers as well. I need to make a decision and do something different before I get too old and people will not consider me. Thank you for responding to my post. I did get a raise during my last evaluation.

Thanks for responding to my message. I guess my manager had her reasons. But after so many years with the company and never a bad review or single patient complaint I wish I was shown more respect.

I have been a nurse for over 30 year and currently work in a Hospice inpatient facility. I have many years of hospital experience including oncology, telemetry, med-surg and at one time was ACLS and PALS certified. I have worked in my current position as a staff nurse for 10 years. Recently our day charge nurse is retiring. I applied for the charge nurse position, but it went to a much younger and less experienced nurse. I was told by my manager that she could not stand the thought of losing me as a bedside nurse because she felt that was where I was most needed and felt that it would do the staff and patients a disservice if I was no longer providing direct patient care. Even though I find this a compliment I cannot help but feeling rather disappointed at her decision not to chose me as charge nurse. I have had my BSN since 1991 and am actively involved on many committees on our unit. I was told that the nurse that was chosen is interested in a management track and that they felt her goals aligned with the charge position. What I do think is sad is that my experience and dedication to our unit should have trumped the reasoning for hiring the other nurse into the position. I feel discouraged by this and am planning to educate myself in another field entirely and unfortunately leave nursing in the future. Am I right to feel this way or should I take this decision as an honest compliment and realize that my true talents are at the bedside?

The inpatient unit hospice that I work at has nurses from all backgrounds. They have excellent education program for new employees. I would suggest if you are interested in hospice to work at an inpatient facility at first if possible. There you will have experienced nurses around you who can assist you with questions you may have and you can tap into there knowledge base. Home care hospice would be difficult if you have not had recent medsurg or oncology experience considering the type and amounts of medication many hospice patients recieve. Good luck with you decision.

I also was hired in an inpatient unit hospice a month ago. I worked in the hospital setting for the last 15 years and this is the best career move I have ever made. I feel in the hospice setting you can be a real nurse. Can spend more time with your patients and thier families. Good luck with your new career