NannyG16

I'm so sorry for your disappointing start in Nursing! Please don't give up, and please try hard not to fall into a "all nurses are backstabbing and mean" defensive posture. Personally, I agree that the ER doesn't seem an appropriate place for a new grad. The pace just doesn't allow for the time needed to properly orient a novice. I honestly feel that the hospitals that hired you for those positions did you a disservice by implying (by hiring you) that it could be done! I think that only one-in-very-very-few new nurses could really do well in an ER environment right out of school.I know I couldn't have! I also agree that you should tell the truth. You could include a cover letter explaining briefly that, while you were initially drawn to Emergency medicine you have come to understand the importance of gaining some MedSurg experience first. Then, when you meet with the interviewer, explain briefly what happened... BUT!.. never badmouth anyone, or specifically name anyone as having mistreated you, or get carried away describing all the ugly details of what happened to you. That may seem obvious, but sometimes things can kind of slip out (at least they can out of my mouth!) and you never know to whom you are speaking. Try to be careful not to compound your situation. Good luck to you. I hope that you have a wonderful experience in MedSurg and meet some nurses who will be happy to help you develop into a terrific nurse. There are many many more good supportive nurses than there are mean ones! Enjoy your new career.

Fascinating questions. I have been a nurse for almost a quarter of a century, and I will say this: First off, while I'm not by any means condemning the "entry level BSN" mindset, I think that it leads to many new nurses seeing bedside nursing as a stepping-stone-- a "necessary evil"- to what they REALLY want to do with their degree (management, more school for an advanced degree and an NP role somewhere...). In the old (OLD) days, I think many nurses wanted an entire career at the bedside. Also, I think bedside nursing these days is quite challenging... all about money for the hospitals... with Medicare calling so many of the shots. Where I work (on a tiny 10 bed Ortho unit) 2 nurses can share 9 or 10 discharges (and 9 or 10 subsequent fresh post-op admissions) every three days! It's all about pathways and a "get'em in, get'em out, get'em in" mentality. It's really no place to LEARN anything, no place to TEACH anything, no place to be on those days that you wish for the luxury of TALKING to your patients, or feeling that you've done anything above the bare-bones minimum. I know that when I got out of school, I wanted to help people, and I don't often feel that I do a lot of that where I am (my patients say I do, but I don't feel it). I can't imagine walking into this job as my first job- YIKES! And, finally, the previous writer mentioned lawsuits and the paralyzing fear of making a mistake. I feel that with the shear volume that we see, the chances of making a mistake are increased... along with the fear of hurting someone and having a disciplinary action against your license. I will finish by saying that, before I relocated to another state, I was lucky enough to spend the first 20+ years of my career at a very large urban teaching hospital. Everyone that I ever met there was happy to help.....to teach, to wait for you to "get it", to teach some more. Staffing was great. Acuity was very, very high, but we had the time and the staff to do the job well. I think that if every "first job" was like mine, more new grads would have the chance to develop a true love for bedside nursing, and would be likely to spend a career there. Thank you for posting this very interesting topic!

Thank you all for your thoughts and words of wisdom. I guess I was thinking that it would all happen sooner rather than later because I know that the hospital has already made arrangements for temporary staff to be ready in the event of a "10 day notice"... but maybe they always do that. Anyway, I will continue to hope that this resolved at the last minute... or months from now... so that I don't have to worry about walking through that front door during my first few weeks. Thanks again. I appreciate the time that you took to help me!

I am an RN with 23 years in the field who recently accepted a position in a large union hospital (my first union job), and I am afraid that I may have a problem. My first day on the job is to be 7/11... but the RN's contract expires 6/30. They are not making much progress with contract negotiations, and with less than a week to go before the contract expires I have a few questions... If there is a job action, how am I to behave? I will be orienting for a number of weeks before I actually can function as an RN in the hospital, and I will not be a member of the union for up to 30 days after I start, so can I enter the hospital for orientation if there is a strike? Can I lose my brand new job if I don't? Will the other nurses in the hospital ever accept me if I do? I would be grateful for any thoughts that RNs (unionized or not) have on this issue. I have already given notice to my present employer, and will not be working there after 7/7, so if I "sit out" any time in July waiting for things to resolve, it will be financially disastrous for me... but I want to do the right thing as regards my new union and new fellow employees. My head is spinning. Your thoughts, please? Thank you!