lunchladydoris

Some facilities won't hire RNs to do tech/CNA work due to liability issues. I don't have a solid answer as I never had a CNA license prior to my RN, but I do know of techs that could not go back to teching after receiving their RN/not finding the RN job as their facilities would not let them work as techs for liability reasons. For example, In NYS, you're held to the highest license you have, so if a patient were to experience an issue (negligence, etc) in front of you, that could potentially be a liability for you and the facility even if you were not the patient's nurse.

I'm writing to ask if other new-ish nurses are finding they have to advocate to be appropriately orientated/trained at new positions, or have even had to turn down positions because of liability/lack of training. To give you a quick idea of my background: 2010 RN grad, 7 months of part-time LTC experience, then budget cuts (LTC facility re-staffed with LVNs), then unemployment, then 10 months working a telecommute job for an insurance company, then the entire department got laid off in budget cuts (yey! again! /sarcasm), and unemployment again. Now I'm finding--despite only 7 months of passing meds PT and then having not touched/laid eyes on a patient for another 16 months-- the only hospitals/clinics that will consider hiring me are ones who want to hire me on as an experienced nurse. In the thick of budget constraints, they don't want to pay for GRN/new clinical nurse training despite my rather limited and somewhat distant (16 months ago) 'clinical' experience. Now, I'm a 2010 RN grad, but I've held a previous career, and while I'm definitely not a seasoned nurse I'm also not a doe-eyed kid with stars in her eyes new to the working world. I bring real life and professional experience to the profession, and I've had some great nursing experience even when it was non-clinical (I feel like I learned more albeit non-clinical nursing in my last position than I ever did in LTC!). That said there's no way in hell I would step out onto a Med-Surg floor without appropriate orientation and training, and I truly don't understand how penny wise/dollar fooled these facilities are being by pushing limited-experienced nurses into the fire like this? I have another story of another job offer I received that I still cannot believe, but I'll post it later (if asked) as this post's already too long. It's all nothing new, no new job is perfect, it's never easy at first, yadda yadda. We all heard it in nursing school. But my license, career and (future) patients are mine to protect and I'm not going to forego training so your hospital can save budget and I can say I have a clinical job.