ZiggyStardusty

Hello. I am at my wits end. I have been an RN on a peds psych unit for a year and a half. When hired (my first nursing job after graduation), I was told that if I wasn't happy on the unit I could easily transfer to another one after a year. Needless to say, this did not happen. Management has ignored three requests to transfer. When I follow up I am first met with flattery--"You're so great with these kids!"--and then told there are no openings. So I surprised to be training 6 new graduates all summer from various units I would love to work in. Every day I step foot on my unit, my health, safety and license are threatened. Our patients are very violent and undermedicated in my opinion. I have been sent to the ER twice, once with an injury that took me out of work for 2 weeks (still haven't gotten those sick days back) and am regularly punched, kicked, spit on, etc. Yesterday I was punched in the face by my watch, a huge, muscular, severely pychotic kid on a 2:1. Then I was threatened with disciplinary action for leaving this watch because the doctor ordered IM meds and I was the med nurse, though I made sure a tech took my place. This is typical for our unit: the med nurse spends most of the day doing watches while passing meds. I have complained about this being unsafe, and was told to "suck it up." We are always understaffed because no one else wants to work in our unit. I haven't had a lunch break in months. I have filed countless Protest of Assignments which are ignored. I feel totally helpless, depressed and demoralized. I know I need to leave immediately but but my city is full of experienced nurses looking for work (lots of hospital closings) and with 18 months of psych experience, it's difficult to move into med surg. I have resumes out there but no bites. I would be grateful for advice. Oddly enough, the advice I get from colleagues is "get an allegation." IE, get accused of some wrongdoing so they'll transfer me to another unit while they do an investigation. But I won't do that.