Quit during orientation

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what are my chances of ever working in that hospital again?

I recently quit this past week my 1st ever tech job as a Nursing student b/c i felt it was unsafe. I had to juggle up to 15 patients, some mentally unstable and some being total/complete care with not much help from the nurses/techs and unsupportive management. I thought i'd be gaining valuable skills but all i did was clean patients for most of the day. This was something i was already taught in NS, so i dont need the additional practice. i felt like i was doing all the grunt work. The nurses were mainly charting and giving out meds, but they too seemed busy but their work is alot less physical. I was thinking of just working at my friends dads company as an administrative assistant until i graduate. It pays more and its a lot less work....It was a nice hospital, id like to go back, but only as a nurse.

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I would not worry about having to work in that hospital again.

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Specializes in hospice.

I see NOADLS has a protegé.....

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Specializes in ICU.

Are you serious? You were already taught that in nursing school? Please explain to me what it is you think a nurse does? It's not just giving meds and charting. I think sitting at a desk and being an administrative assistant would be a great career for you.

It always amazes me what people think a nurse does and what they think they won't have to do. I like though that you deemed it unsafe. :down:

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Specializes in ICU.

Some days it's like banging your head on a concrete wall.

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Specializes in hospice.

To be fair, I worked with some nurses who, we aides joked, wouldn't answer a call light if the patient was on fire.

BUT you have to give a job some time to really get the feel of a unit and also, as a brand new CNA, to get yourself up to speed.

OP, what kind of unit was it? How long did you stay before quitting? What were your overall duties? Like vitals and how often, blood sugars, bathing, ambulating, etc. How would you describe the general acuity of the unit? What shift did you work? All these things help determine whether 15 patients were too many.

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Specializes in Medical-Surgical/ Neuroscience.

Ive been a CNA now for 5 years-- long term care/home care/hospital. I just started my job as a student nurse extern which is the same thing pretty much. Ive only been here for a week now and I have learned so much. Yes, nurses, CNAs, techs etc have to clean patients. Its apart of providing care. And as a nurse I guarantee no matter where you work that you will have to clean patients too. Good luck with you studies :)

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Ty for the feedback.I do have a great deal of respect for cna's/techs, esp the 1's that do this for a living, i just personally could never do it longterm. If i was getting paid double what i was making, i guess i would of been more inclined to saty but the job i felt was just very unsafe and labor intensive. In regards to acuity, its a mix of medsurg/telemetry, a lot of older patients with alzheimers/dementia, morbidly obese patients, kidney failure, cardiac, etc....I was mainly cleaning patients, i would check vitals and do blood sugars, but ive done these tasks in my clinicals in NS, including cleaning patients so im very comfortable with doing these tasks, also i take care of my grandad and i do all these things for him. Also, i know nurses do more than charting and passing meds, they do health assessments, retrieve doctor orders, consult with nutrition PT/OT, yes i know nurses may perform basic tasks as well but i didnt really see that where i worked since they seemed preoccupied with their other duties and expected us to take care of the rest.

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what are my chances of ever working in that hospital again?

I recently quit this past week my 1st ever tech job as a Nursing student b/c i felt it was unsafe. I had to juggle up to 15 patients, some mentally unstable and some being total/complete care with not much help from the nurses/techs and unsupportive management. I thought i'd be gaining valuable skills but all i did was clean patients for most of the day. This was something i was already taught in NS, so i dont need the additional practice. i felt like i was doing all the grunt work. The nurses were mainly charting and giving out meds, but they too seemed busy but their work is alot less physical. I was thinking of just working at my friends dads company as an administrative assistant until i graduate. It pays more and its a lot less work....It was a nice hospital, id like to go back, but only as a nurse.

Is this what comes of the lab-check-off mentality? I did it already and I don't need more practice? Really?

Let me clue you in on something. I know you won't believe me and you'll think I totally don't understand what you mean. So let me preface my remarks by saying that I did exactly this job as a nurse aide (this was before there was a C for it) for a full year on a geri ward when we never had more that two ambulatory patients at a time in those days, and usually none. All total care, lots of what you call grunt work. I continued to do this part-time for two more years (every weekend, holiday, vacation day, and all summer) while finishing my program.

If you don't think that this work affords you valuable experience in observation and assessment, you are not only heartless but ignorant. If you wasted your time by not taking a few moments each day to talk to the nurses about what they were seeing and doing and why, you lost that valuable opportunity too.

Sure, go work in an office. It doesn't sound as if your head is really into nursing anyway. Or do you want to rethink what nursing is (much more than you give evidence of seeing yet despite what you say) and try again c new eyes?

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As a fellow nursing student , here is my advice, CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE. Cleaning the patient is part of your job and you should not complain, I mean who else is suppose to clean the patient? There are many students who are looking for student nurse / patient care technician positions including myself and would love to have your position. Maybe you should rethink your career choice.

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Specializes in Hospice.

Wow, I had to recheck OPs name-thought this was somehow an old post from NOADLS.

Like Grn Tea, I also worked as a Nurse's Aide (not even Assistants in 1975, much less Certified!!) on a busy Med Surg unit the summer between MedSurg I and II. I had the same instructor for both sections. The first week of Clinical for MS II, she came up to me and said "You worked over the summer, didn't you?" I asked her how she could tell, and she replied that my confidence had improved 100%. I wound up doing it every summer until I graduated. The experience definitely helped me be a better clinician, and also gave me a heartfelt appreciation for how important all the members of the team are in ensuring good patient care.

If "grunt work" is beneath you as a student, you are not someone I would want taking care of me or anyone in my family as a nurse. Please, do everyone a favor and stay in that office administrative assistant job.

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Ty for the feedback.I do have a great deal of respect for cna's/techs, esp the 1's that do this for a living, i just personally could never do it longterm. If i was getting paid double what i was making, i guess i would of been more inclined to saty but the job i felt was just very unsafe and labor intensive. In regards to acuity, its a mix of medsurg/telemetry, a lot of older patients with alzheimers/dementia, morbidly obese patients, kidney failure, cardiac, etc....I was mainly cleaning patients, i would check vitals and do blood sugars, but ive done these tasks in my clinicals in NS, including cleaning patients so im very comfortable with doing these tasks, also i take care of my grandad and i do all these things for him. Also, i know nurses do more than charting and passing meds, they do health assessments, retrieve doctor orders, consult with nutrition PT/OT, yes i know nurses may perform basic tasks as well but i didnt really see that where i worked since they seemed preoccupied with their other duties and expected us to take care of the rest.

I hate to burst your bubble Themostsupreme, but depending on what kind of job you secure after nursing school, you may be doing your tech job plus all of the nursing duties you think nurses do and then some. Why do you think you learned how to do this care in nursing school? It was certainly not because they figured you'd never have to do it again.

Honestly, most of us feel we are overworked and underpaid and do duties that are tedious. The current patient population in most facilities include the old, obese, homeless, chronically ill. If you don't like this population or you don't want a job where you are extremely busy, nursing is the wrong profession.

I've personally bathed and changed patients, cleaned beds and rooms for a new admit, run specimens that I drew to the lab, took a body to the morgue at 2AM, mopped the floor and wiped down the walls for a patient who projectile vomited, raided the hospital kitchen for late night admits who were hungry and fixed a broken television so the patient could watch the ballgame with his roommate.

My point is that you will do a lot of things as a nurse that may be someone else's job. You will do them in addition to your other duties. As far as your tech job, yes, the nurses expected you to do your job because you were getting paid to do a specific job. I think you burned a bridge there for future employment.

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