Quit during orientation

cdsavannah59, CNA · Jul 6, 2015

Earning the aid's respect is one of the best things I ever did on this new job. I have heard that even the unit secretary has run interference with the charge nurses when they tried to overload me with a new admit when a more experienced nurse had less patients. More than once, an aid has quietly done my hourly rounding for me when I was busy with patient care. This is my reward for doing vitals or helping the extremely time consuming patient to the bathroom while passing meds so that they can get to the rest of their 12 patients in a timely manner. If the aid walked in, she would be subjected to the same long drawn out stories and complaints that I already have listened to. If I can't do both, at least I "schedule" my meds to be at the same time as the aid's duties so that she can duck out of their while I distract the patient with my assessment or questions.

You are definitely the type of nurse I would love to work with, those like you have the respect from the aides/techs because you all a team players.

Jensmom7, BSN, RN · Jul 6, 2015

Earning the respect of the aides could literally be a life saver.

I once had an anaphylactic reaction at work, and it was just me and one aide. She made the necessary calls and stayed right there until I was transported to the ER (by the Evening Supervisor, in a wheelchair, without a patent airway and blue, but that's another story).

Sometime later, we were talking, and I thanked her for helping me. She said, very matter of factly, "No problem, I respect you. If it had been **** or **** (the 2 other nurses on our shift), I would have just stepped over them and kept walking."

Yikes.

BecomingNursey · Jul 6, 2015

Where did he say he was getting tuition assistance from the hospital? He applied at the first job as a PCT then quit during orientation. Now he is working at the second "easier" job. All during his orientation & first post he ranted about how he hated cleaning patients, hated doing "lowly" CNA duties & wanted to do RN tasks since he is a RN student.
I'm sure if he was getting tuition assistance from the hospital it would've been gone when he walked before orientation was over. Plus I don't know any hospital that gives tuition assistance for PRN employees.

And don't forget he "already knew how to do all that stuff so he didn't need to do it anymore."

OrganizedChaos, LVN · Jul 6, 2015

And don't forget he "already knew how to do all that stuff so he didn't need to do it anymore."

Ah yes, I forgot that. *rolls eyes*

LittleCandles · Jul 6, 2015

Am I the only non-believer here? I feel like the story was true now OP is trying to save face.

Red Kryptonite · Jul 6, 2015

Am I the only non-believer here? I feel like the story was true now OP is trying to save face.

You'd have to be literally the most insecure person ever to walk the earth to care that much about the opinions of a bunch of random internet strangers.

LittleCandles · Jul 6, 2015

You'd have to be literally the most insecure person ever to walk the earth to care that much about the opinions of a bunch of random internet strangers.

True true. But... There is always someone.

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Jul 6, 2015

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.

My experience as a nurse falls in telemetry, ICU, stepdown, OR, and endo. Every single one of those jobs is very "labor intensive." Nursing jobs are for the most part very physically demanding. The ones which are not are rarely given to nurses without significant experience in "the trenches."

I worked as a tech in a trauma ICU at a major trauma hospital while I was in nursing school. There were codes almost every night, lots of technology, and TV show type excitement. There was also a ton of "cleaning patients," done mostly by RNs, as we only had 2 techs per shift and we couldn't be everywhere at the same time. Any ICU environment has lots of personal care requirements of the RNs, because we are caring for patients who are not "walkie talkies"-they are critically ill, and therefore require significant assistance with regard to elimination, cleaning thereof, and general bathing and hygiene.

It was a rare day as a RN in the ICU that I didn't have a lot of personal care to attend to because our one tech could only do so much in a day.

Personally, I think you blew a valuable learning opportunity. As a tech, I showed voracious curiosity, and the nurses picked up on this and would even seek me out to come watch a procedure or even help out. My first CPR experience on a real person happened here. The seasoned nurses could easily have taken on the whole code, but they knew that I wanted to learn as much as possible as a student so that I would be better prepared for my own practice. That job helped me get accepted to a competitive ICU internship for new grads, which directed my career from the get go. As a result of that experience, I have gotten every job I've ever applied for. That's right, I've never not gotten a job that I wanted. I don't know that you will be able to say the same with your outlook. Hopefully the feedback you've received on this thread will make you re-think some of your misconceptions about the role of the RN.

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Jul 6, 2015

After reading many responses here, I want to start my response by saying that I agree with the majority. Nursing care will involve plenty of wiping butts. That just goes with the territory. It is good as a nursing student that you realize this and can go into something that you enjoy more, OP.
On the other hand, I would hope that nursing would involve much more than wiping rear ends and cleaning up. Else why is nursing school so competitive, and why do nurses need to learn so much? If all a nurse is needed for is to clean, why make him/her go to school for years to do that? Nursing schools want the best and brightest students. I would think there is a reason for that, beyond the capability to clean patients.

Emphasis is mine.

That's a nice sentiment, but no one has implied that all nurses do is clean patients. They are saying that cleaning patients is rarely something nurses are going to be able to completely delegate to techs or CNAs. Total patient care IS something RNs are frequently required to do. It's PART of the job.

ixchel · Jul 6, 2015

OP, I'm going to be honest with you, and I hope you take time to consider what I'm "saying".

I think you have unreasonable expectations of what nursing actually is. If you have hopes of working in a hospital, regardless of the floor you are on, you will not only assist with cleaning excrement, it will be part of your assessment. The color, smell and consistency of the various things that come out of bodies will be important clues as to what is going on.

As you grow into a nurse, there will be no such thing as "I've done this enough times, I don't need to do it anymore." I am slightly embarrassed when I go to help with patient care and linen changes, and I bumble around as an awkward fool because I never worked as an aid. But bumble on, I must.

Regarding your desk job, I've had desk jobs that afforded me countless hours of unoccupied time. I won't fault you for using that time to your advantage. However, understand your verbiage here, taking into account what reads to be an attitude of not wanting to actually put in hard, dirty work, makes it seem as though your work ethic is lacking.

I think you need to adjust your understanding of what is necessary in being a nurse. You need to research what nurses actually do. If you don't understand this fully before graduation, you'll be very disappointed and frustrated.

One last thing.... If you aren't willing to work your tail off, getting promoted to nurse at your current facility won't happen. You need to go to work every day like that's the day of your job interview. If you do any less, no, you won't have your foot in the door and the job won't be yours.

Whether you heed my advice or not, it's up to you. It really doesn't affect me in the least. The way you are thinking about this, though, is significantly flawed. If you get anything from this, I hope it's that you need to open your mind to that.

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Jul 6, 2015

Honestly if I were you I wouldn't worry about it. Don't put that job down on your resume and apply to a different hospital. And don't let some of these comments get to you.

That's just terrible advice. The OP has gotten some very good feedback, and he needs to spend a good amount of time thinking about the comments. Sometimes the truth hurts. You can't change what you don't acknowledge, and sometimes letting criticism from people who truly know what they are talking about "get to you" is exactly what you need in order to grow.

It's interesting that most of the comments along the lines of "don't listen to these people" are coming from other students or people who are NOT nurses.

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Jul 6, 2015

Ok.. A bunch of actual nurses are all saying the same thing. Of course they're wrong.
Also, if there was no team work and the nurses were such princesses.. Why do you want to work there as a nurse? Do you want to be a princess nurse who doesn't participate in team work too?

Based on the OP's post below, I believe the answer to your last question would be "yes."

You need to tell this too the nurses who i used to work with who felt they were too good to do cna duties. Y do u think i left? lol Im not breaking my back for any nurse or any patient, they can kiss my butt for all i care. My well-being is #1.