So, as the title says... I am a new grad and just quit my first nursing job with less than 2 weeks on orientation. Just a little background, my first nursing job was as an ICU float RN at a level 1 trauma center rotating days/nights every 2 weeks (full time). While I was excited for this opportunity, I was not thrilled about working downtown which was an hour away from my house. I have a close hospital near me (about 25 min) that offered me a position in their Medical/Surgical ICU. I have had clinical there before and was comfortable with it, knew some of the nurses and doctors as well. Well, I decided to quit my job to accept the one closer to me. I talked with my manager and said that the commute was just more than I realized and was not having a great experience thus far. However, I feel as though I am going to be a "blacklisted" candidate or on a "do not hire" list with this hospital even though I was an "at-will" employee. Which, I never wanted to happen because they have a children's hospital that I eventually would love to go work at.
My plan was to work adult ICU for a 1-1.5 years and then work in the NICU/PICU whichever one I felt more drawn to. I now feel like that is not going to be possible as I feel they will never want to rehire me for their children's hospital (its attached to the one I was working at). Does anyone have advice for an anxious new grad who just wants to get into the specialty they want? How do I know I have been blacklisted with this company? I feel very dumb at the moment because I think I ruined my chances of ever working there again.
Please be nice in the comments. No reason to be rude! & thank you to those in advance!
This is me being nice. You will not know for sure if you were "blacklisted" until you start applying there and get no response. Hopefully, that will not be the case.
Perhaps, it's just me, but already thinking about next job is a bit premature. Again, this is me being nice. Focus on the job you will be doing.
I agree with this. Huge amounts of time and money (preceptors/educators/nurse residency classes) are spent by hospitals especially in the ICUs training people who decide they don’t want to be there or who aren’t ready to be there. These days we have revolving door employment...people don’t stay anywhere long...
Well...let's clarify that things did not get the way they are by people being treated with common human decency.
I will never entertain (or let stand without rebuttal) any sob stories about the absolute mess hospitals have found themselves in after *blatantly* not caring about employee retention. In all of their employee-level communication (I.e. not their PR communications) they are downright proud to make the point that they literally do not care about it.
Why in the world do new grads think they are ready for the ICU, ER or L&D right out of nursing school? I blame the hospitals for this.
Because with the right orientation, it’s possible to do great in these specialties as a new grad, and if you know you have the aptitude and affinity for the specialty it’s good to be able to start where you want to be.
My first job was in the er of a children’s hospital and here I am, 10 years on and not an utter failure. I’ve worked many places since that hire and successfully train new grads. I’ve also seen some bad new grad orientation programs too. But med surg nursing isn’t “default” nursing or “nursing basics:” it’s its own specialty with its own workflow and skillset. I’ve seen plenty of new grads on med surg units share stories of terrible orientations and poor support here and depending on the local job market it can be hard to transition in to certain specialties with med surg experience.
So, as the title says... I am a new grad and just quit my first nursing job with less than 2 weeks on orientation. Just a little background, my first nursing job was as an ICU float RN at a level 1 trauma center rotating days/nights every 2 weeks (full time). While I was excited for this opportunity, I was not thrilled about working downtown which was an hour away from my house. I have a close hospital near me (about 25 min) that offered me a position in their Medical/Surgical ICU. I have had clinical there before and was comfortable with it, knew some of the nurses and doctors as well. Well, I decided to quit my job to accept the one closer to me. I talked with my manager and said that the commute was just more than I realized and was not having a great experience thus far. However, I feel as though I am going to be a "blacklisted" candidate or on a "do not hire" list with this hospital even though I was an "at-will" employee. Which, I never wanted to happen because they have a children's hospital that I eventually would love to go work at.
My plan was to work adult ICU for a 1-1.5 years and then work in the NICU/PICU whichever one I felt more drawn to. I now feel like that is not going to be possible as I feel they will never want to rehire me for their children's hospital (its attached to the one I was working at). Does anyone have advice for an anxious new grad who just wants to get into the specialty they want? How do I know I have been blacklisted with this company? I feel very dumb at the moment because I think I ruined my chances of ever working there again.
Please be nice in the comments. No reason to be rude! & thank you to those in advance!
To my knowledge, as a “float” nurse most of my hospital nursing career, the float nurse is the first to go to any other unit they are qualified (or can be backed up for what they are not by a nurse who is for that patient) to work when a nurse is needed elsewhere in the hospital. Being an ICU nurse-you would be more than “qualified” for Med/surg-but as a new grad nursing is tough-most hospitals wait 6 months to ‘float’ new grads-but your position was ‘float’....this would be scary when trained only for the unit and then,poof! Of to the floor you go for Med/surg/tele with 8+ patients....you may have made the best move yet-I have seen seasoned ICU agency nurses freak out when they came to our hospital with 7 patients to start on day shift on the floor because they didn’t need them I. The unit so since they had a contract-go have fun in hell. I would of felt bad for her if she wasn’t such a jerk to the nurses around that could help her.
I imagine "orientated" wouldn't sound as harsh on my ears when spoken with an English accent...
the nurse I heard it from all the time was British. I would correct her. She would tell me that I was daft. Made me laugh even though it still clanged on my ears ?
BSN-to-MSN, ADN, BSN, RN
398 Posts
Should have thought about commute.
This is me being nice. You will not know for sure if you were "blacklisted" until you start applying there and get no response. Hopefully, that will not be the case.
Perhaps, it's just me, but already thinking about next job is a bit premature. Again, this is me being nice. Focus on the job you will be doing.