Quitting Small Residency for Bigger, Better Residency

[Nurse Beth]

Dear Nurse Beth,

I just started as a nurse resident at a small community hospital. The managers, educators, and staff have all seemed very supportive and helpful so far and my new colleagues are just as supportive. However, I just received notice that I got accepted into a "big name" nurse residency program that begins in a couple months andam very inclined to take this offer.

1) If I were to quit my current nurse residency, how would I go about talking to my manager/preceptor about it?Ideally I'd like to continue to stay in my current position, up until right before the start date of the other program.

2) What comparisons should I be making when deciding between my current position and this seemingly greater opportunity I just received?

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Dear Quitting,

Quitting one residency for another residency is frowned upon. The facility has invested resources into you, and the spot you are about to vacate could have been filled by another.

Also residencies typically stipulate no acute care experience. Are you planning to disclose to the "big name" residency that you are currently in a residency?

Nursing is a small world and it's best not to burn bridges.

Best wishes,

Nurse Beth

Author, "Your Last Nursing Class: How to Land Your First Nursing Job"...and your next!

[caliotter3]

Why throw away a good work environment and insure you can never return, via a "Do not rehire" designation? Years (or weeks) down the road, you may find yourself very, very sorry that you poisoned that well.

[NurseBlaq]

With that mentality you're going to ruin the good experience and supportive environment you have now, as well as, lose out on the name brand residency. Although two different hospitals, medical professionals do talk and you don't want your name to be out there as the type to be a ladder climber. Medicine isn't that big, everyone knows everyone and if they don't they know somebody who knows somebody. Don't be that person who always has something negative attached to their name.

Stay where you're at and kindly decline the name brand residency and tell them you've accepted a residency elsewhere and speak highly of the environment and the supportive staff. They will respect that. You need them to know you're a team player because if you wish to apply in the future, they will have notes in their system of how you handled this.

Besides, your greed is potentially blocking another nurse from that residency. Greed is a bad thing.

[LibraNurse27, BSN, RN]

I agree that supportive and helpful can unfortunately be hard to find in nursing. It can be nice to start out in a smaller environment where you can get to know your way around and get to know people in different departments more easily and quickly. Being a new nurse is already overwhelming. And you can learn nursing basics at either place, then transfer to a bigger hospital or more specialized area once you have that down. I would say stay for at least a year after your orientation and make the most of it! Great coworkers and a great manager should not be taken for granted!

[FolksBtrippin, BSN, RN]

As a new grad, a supportive environment is literally everything you need.

It is nearly impossible to know if an environment is going to be supportive before you start working.

Based on personal experience and accounts from others, I estimate that most new grad positions are not especially supportive. Many are downright abusive situations.

[ClaraRedheart, BSN, RN]

If I were managing the unit that you were coming to, I would not want you if I knew this. If I found this out in the future, I'd probably use any excuse to get rid of you. Disloyalty is not something I would EVER want in a team member. That being said, maybe you didn't look at it this way and that's totally forgivable. Ask the hospital how much it costs them in productivity lost to train a new nurse. It's mind-boggling. You really owe them at least a year if you are an honest person because of how much they spent on you. They'd still be losing on the deal if you stayed a year, likely. Not to mention, I feel that in nursing, it takes at LEAST 1 year to decide whether or not you are good at/like any job because it takes that long to feel comfortable and not anxious with a new task.

[JadedCPN, BSN, RN]

The fact that you appear to be basing your decision to leave a supportive environment just because of a "bigger name" hospital and the assumption that it will automatically be better because of that is concerning. Just like previous posters have said, there's so many things wrong with this. Especially as a new grad. Hopefully you don't learn these lessons the hard way but I've got a feeling you've already set your mind on the other hospital...

[Have Nurse, ADN, RN]

My question off the original post is what if you were given a verbal offer to residency A, accepted the position and signed a contract. But then, you were offered a position in residency B (preffered residency) before residency A began the program.

I do understand that it is very important not to burn any bridges in the nursing realm, but wanted to know if it changes anything if you were offered the preffered residency before you began any new grad program.

Good question.

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

What does "a bigger residency" mean? Other than the hospital having a famous name, you have not given one single reason that makes sense to jump ship from the enviably good situation you are in now to another uncertain one. People don't get too impressed by the name of where you work anymore, so I am truly confused why you would shoot yourself in the foot this way. Be careful what you wish for.

[sesiliachan]

I wouldn't go for the second residency. First and foremost, because the people from the first one chose you instead of a bunch of other people that were waiting on line for this and are investing time and money in you. And second, because like you said, you have found a very supportive environment. To be honest, from what I've noticed, the bigger the hospital, the less supportive the environment is.

[Megan1977, MSN, EdD, RN]

I couldn't agree more!! This has got to be a joke

[PeacenJoy]

I love this site and I am usually a silent stalker of articles and posts on this site. However, this time, I cannot believe the amount of bad advice for this new nurse that I am reading. Let me give you my advice, which might be bad, but in my 10 years experience (2 as LPN, 8 as RN), is the right advice. You owe your loyalty to the hospital completely from the time of 7am to 7:30pm or whenever you clock in and clock out. When you're in the hospital, tell patients how lucky they are to be in that hospital, how you and your coworkers will take the best care of them. Then work hard, work your booty off, clock out and go home.

Then your loyalty is only to yourself (and family). Evaluate if there are any better offers out there. Then jump ship so fast, they can only see your dust (after two weeks notice). I have seen misplaced loyalty to a hospital to be the downfall of many a nurse. First of all, do you think they have any loyalty to you? They only hired you because they could not find an experience nurse. Now that you've been hired, you are learning a lot, which is good, but they will get their money's worth by working you to the bone. They will make sure you work off all your learnin'. If they lose some new grads in the mean time, that is just the price of gambling with a new grad. They will write it off. If you come back in a couple of years as an experienced superstar nurse from the big hospital down the street, they will hire you before you walk through the door. So you need to evaluate the pay, the traffic to work, the retirement plan, the potential for growth and advancement before you think about some misguided loyalty to some hospital. Do not go down with any ships.

I was a traveling nurse for a few years and I happened to work for this tiny hospital because most of their staff left. That is because the hospital filed for bankruptcy and could not pay their staff anymore. Also, the nurses that had been their for years lost all their retirement money and paycheck for the last couple of weeks. It was a big mess, but rumors of financial instability had been around for years, but nurses stayed because they loved the hospital and their coworkers. Now their futures and retirement capabilities have been compromised due to loyalty to a corporation.

One thing though, do not tell any coworker about the offer from the big hospital. When you give your two weeks notice, site family reasons. State your regret that you cannot continue with them, while thanking them profusely. No one needs to know anything other than that. Do not go down with this ship.

[Mergirlc, MSN, APRN, NP]

Loyalty or not, is up to you. But as others said, you may burn bridges which will not help you in the future.

One thing you might want to think about, what happens if you accept this other offer and the background check they run shows you were employed at this smaller hospital (whether you list this or not on your application/resume)? If social security knows the job where part of your taxes are coming from, so will a background check. If this pops up, it seems you might be out of 2 residencies/jobs.

Proceed with caution and really think about your decision.