Resigned and Can't Get a Job

[Nurse Beth, MSN]

Dear Nurse Beth,

I just resigned from my dream hospital. I regret it so much. I feel like when my manger came to talk to me about a prn order and hanging the wrong fluid in the same week she was suggesting I'd be fired. She suggested i should resign if it was too stressful she had the director involved and I resigned because i felt pressured to.

Now when I think back I was a new grad on a crazy unit with high turnover on days and made some mistakes yes but owned up and asked for help. I miss my job and have been applying and am afraid I wont find anything else. I don't know if to reach out to a recruiter here as it is the closest to my house without having to go to the city and honestly the hospital whose values align most with my own.

When i was first hired I was on a telemetry unit and was doing well with a better staffed unit where it wasn't so chaotic and the environment was supportive. Please help, I don't want this to be the end of my career.

Dear Resigned from Dream Hospital,

This does not have to be the end of your career although it must feel scary.

I'm trying to understand which unit you resigned from- not the tele unit where you first started? Another, more chaotic unit in the same "dream" hospital? You do not say how how it is you started on Tele and then transferred to another (more chaotic) unit.

Regardless, when you were called in to talk to the manager and she suggested that you resign- you read that right. When a manager suggests that you resign, it is typically because they do not yet have the requisite paper trail to terminate you, and they are offering you an alternative to being terminated. A solution for all is that you resign.

Without the details of how long you worked there it's hard to say how much of a challenge it will be to get hired elsewhere. You say you were a new grad. If you resigned with less than one year's experience, you face a challenge. You will be asked your reasons for resigning, and the best response is "It wasn't a good fit".

As far as applying (re-applying) to the hospital your resigned from- it's unlikely they will hire (re-hire) you. Look elsewhere and your goal now is to not be unemployed too long. Gaps in employment do not help your resume.

You may have to work further from home initially to establish your work history.

Best wishes,

Nurse Beth

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

[caliotter3]

"Count to ten before you reply". Next time, take at least three days to ponder any drastic measure, such as quitting your job. Your supervisor, in making a very valid suggestion, intentionally or unintentionally, set a trap for you. Now that you did the dirty work of your management team, you are reaping the benefits of a rash decision. When it involves your livelihood, always keep in mind that the best defender of your livelihood is you.

[middleagednurse]

"Count to ten before you reply". Next time, take at lponder any drastic measure, such as quitting your job. Your supervisor, in making a very valid suggestion, intentionally or unintentionally, set a trap for you. Now that you did the dirty work of your management team, you are reaping the benefits of a rash decision. When it involves your livelihood, always keep in mind that the best defender of your livelihood is you.

What choice did she have?

[nurse_yandi]

You can always find work in a SNF (nursing home). It may not be ideal, but at least you'll be working. I had to take a job at one as a new nurse simply because there were no other options at the time. In addition to working, I also gained charge nurse experience as I was the only RN on the floor. After six months I moved to a hospital position. Honestly, they probably did you a favor. Something much worse could have happened that could really jeopardize your license. Things happen for a reason. You just need to learn from the experience and move forward.

[chare]

What choice did she have?

First, he or she should have taken her or his "feelings" out of the equation as acting emotionally never ends well. I don't read that he or she "should resign if it was too stressful" as a suggestion that her or his job was in jeopardy; rather, I read it as a suggestion, granted poorly worded and timed, that he or she should consider finding a new position in a less stressful environment. Had he or she set her "feelings" aside and discussed this with her or his manager, he or she might still have a job. And, this would have provided a cooling off period in which he or she could have evaluated her situation and developed a better exit strategy, if leaving was in fact the best option, than to leave without having found another position.

As it is now, he or she is left without a job, and facing the difficult task of having to explain the circumstances surrounding her or his leaving the previous position. And, contrary to what many like to believe, "it wasn't a good fit" isn't going to make the past issues disappear, although it can be a good start. If the "not a good fit" option is used, he or she must be ready to explain why it wasn't a good fit, what was done to rectify the situation, what was learned, and how he or she is going to modify her or his behavior in the future.