So, I have been at my job for seven months now and I applied for a transfer to my dream unit. My application was rejected, so I emailed the supervisor to touch base to see what more I can do to become a competitive candidate. I had talked with her before and have even went as far as to do what she suggested: join the specialty's organization, volunteer on a routine...she said she would sent off my resume.
Now? She is saying that the manager is recommending TWO years of med/surg experience to even be considered even though I have done EVERYTHING that the supervisor has asked and that unit has hired so many new grads. She says that med/surg is great and blah, blah, blah. But let's face it: how can working with sick adults help with premies? It doesn't. This is the same person who told me she only spent one year in med/surg prior to switching to my dream specialty.
I am livid. I feel like I am being strung along, and that I have absolutely no future whatsoever at my job. I have since started filling applications at other places.
I am half-way done with the residency program with more than seven months of experience, and I am damn sure not going to stay another 17 months in hopes getting something that I probably won't get. I have been at this hospital for damn near five years, and I am furious. I get waiting to a year-mark, but two? Hell no.
At this point, what should I do? Should I leave the hospital and try to get on somewhere else? Contact her after the residency program is over (I will have almost 14 months of experience) and say that I am ready to transfer? I would hate to leave this institution as I am almost vested and it has great benefits, but I don't want to reward this stringing along behavior.
I am sympathetic to your frustration and there's lots of comments from all sorts of angles.
I went from adult trauma to my dream of NICU. Not right away and not without frustration.
So I want to address your thoughts that: "But let's face it: how can working with sick adults help with premies? It doesn't."
How a neonate is treated is often different from adults, but that does not mean your time with adults is worthless. Obviously others have felt differently than I do, but I can tell you a few things I learned from working with sick adults that proved invaluable in the NICU (and peds). Aside from all the logistics of being nurse like time management, critical thinking, dealing with clinicians, etc. you learn about the human body and some of finer less obvious signs of distress that will be so important when taking care of someone who can't tell you how they feel.
Just a very few examples: Lung sounds, you'll learn to identify the different sounds and what they reflect is going on in the lungs, and what to do to help someone in that situation. Imagine trying to identify those sounds in a tiny person who fits in one hand while an oscillator in sending hundreds and hundreds of breaths a minute while you're listening. You'll be glad you know exactly what you're hearing.
IV skills, granted you choose different veins for a preemie, but you will learn what it feels like when you hit the vein, when you've blown a vein, when you've gone through the other side. You'll come to be more efficient and competent with the equipment and the task. Which is important when you have only a few teeny veins to hit.
You will learn the physical signs that pain management is working and your patient feels relief. Because you're going to be their voice in the doctor's ear. You'll learn what a person is like when an infection is brewing. Because that can overwhelm a little fast, you'll be glad to catch it early. Even better you'll know when an antibiotic starts working and they turn a corner. Also: What are the different signs that add up to sepsis? What does dehydration look like? What are signs of hyper/hypoglycemia? How do certain lab values present themselves in symptoms that cue you there's a problem. ...I could go on. Who knows, maybe you'll have your own list one day.
There's also psychology-social skills for the families and your own well being. How to deal with family members who find what they are dealing with impossible, so they take it out on you--for months. How can you explain treatments and illness? How do different cultures react? How to cope with your patients deaths. (I'm still not so good at that one) When you're getting exhausted and overwhelmed, what helps.
I'm sure you've learned a lot of that already but any time you spend taking care of another person, well you'll only get better for it. It will help you and them.
Should I bring up my concerns with the residency coordinator? Let her know that I am concerned that I am not seeing a future here and that I may have to leave right after the end of residency?
I wouldn't after 7 months. I know you are so enthusiastic to move in the direction you want to go but they may think you are a bit too big for your boots and think you have a lot of nerve. That is what happened to me, when I applied for a management position and my boss at the time went around badmouthing me saying she thought I had a lot of nerve applying for that position with limited experience. I had less than a year. She did not ask me what happened. No she just went around slandering me and making my life difficult. What really happened is that I applied for a casual general duty position and the CEO at the new facility offered me the management job. I respectfully declined saying I didn't think I had enough experience but he pushed me towards applying. When I gave him the old boss's name for a reference, she flew off the handle, never did ask me about it, just went around slandering me and was on a right royal witch hunt after that. She made my life miserable. She did this to other nurses as well. She was so mean. One of the more senior nurses was equally as mean back to her, telling her arm looked particularly swollen when she was upset with her. The old boss had lymphedema from a mastectomy. I would never sink that low but I could see how this poor nurse who driven to her wit's end could do it.
I wouldn't after 7 months. I know you are so enthusiastic to move in the direction you want to go but they may think you are a bit too big for your boots and think you have a lot of nerve.
I am not applying for a management position. I am pursuing a role as a staff nurse.
Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
I wouldn't after 7 months. I know you are so enthusiastic to move in the direction you want to go but they may think you are a bit too big for your boots and think you have a lot of nerve. That is what happened to me, when I applied for a management position and my boss at the time went around badmouthing me saying she thought I had a lot of nerve applying for that position with limited experience. I had less than a year. She did not ask me what happened. No she just went around slandering me and making my life difficult. What really happened is that I applied for a casual general duty position and the CEO at the new facility offered me the management job. I respectfully declined saying I didn't think I had enough experience but he pushed me towards applying. When I gave him the old boss's name for a reference, she flew off the handle, never did ask me about it, just went around slandering me and was on a right royal witch hunt after that. She made my life miserable. She did this to other nurses as well. She was so mean. One of the more senior nurses was equally as mean back to her, telling her arm looked particularly swollen when she was upset with her. The old boss had lymphedema from a mastectomy. I would never sink that low but I could see how this poor nurse who driven to her wit's end could do it.
Sorry that happened to you. Doesn't seem particularly relevant to the OP's post or dilemma.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
I would also consider whether or not your participation on this site might be identifiable at the workplace. Sometimes it takes little or no effort to make enemies at work and if someone has figured out who you are, you might be contributing to your problem, by being too vocal. These threads often take on a life of their own but they are always traced back to the OP for responsibility.
The OP made some inflammatory and somewhat ignorant posts while still a CNA. I haven't gone to the trouble of searching for those posts, but I do remember that the impression she left with me from online discussion is that she didn't really know what she didn't know and was not open to learning but instead wanted to complain about the unfairness of it all. If anyone from the workplace remembers those posts and had connected them to the OP, that could very well be why she wasn't hired into her original department and why she's feeling less than hopeful about her chances for advancement at this hospital.
I'm not saying this to be hurtful, PrincessBride. I'm trying to be helpful -- to help you understand where the problem may lie and as a caution to other newbies who may be tempted to post in the same manner. We are all far too easily identifiable online even when we're as careful as can be. The stray identifier creeps in (or is left up on the screen at work) and suddenly you're outed.
Once you understand where your problem lies (or might lie) you are armed with the information you need to go about fixing it. I'd advise you to go back over some of the posts you've made before you were a nurse and see how your understanding of the situations has changed. Then attempt to show everyone you work with your new improved understanding and attitude.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
I am not sure why everyone is so quick to point the fingers at me. If that were the case, I wouldn't have been able to get an RN job anywhere in the system as you need a good reference from your previous manager. That is policy. I am being honest and I would know if I had done something bad enough to get blackballed from the job.
That being said, I appreciate all the feedback. I will see how the next few months go. Towards the end of my residency, I will look at my options and if I can't get into my dream specialty by fall 2016, I will put in my two weeks' notice as soon as I get a different job.
Speaking for myself, I'm not quick to point a finger at you, but spending my time and my rather limited bandwidth in attempt to help you understand where you may have a problem. You may NOT actually know whether you have done something that irritated someone enough to get you blackballed. Some people don't wear their emotions on their sleeves for everyone to see -- some people are really good at putting up a professional facade while their mind is ticking away in the background. Please read back over your previous posts here for a clue to the attitude you displayed here that may have leaked into the workplace. Take the time for self-examination and reflection to see if that attitude is still present. It will be well worth your time.
I know we haven't gotten along in the past and I suspect that this has colored your view of me. We both have said some rather hurtful things to each other in the past, so please don't paint this as one-sided.
I use allnurses as a place to vent. Much like everyone else, what I say on here doesn't necessarily reflect how I portray myself in real life. I know your dislike of me makes you see me in a negative light and that is your opinion. But that doesn't take away my years of service, work ethic and great reviews I have received throughout the years.
So let's put this cob vs newbie to rest and let bygones be bygones...okay?
Sorry that happened to you. Doesn't seem particularly relevant to the OP's post or dilemma.
It is quite relevant Please read slowly and carefully and perhaps you will be able to figure it out. Let me try to help you. It is about applying for another position when you have little experience and how it can impact on your relationship with the current manager. Do you see the connection now? Oh well I tried.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Hey Ruby,
I know we haven't gotten along in the past and I suspect that this has colored your view of me. We both have said some rather hurtful things to each other in the past, so please don't paint this as one-sided.
I use allnurses as a place to vent. Much like everyone else, what I say on here doesn't necessarily reflect how I portray myself in real life. I know your dislike of me makes you see me in a negative light and that is your opinion. But that doesn't take away my years of service, work ethic and great reviews I have received throughout the years.
So let's put this cob vs newbie to rest and let bygones be bygones...okay?
I didn't take the time to think about your situation and what might be influencing it and then type out a reply in my limited time and using my limited bandwidth because I don't like you. You've said some ignorant things in the past, but you've been working as a nurse now, and I suspect that some of those attitudes have changed. I am simply pointing out that others at your workplace may have noticed those attitudes in the past and see you negatively because of that. I took the time and energy to try to help.
As we grow and change, we see some things differently -- but sometimes we change more quickly than people at work observe and take note of.
Speaking for myself, I'm not quick to point a finger at you, but spending my time and my rather limited bandwidth in attempt to help you understand where you may have a problem. You may NOT actually know whether you have done something that irritated someone enough to get you blackballed. Some people don't wear their emotions on their sleeves for everyone to see -- some people are really good at putting up a professional facade while their mind is ticking away in the background. Please read back over your previous posts here for a clue to the attitude you displayed here that may have leaked into the workplace. Take the time for self-examination and reflection to see if that attitude is still present. It will be well worth your time.
I agree with you Ruby. No one is pointing fingers at the OP. Just trying to help her out with the question she asked. I guess she did not get the response she wanted. So here it is. Yeah, go ahead, tell the manager, or whatever title your boss that she has thwarted your career ambitions and if you stay you will never get your dream job and it is all her fault, and move on. if this is the way you really fee, OP, time to go because things will only get worse and you obviously don't feel you can grow in this position and it is beneath you. So keep on climbing. I believe that is the response OP wants.
It just reads as an attack more or less. I haven't gotten that vibe from any other posters in this thread.
But thanks for your time.
I didn't take the time to think about your situation and what might be influencing it and then type out a reply in my limited time and using my limited bandwidth because I don't like you. You've said some ignorant things in the past, but you've been working as a nurse now, and I suspect that some of those attitudes have changed. I am simply pointing out that others at your workplace may have noticed those attitudes in the past and see you negatively because of that. I took the time and energy to try to help.
As we grow and change, we see some things differently -- but sometimes we change more quickly than people at work observe and take note of.
ThePrincessBride, MSN, RN, NP
1 Article; 2,594 Posts
I am just so frustrated that I think I could cry.