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.
Nutella I agree with your statement about generational differences in values. However, these differences can be viewed as both a blessing and a curse.
Many younger people (yes I am going to make a generalization, NOT true of everyone, before I get flamed!) do not want to wait for anything. They want everything NOW.
Well sorry to be a downer, but life often doesn't work this way, regardless of your generation. Sometimes patience and planning is the key.
Nutella I agree with your statement about generational differences in values. However, these differences can be viewed as both a blessing and a curse.
Many younger people (yes I am going to make a generalization, NOT true of everyone, before I get flamed!) do not want to wait for anything. They want everything NOW.
Well sorry to be a downer, but life often doesn't work this way, regardless of your generation. Sometimes patience and planning is the key.
Yes, they want it NOW because they grew up in a different way. Instant gratification and constant feedback as well as the easier access make a difference in terms of expectation. Of course that is not how life always work. But it is a reflection of a shift in values and I feel it is important to understand the different generational needs. I work at a place that employs all generations from baby boomers to the ones that are in their early 20s. It is good to have an understanding of the different ideas, expectations, and needs. While the baby boomers in my work place are dedicated and loyal, will work overtime and complain that they do not see their friends and families (and regard that as a necessary evil, the way things "are"), the younger generation values a balance between work life and private life, they want satisfaction and they do not want to "waste" time. They also leave more easily and go somewhere else if that place helps them in reaching a better life-work balance.
The world is ever changing...I strongly believe that we need to make an effort to understand the different generations.
I did not say, or imply that I don't understand the differences. Probably many of the posters here do understand these differences. However, this still doesn't change the reality that we cannot always have what we want, when we want it.
Agreed, the world has changed. Some things have not.
BTW: I think generational differences are unique, and that's what makes life interesting. As Ruby says, it DOES go both ways. I'm the generation born after the baby boomer. We didn't have all the gadgets, 180 tv channels, cell phones, or the mentality that prevails, "I need it now!" Quite possibly, my life is much simpler growing up when I did.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
The world is ever changing...I strongly believe that we need to make an effort to understand the different generations.
Baby Boomer here. I, too believe that we need to make an effort to understand the different generations. I also believe that the effort needs to work both ways. Maybe I'm old and cranky, but it gets old seeing the younger generations virtually stamp their feet and declare "That isn't fair!" and expect to have things change to suit them.
Baby Boomer here. I, too believe that we need to make an effort to understand the different generations. I also believe that the effort needs to work both ways. Maybe I'm old and cranky, but it gets old seeing the younger generations virtually stamp their feet and declare "That isn't fair!" and expect to have things change to suit them.
I think we all have gone through that phase as well but perhaps not as outspoken as the younger generations. When I started out of nursing school it was very strict and the hierarchy clear - I even assembled food trays and cut fruits back in the days when we did not have the meal tray system...
Of course back then I was critical of how things were done but it was not the norm to speak up. The expectation was to follow and "suck it up". Younger people are encouraged to speak up nowadays - perhaps that is now always what we want to hear...
Anyhow, some things have changed in recent years and that is also based on young people speaking up. Sometimes annoying? Absolutely yes. But also absolutely necessary and needs to be tolerated as long as it is constructive. Sometimes things are not fair and we can not change it - but in that case we can emphasize and support our fellow nurse emotionally. At times all people want is being heard.
You read that wrong. I didn't want to go to med/surg in nursing school. Once I was there I never wanted to leave. I did eventually d/t back problems. I miss it. The challenge, never bored, the camaraderie was fantastic. The learning invaluable. I encourage any nurse to pursue their dream job. However, I have known a lot of "older" nurses who burned out on that dream job in a specialty but could not get into much of anything else. Oh it happens, I know. As I said, the more you know about one specialty the less you know about the rest. So choose carefully.
I am not in the dark, one of my best friends is a "new" generation nurse who has tried for several years to break into acute care. She would gladly have worked med/surg. Our degree does not entitle us to anything. We still have to work for it, no matter when we are born.
Baby Boomer here. I, too believe that we need to make an effort to understand the different generations. I also believe that the effort needs to work both ways. Maybe I'm old and cranky, but it gets old seeing the younger generations virtually stamp their feet and declare "That isn't fair!" and expect to have things change to suit them.
Baby Boomer here, too. Some of the attitude of the Millenial generation is admirable.
I, for one, am glad that after many many years, I no longer feel guilty at setting limits and boundaries. I missed too damn many important events when my family was young, and I feel no particular desire to volunteer to pick up that extra on call shift, or rearrange my schedule so a Millenial can have time off at the last minute because obviously I'm old and have no life like they do, or call the office to see if there is something I can do for them if I'm done early (they have my schedule, they can ask me).
However, I do shake my head at the whole instant gratification thing. And expecting to get the same considerations as a new grad that most of us had to work long and hard for. Seriously?? No, I am NOT going to retire or die just so you can move up a rung on the seniority ladder. Wait your turn.
That's the consequence of raising generation to think that they poop rainbows and that they deserve something just because it's what they want NOW.
The younger generations have a lot going for them. They're also sometimes incredibly annoying (as my parents' and grandparents' generations undoubtedly said about us Boomers).
I too think what irks me most is that WE (the older generation) are supposed to understand and accept the younger ones, but no one feels a need to understand or accept where WE come from.
Boomers work hard, frequently at the expense of our private lives. We embrace the concept of a work ethic (meaning you come to work when you're scheduled and you come prepared to work) and understand delayed gratification, even if we don't like it.
The youngsters are seeing us at the downside of our careers. Most of us have forgotten more nursing knowledge than you have absorbed at this point. We may not be as cute, we probably don't care if our scrubs, shoes and stethoscopes match, many of us who have stayed at the bedside have done so because we are good at it, not because we had "no ambition" and touching sick people doesn't make us go "Eewww."
I have been a nurse over 20 years. 9.5 on med/surg. I learned more there than anywhere else. I never wanted to work there initially, but once I got over my fear I realized that I was always learning new things. The more you specialize the less you know. You narrow your future choices. Just sayin'!
Really? I beg to differ. I went directly into the OR after I completed my ADN program and passed boards. I've spent nearly 20 years there-I've never worked a day on my license that wasn't in the OR-and I've never felt I knew less than another RN or that I'd somehow narrowed my professional horizons. I was just accepted to a very prestigious and high-ranking FNP program, they certainly don't seem to feel that my decision to specialize makes me "know less" as you put it nor has it narrowed my future choices in any way whatsoever. I applaud you decision to work med/surg, I just get weary of RN's thinking it's the absolute end-all, be-all to a bright nursing future.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Really? I beg to differ. I went directly into the OR after I completed my ADN program and passed boards. I've spent nearly 20 years there-I've never worked a day on my license that wasn't in the OR-and I've never felt I knew less than another RN or that I'd somehow narrowed my professional horizons. I was just accepted to a very prestigious and high-ranking FNP program, they certainly don't seem to feel that my decision to specialize makes me "know less" as you put it nor has it narrowed my future choices in any way whatsoever. I applaud you decision to work med/surg, I just get weary of RN's thinking it's the absolute end-all, be-all to a bright nursing future.
I'm sure you're an excellent OR nurse and know the minutiae of your job backward and forward. I'm sure the Princess Bride is learning Med/Surg, and I'm equally sure that she, at seven months, knows far more about Med/Surg than you do now or are even aware that there is to know. She probably, based on her experience as a CNA, knows more than you or I do about OB. I've never worked OB and the idea of working OB, NICU, PICU or Peds anything scares the everliving bejesus out of me. I KNOW I don't know enough about those areas to get by. You will learn much in your FNP program, and some of it is going to strike you as "I didn't know THAT! It makes sense, but I never thought of it."
It has not been my personal experience that working in one specialty limits your ability to land a job in a different specialty, but I understand what the previous poster was getting at. When you work your entire career in one specialty, you just don't know as much about the other specialties. In fact, you often don't know what you don't know, and I will freely admit that I don't know about OR nursing. All I know about OR nursing is that when I come to the OR to do dialysis on a patient, I don't even know what to touch or where to stand. I'm sure if you came to my ICU to work, you'd have similar difficulties knowing how to time a balloon pump or what sodium modeling means.
Generational wars are nothing new. What Boomers are saying about my generation is what the Silver Birds said about the Baby boomers and Gen X.
I wouldn't feel so rushed about getting into NICU if I didn't have time sensitive goals such as grad school before motherhood. My goal requires two years of nicu experience. Add that on top of all the time I am spending in med-surg and the time it takes to finish school, I will be well into my thirties before having babies.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
It's very good to have goals. But allow for life to happen. You will really learn when you have kids, that the best laid plans will go awry very quickly and the sooner you can recover and adapt the better. So you have not gotten your way so far. You are new in your career. Are you even married/involved with the person with whom you want kids? I mean, go ahead and work on the career; the whole marriage and family thing will happen and may well fit in or derail your plans anyhow.
IF I were you, I would move ahead on the educational front while working on getting that "dream job". In any case, you need more patience than you seem to have. Life is not going to always go the way you want it to go.
joanna73, BSN, RN
4,767 Posts
Nutella I agree with your statement about generational differences in values. However, these differences can be viewed as both a blessing and a curse.
Many younger people (yes I am going to make a generalization, NOT true of everyone, before I get flamed!) do not want to wait for anything. They want everything NOW.
Well sorry to be a downer, but life often doesn't work this way, regardless of your generation. Sometimes patience and planning is the key.