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.
Okay, I get feeling disappointed. I understand being frustrated. I even can sympathize with feeling impatient and wanting to move into one's dream specialty.
What I don't get is being "furious." The way the OP related it, she asked for suggestions on how to make herself more competitive. She was given an answer, but not a PROMISE that she would be hired at this time if she did those things. Being FURIOUS suggests just a tad of entitlement to me. That you were wronged, not given something OWED, etc. The OP doesn't really know that she was wrongly denied this job. She doesn't know what the qualifications of the new grads hired were; they may have had great resumes, and some kind of experience that she is not necessarily in the know about. Or she may have done something along the way to give the powers that be cause to hesitate to put her in that unit. Just because she is not aware of any specific problems with her application doesn't mean that there weren't any.
Finally, regardless, there is ALWAYS something to be gained from med surg experience. She is learning something new every day, she is honing her time management skills, she is getting the opportunity to make a good impression on a daily basis.
I hope the OP realizes that not getting one specific job doesn't doom her for eternity.
I am angry at what appears to be double standards in hiring standards. If I was told that everyone is expected to have some experience prior to going into a specialty, I wouldn't feel like management was playing favorites and setting higher expectations for others.
I'm sure you're an excellent OR nurse and know the minutiae of your job backward and forward.
Thanks, I appreciate that. I like to think I am a good OR nurse. Yes, I know more about the OR than you do. That doesn't mean you know less than I do. Conversely you know more about ICU than I do, but that doesn't mean I know less than you do. What it means is that neither of us is conversant or skilled in the other's specialty. However, that doesn't make one of us know less or more than the other. Both of us possess highly technical skills and the great breadth of knowledge that only working in a specialty for many years brings. However, having said that, it doesn't mean one of us knows more than the other, it just means our clinical skills, likes, and propensities vary widely.
What I don't like is, like I said, nurses who make out Med/Surg as the end-all, be-all, necessary first step towards anything else. I'm what's commonly referred to in OR Land as a "Goldstar OR Nurse" meaning I've never done anything else. When I was in my ADN program I got so tired of hearing, "You need AT LEAST 2 years of Med/Surg to do that!" that I swore on stacks of bibles I'd never do it, and I was successful. I was bound and determined to adjust my nursing career to my wants and need, which seems very reasonable, IMO. If you think about it, men do it all the time and they never seem to get caught up in all this catty BS. When men are aggressive in their careers, it's usually seen as a sign of strength. Too often, when women try the same thing, they're labeled as ******* or worse. It's a good thing I don't get hung up on labels-I know who I am. I will adjust my career to suit my wants and needs, not anyone else's. I have the right to be happy, satisfied and fulfilled in my professional life and I'll do what needs to be done to achieve that goal, which by the way, does not include kowtowing to outdated, archaic, sacred cow theories. I don't know everything; there are several staff nurses and nurse managers I look up to as mentors and advisors. When I have a question or an issue I speak with them and ask them for advice but at the end of the day, IT'S MY CALL. I did not become a nurse to bow down to old biddies and do what they think I should do. I don't tolerate that in my personal life nor will I tolerate it in my career. Nor will I apologize for practicing the kind of nursing that appeals to me.
I have nothing against Med/Surg. I think it can be a fine place for a nurse to start. In fact, I think the days of new grads being able to step into the specialty of their choice may well be over and most new grads will have to accept that fact. Just as many hospitals are starting to demand BSN's as the entry to practice, they will also most likely limit specialty training to those nurses who have put their time in the trenches, IMO. And that's a shame. In my previous OR there were a number of us Goldstar OR Nurses and we all did great, just as new grads can also flourish in ICU, NICU, L&D and other specialty units. Med/Surg can be a great thing, I'm just saying it's not the ONLY thing, or the only way to be properly prepared for specialty training.
Thanks for reading. I appreciate your comments and insights.
I am angry at what appears to be double standards in hiring standards. If I was told that everyone is expected to have some experience prior to going into a specialty, I wouldn't feel like management was playing favorites and setting higher expectations for others.
I have to to say this is life, some people get all the breaks and others do not. Why are some people born into wealth and others are born into poverty? No one said life is fair. Wait until you try to get pregnant, some people get pregnant very quickly and others struggle.
I have to to say this is life some people get all the breaks and others do not. Why are some people born into wealth and others are born into poverty? No one said life is fair. Wait until you try to get pregnant, some people get pregnant very quickly and others struggle.[/quote']
That is true. I guess I just feel like my hard work isn't really paying off and I find it so frustrating.
I would like to comment on what you wrote. It seems that you are the baby boomer generation and the OP is from a total different generation. The younger generations have different values and ideas. They do not necessarily want to "stick it out" or "put their time in". They want to be valued for what they offer as opposed to based on (many) years of service. While it is true that there are many nurses who can not find jobs or not what they were looking for, it does not automatically mean that the once who have a job need to be satisfied with their situation.
This is not to criticize you but to point out that the OP is from a different generation, which can lead to a lot of misunderstandings. While you find it positive to stick out in a situation you did not like for 9.5 years for the sake of learning, the younger generations have a different view on how they want their live to be and develop.
This younger generation thinks they are entitled to things-they don't believe they should have to work for what they want. The OP of this thread is a perfect example of what I am talking about. Her threads in the past have been about how she can't find her perfect dream job and how she had to take another position which she obviously has a great disdain for.
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.
Because spending the last several years being a good and loyal employee while going to school and getting good references and spending the last seven months on a notoriously difficult unit= not working for it.
Hmmm....
This younger generation thinks they are entitled to things-they don't believe they should have to work for what they want. The OP of this thread is a perfect example of what I am talking about. Her threads in the past have been about how she can't find her perfect dream job and how she had to take another position which she obviously has a great disdain for.
klone, MSN, RN
14,857 Posts
Ah. The comment "artificial insemination" seemed like a random non sequitur, and I couldn't figure out what it had to do with the rest of her post.