Working non nursing jobs while in contract

Nurses Recovery

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For those of us who are or were in non nursing jobs while under contract either by force or by choice, I am curious about how you handled it.

I am currently in a retail job, partly for both reasons. I am choosing to do so because I am tired of the contract/ program twits being the third wheel in an interview and, I feel preventing me from showing what an asset I can be to the facility. I feel like I am begging for a job. Additionally I have had issues with the program destroying great job offers I've had. (Not going in to that one) So I guess I am choosing but yet I also feel like my hand is being forced.

My thing is I am fixing to go to my retail job for a delightful (insert sarcasm) 9 hour shift. I find the idea of putting on a fake smile and acting like I give a **** for that long just nauseating. I know it's honest work and all, but I am not a good actor, never have been. I don't know if it's the low pay and the idea of my nursing degree gathering dust or the constant reminder of the godforsaken program that I don't belong in.

and if one more person tells me it's tempoary, I swear I'm a gonna cut someone (not really, but you know.....)

:arghh:

That's my biggest fear, somebody I know seeing me serve food to people. I don't know how much more fear and humiliation I can take!

This reminds me of the look on the face of my husband's former battalion sergeant major when we saw him working at the information counter at the local Home Depot after he retired. No shame in what he was doing, lots of people continue part time work after retiring from their regular jobs, but his face turned red nevertheless.

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Specializes in OR.

I would be thrilled to work at the LPN rate. I have minimal recent med/surg experience and no homecare experience. Downside of OR is that you pigeonhole yourself into a very specialized area. That in addition to trying to explain the contract nonsense to a homecare agency? I don't even know where to start without disclosing entirely too much private health info that is nobodies business, especially not an employer's. And if that's not enough, my garbage is public discipline, so I get to explain that too. With all of that, it's a whole lot less demoralizing to stick to facilities. Facilities, however seem to have to pay you at the amount commiserate with your license (RN at RN, etc.) and are highly unlikely to let me work the one day a week that I have to limit myself to for my income restrictions that I am currently on.

For all of these reasons, I kind of have to be patient, but that has never been one of my virtues. Sigh.

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Cats, I don't understand the whole income restricted thing. The best job I've seen for most of my colleagues in the support group is dialysis. They seem to be the happiest. The dialysis centers seem to have quite a few monitored nurses working for them with some pretty crazy stories that make yours look pale in comparison I believe. I mean you weren't robbing the omnicell for all the fun stuff en masse and selling it so you could get heroin cheaper were you or stealing a prescription pad and filling hundreds of fake scripts. They would be lucky to have you Cats. Some of the long term care folks seem to be OK with their jobs but most hate and will move on ASAP when they can. The one nurse I know besides me that has a hospital job got that job through a weekend program and gets assignments that nobody wants while floating around the hospital. She hates it

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Specializes in OR.

The income restriction has nothing to do with the contract. SSDI restricts your income and I will be drawing it for the duration because the existence of the contract is one of the things that exacerbates the symptoms of my illness enough to make it impossible for me to work. Great catch 22, huh. Once the contract is done, SS has a few supportive programs that assist one in getting back to work. I plan on using those. Trying to do that with the program Nazis in the picture...well, that just makes me shudder.....

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I gotcha Good Luck Cats!!!

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In PNAP for a few months now. Just landed a position that I am super excited about. My contract says I may not administer narcotics. Nothing else is stated. Am I allowed to waste though? Some days it will be just me and another nurse so I need to be able to waste. Also does a charge nurse count as a supervisor? I will be working at a small SNF that just has a charge nurse when I am working.

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The charge nurse counts as a supervisor with PNAP. I'm not sure about wasting meds.

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Truthfully, I'd waste the meds as I'd need a job. You don't know and you can always claim (rightfully so) that you didn't think you were doing anything wrong as you didn't handle the meds you just verified the wasting of them with a witness present

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Specializes in OR.

I would not even waste in my opinion. Just from observation over the years I have seen that, in my state anyway, "I didn't know..." doesn't fly, especially if it concerns the same thing that brought you into thier gunsights to start with.

As far as the charge nurse counting as a "supervisor", again, it's wading into the exact definition of supervisor by your program and the specific of your contract. This is all stuff that you probably ought go over your contract and associated materials with a fine tooth comb. If in doubt, have a discussion with you case manager. That is what they get paid for.

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My case manager allowed the doctors to be considered "supervisor" for me, since I work night shift and am the only nurse there. My manager strictly works daytime hours. I was not allowed even to witness waste of narcotics, though, when I was still under my narc restriction, but that was written out specifically in my contract. I couldn't have done my current job while I was still under narc restriction.

I don't know how open to discussion your case manager is, but maybe you could mention things like cameras in the med rooms and pharmacy audits too. At my free standing ER, our techs are allowed to witness narcotic wastes. Even our radiology techs can witness. Maybe that's an option?

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I just posted about this! My post is a few down where I was asking about wasting. My contract doesn't say anything regarding wasting of medications. I have asked my monitoring agent, who doesnt seem to ever actually read my emails without saying NO.

:( I have little hope.

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