Recovering from a broken leg and starting my career

Nurses General Nursing

Published

So to get right into it, I graduated last July, got hit by a truck a few weeks later and spent months focusing on recovery, then had to deal with the state of Illinois dragging their feet before I was able to take the NCLEX in January. Thanks to more foolishness from the state of Illinois, it took four months to get my license.

In that time leading up to getting my license I hadn't done much work aside from updating my resume and looking around for open jobs. Stopped applying for positions until I had my license because I kept getting rejected for not meeting the minimum requirements of licensure [all online applicationes].

I feel miserable about the time all of this took and how little I've done. Should I explain the gap between my graduation and licensure with a quick story about the broken leg and how it helped me to gain wisdom from a patient perspective, or is that just silly pandering? I'm quickly approaching my one year anniversary of graduating and that's when the doors to many residencies and great new-grad programs start to close.

I did start working in an LTC facility a little over a month ago but it's miserable and I'm not sure my knee can hold up to the work. I want to get out of there as soon as possible but am starting to feel like that's impossible.

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Specializes in Surgical, quality,management.

Explain you were in a serious accident. Don't have to talk about the patient experience unless you want to.

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

I think "I got hit by a truck" is explanation enough for the gap!

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I think "I got hit by a truck" is explanation enough for the gap!

Yeah, that would certainly suffice it for me. :wideyed: Wow! Glad you are doing as well as you are!

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Specializes in ICU, LTACH, Internal Medicine.

Please focus on the most important thing for now, which is your recovery. The rest, including your career, will come in its own good time. You can have many jobs; you can only have one body.

Big good luck to you!

P.S. part time is not a career killer.

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A few little precautionary thoughts -

(First - glad you are recovering and that you've found a job!)

This could become a little bit sticky; you'd want to think through the possible consequences of how you choose to talk about it. I guess what I'm thinking is that you don't want employers focused on the fact that you've been dealing with a serious injury...especially if they also get a hint that you're not sure you can continue the physical demands of your current job. So you'll also need to think about how to discuss your reason for leaving LTC at this juncture.

Best of luck with your continued healing and your career aspirations ~

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The leg factor is still up in the air while I try out compression socks, lots of ibuprofen, and other pain management techniques. So 100% honestly, the main reason I want to leave LTC is that I feel it's not for me. This may even warrant its own post.

The patient load is huge to me, 20 patients or more when not on the vent unit, usually 14 when on vent (yes, I've heard other places are worse and that blows my mind). I feel like I'm not learning as much as I'm surviving. Learning a little bit at a time but mostly feeling lost. I'm doing my second supervised shift on the nicer LTC unit with more independent residents Monday, then I'm on my own. I'm already on my own in the vent unit but at least there are other nurses on the floor. The LTC unit is literally me, 1 or 2 CNAs, and 20 residents. I'm terrified.

Maybe I just need to give it more time, maybe I need to study more.

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