Stay on tele or go back to neuro/trauma?

[diastaticxy]

Hi Everybody,

Just over 2 years ago, with great reluctance, I moved from the Bay Area back to my hometown in SoCal because I was accepted into a Versant residency. I was trained on a Neuro/Trauma/Med/Surg/Ortho floor where I worked for just over 2 years. With a year left on my contract and plans to move back to the Bay afterward, I decided that Telemetry experience would be valuable, so I transferred to a tele floor. The neuro floor was incredibly heavy, but all the people I worked with were fantastic and offset the difficulties of the pt load and acuity. The tele floor is so much easier physically and emotionally with regards to pts, but unbearable with regards to supportive staff and management. I will spare you the diatribe, but basically the charge nurses are completely fine with one of the monitor techs watching his iphone all night, several of the CNAs literally doing nothing all night, and everybody taking their lunches at the same time (!). The majority of the nurses stay in the nurse's station all night, so every pump that beeps, bed alarm, every shout for help from pts who don't know how to operate a call button requires me to either turn off the part of my brain that cares, or to perform other nurse's jobs. There is also a lot of cliquiness on the floor, so my efforts are purposely exploited, i.e. the CNA goes on lunch and then the monitor tech immediately calls me to address pt care issues that have been bubbling for awhile. Most of the nurses are actually nice to me, but their care and mine are so far apart from each other, and their lack of compassion really is dragging me down. I am also being disciplined on a regular basis by the abrasive daytime clinical manager. I do my job as best I possibly can, but there will always be slight oversights or gray situations that are difficult to resolve. My pts love me and I know I am competent and doing a great job considering the constraints I face from both my for-profit-shareholder-driven hospital's policies and the lack of support and other issues on my floor. I feel I am not going to get challenging tele pts during my tenure on the floor, and that when I leave I cannot imagine my perpetually-dissatisfied manager giving me a glowing reference (unlike the Neuro floor, which absolutely will).

Question:

I have to put in 6 months on the tele floor before I can transfer within the hospital again. I know that my old manager will take me back to neuro/trauma in a blink. I feel like 1 year of experience of tele will mean a lot more to a future employer than 6 months, but I need to be happy (or at least not unhappy) at work, especially in our difficult profession. Will 1 year of tele really matter that much when looking for a job in one of the most difficult markets (Bay Area)? If I've got ACLS, TNCC, basic EKG certification, med/surg/neuro/trauma/ortho experience and 3 years total as a nurse...

I am goal driven and have buckled down with my finances since moving away from the Bay. When I leave SoCal, I will have enough money saved to live in San Francisco for an entire year, in my own apartment, with a very healthy monthly budget that I know will be much greater than I will actually need. So, I'll have at least an entire year to find a job after moving. Everybody has their dreams/goals, and living and working in SF is mine. I want to make sure I don't throw away an experience that will serve me well in reaching my goal, but I also don't want to be so unhappy at my work (which is spilling over into my away-from-work time).

Thoughts?

Thanks so much for reading this loooooong post. I appreciate your input.

[Bec7074]

I personally choose happiness. Do what you love. It sounds like you have learned plenty on the tele floor (like how cruel and lazy ppl can be). Are the pt's that sick anyway? It doesn't sound like it if everyone has time to sit around. What are your long term goals?? I would talk to the manager of your old job, however before doing anything. Make sure you 100% would have a spot, shift you want, etc.