I started nursing in a long term care facility and rehabilitation hospital working PRN. And recently went onto a oncology/tele/med surg unit in a local hospital. It is a big learning curve for me because I had no experience with chemo, IV drips, picc, blood transfusions, central lines etc. My LTC facility didn’t accept patients with complex care. And the rehabilitation hospital gave me minimal IV skills. We aren’t allow to access ports or give anything through a central line etc. While I love both of my PRN jobs both facilities have been suffering tremendously with staffing issue. The LTC facility is nice but I have to worry about being mandated to stay at work because we have no nurses. At the rehabilitation hospital I'm averaging about 10-12 patients with lots of heavy lifting.
In Dec I started a local hospital. I thought I like the job until 3 days into my orientation my supervisor told me she didn’t think I was a good fit because I was quiet.
I started on nights and I currently have a hard time sleeping. I don’t get any sleep before a night shift so by the time I work I'm up for 24 hours at a time. And after my shift I get about 4 hours of sleep. The ratio is 1:3 with adequate staffing but because I am the newbie last week I received 6 patients while the other two nurses I worked with had one patient each. We also did not have a tech on that night. My supervisor felt that it would help me think critically by giving me a heavier assignment. She also stated it would prepare me for short staffing.
Since working for the past 3 months I have also received complaints about not answering the call bells fast enough etc. However my supervisor stated I was really good at time management as far as documenting and giving meds on time. She went on to say that the other nursing feel I need a lot of “prompting”. I feel like I am trying my best and work at my own pace. I'm running around all night without eating, drinking or even taking a break. While my co-workers are all lounging behind the desk watching Netflix. I am not one to just give up or jump shift but I don’t know if hospital nursing is for me.
Can anyone share other areas of nursing outside of hospital work? I currently have a BSN.
I also have home health experience but it doesn’t pay well.
Specializes in Mental health, substance abuse, geriatrics, PCU.
That's just a poor method of precepting people. It maybe worth diplomatically explaining to her that you're not finding it helpful to be given such a heavy assignment. If she doesn't relent on this then I would really evaluate whether or not to continue in such an unsupportive environment.
I can't imagine watching netflix while an orientee was drowning, WTH?
Specializes in New Critical care NP, Critical care, Med-surg, LTC.
I think you should find a better place to work as soon as you can. As was already mentioned "it wasn't a good fit" would be perfectly appropriate in any interview to explain why you left the job. Good luck!
@Lovethenurse2b25 I'm curious if you made any decisions regarding this job. As a new grad I've experienced similar feedback on my unit. We usually don't have a tech on nights, and each nurse is suppose to get up to 5 patients. My first night was a birth by fire shift. I was thrown into 5 patients when I barely had 3 during my dayshift orientation. The rest of nurses had similar patient loads, but it felt like I was running around constantly and never truly got to look up my patients. My skills are lacking because my preceptors keep doing all of that while I'm trying to complete assessments/med passes or admit new patients. They don't like seeing items late such as 6 hour EKGs and troponins for chest pain patients.
The word on the street is my managers want to bump us up to 7 patients on nights because other organizations are doing it. ? All of the veteran nurses talk about leaving should that happen because even they struggle with 5.
I feel like leaving, but I'm not even 4 months into my first job. I don't want to be blacklisted by the organization, and if I asked to transfer now they'd send me to a floor with higher patient ratios since all of the med/surg units have them due to chronic short staffing.
@Lovethenurse2b25 I'm curious if you made any decisions regarding this job. As a new grad I've experienced similar feedback on my unit. We usually don't have a tech on nights, and each nurse is suppose to get up to 5 patients. My first night was a birth by fire shift. I was thrown into 5 patients when I barely had 3 during my dayshift orientation. The rest of nurses had similar patient loads, but it felt like I was running around constantly and never truly got to look up my patients. My skills are lacking because my preceptors keep doing all of that while I'm trying to complete assessments/med passes or admit new patients. They don't like seeing items late such as 6 hour EKGs and troponins for chest pain patients.
The word on the street is my managers want to bump us up to 7 patients on nights because other organizations are doing it. ? All of the veteran nurses talk about leaving should that happen because even they struggle with 5.
I feel like leaving, but I'm not even 4 months into my first job. I don't want to be blacklisted by the organization, and if I asked to transfer now they'd send me to a floor with higher patient ratios since all of the med/surg units have them due to chronic short staffing.
At the moment I’m still working at the same organization due to covid. It is hard to find a job that is not temporary. My unit is still the same high patient load and admitting try to keep us full majority of the time. The other night I worked with 6 patients because the nursing office keeps floating our nurses to other floors. Most of our patients are complete care which requires a ton of heavy lifting. We are also short on techs, the techs we do have are all on light duty. Try to stick it out until you find something that you’ll love. My fear is going from job to job.
Investigate taking a temporary job and then file for unemployment. Please investigate this. Currently there are a great many funds for unemployment.....because of Covid. I do not know your state, your position but you may find some respite for yourself and child.
TheMoonisMyLantern, ADN, LPN, RN
923 Posts
That's just a poor method of precepting people. It maybe worth diplomatically explaining to her that you're not finding it helpful to be given such a heavy assignment. If she doesn't relent on this then I would really evaluate whether or not to continue in such an unsupportive environment.
I can't imagine watching netflix while an orientee was drowning, WTH?