Switching from chronic dialysis in S. Korea to ICU in US

[monogatari]

Hi, I am here for a piece of wisdom.

As a matter of fact, I do not live in America but hope to find a job as an RN in the US within 5 years.

Currently I am an RN in S.Korea working at a chronic dialysis center equipped with 25 dialysis machines.

I graduated from college with BSN this february and started out my career in MICU at one of the most famous/greatest hospital in the country in April. They had me start working on my own after only a month of orientation. Upon the completion of the orientation, there was a test regarding what we learned during the orientation and I managed to pass it. Nevertheless, working at MICU as a new grad nurse was never an easy thing; there were still so many things to which I felt new. But the worst of all, bullying and disrespect from senior nurses. They would always yell at me for not being able to work as fast as they do and call me 'stupid'. I still remember the first day I was on my feet. The charge nurse assigned me a cancer patient. At that time I had no idea what their cancer medication protocol was(because no information regarding chemo was given at the orientation). Sadly I clearly remember the senior nurses giggling behind me saying, "I am going to watch her how she administers the chemo medication to the patient. This is going to be so much fun. I am going to stay away from her though because I don't want to get exposed to the harmful chemo medication". Trust me, this is only one of hundreds of humiliating episodes I had at that hospital.

The working shift was awful, too. One day, I worked on night shift and there was a meeting for all new grad nurses next morning. I had to participate in the meeting right after I worked over time and stayed up till 4P.M not getting any sleep. On the contract, I was to work maximun 150hours per month. Yet the reality was quite different; I usually worked 5days a week, minimun 12 to 14 hours each. I did the math and it was about 240hours per month. Did I get paid for over time? NEVER. This is how much I got paid while working there for 3 months: 1st month - none / 2nd month - $1800 / 3rd month - $2200

My duty at MICU was tolerable but what bothered me a lot was the crazy working hours without proper reward as well as disrespect and bullying from senior nurses. By the end of the 3rd month I worked there, I felt I was breaking down losing myself. The stresses from senior nurses were tearing me apart. Do you want to know what happens if you hear something like 'you suck, nurses like you kill patients, you dumb***' every time at work 12 hours a day? You reach the point where you consider yourself the worst, a useless piece of trash in the world. So I decided to quit both for my physical and mental health. That's how my July ended.

The next job I found was a chronic dialysis nurse position at a tiny local dialysis clinic. I took the position because I heard that it is better to have some experience in specialty if I consider moving to US. I started working here since September so it has been a bit more than 3months. The nurses are much nicer compared to whom I was with back at MICU. But the problem is, now I see I feel like I am falling behind since the work is repetition. I do realize that dialysis need a lot of experience(especially for cannulation) and knowledge since there are lots of complications which come with chronic kidney failure. However, I am afraid I am not moving forward at all but wasting my time. Lately I've been told a few times that it has been three months already since I started working there yet I am still not of help to other nurses while working. Such remarks took my confidence far far away.

The good thing is that I don't work over time at all; however, here comes a downside: I only get paid less than $1500/month(I am working full-time). Also, the chronic hemodialysis duty here is quite different from that in the US. We do not have techs. RNs take care of all the RN duty as well as this considered tech's duty in the US.

If you look at this objectively, this hierarchy thing at work is something nobody can help because it is a part of deep-rooted culture of this country. But let me tell you, it was, and still is driving me crazy. So my plan is, pass NCLEX during my first year in this clinic, and then suck it up until I get two years of work experience regarding hemodialysis for chronic dialysis. Then I am thinking switching back to acute setting so that I can have some work experience in the acute setting as well. I am curious though. Is there anybody who has switched from dialysis to ICU? I mean, I have seen the opposite case many times but not this one. It might not be easy to understand my decision, but let me tell you one thing: working over time without additional pay is VIRTUE(going home before your boss goes home is NOT acceptable. This applies to pretty much everywhere here) and something you must do in this country, which I REFUSE to understand. Even though chronic dialysis clinics pay you not much but most of them don't require you to work over time and that is one of the reasons why I chose it. I desperately needed some time to study for NCLEX and English proficiency test.

Also will my chronic dialysis work experience help when I try to find an RN position at a med-surg or ICU in the US in the future?

I would love to hear what you guys think. Any comment would be appreciated. It was a very long and boring one to read all the way down here. Thank you!

[THELIVINGWORST, ASN, RN]

I have no advice for you but I wanted to say your English is AMAZING [emoji16]

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

Hi there - I actually lived in Seoul for two years due to my husband's military assignment so am somewhat familiar with some aspects of South Korea.

Have to agree - your English is fantastic! That is sometimes the big hurdle in moving to the US - passing the English exam.

I changed your title just a little and moved to the Nurse Registration forum because immigration will be the first priority.

Best wishes.

[cracklingkraken, ASN, RN]

I worked in Korea for a short period as well, but not as a nurse since I started nursing school when I came back. The work culture there is very different from the US, and I think that if you do eventually end up in the States, you will enjoy it more than Korea. The pay is better here, too. And you typically get paid for the hours you work.

I don't know anything about work visas or immigration, but I wanted to wish you the best of luck!

[monogatari]

Slinky head RN - Hi, what a nice comment to start off! I spent about 2 1/2years in the US during high school and college. I guess that helps. It's been longer than 6years since I came back to S.Korea, though. I haven't had many chances to speak English ever since so I don't speak as fluently as I write(I think). But thanks.

traumaRUs - Thanks a lot for what you did with my posting. I recently found out this all nurses website so I don't know much about it. I guess it fits better in the nursing forum board.

Speaking of immigration, I have been spending many hours researching on that. Then it turned out it is more likely that I would have to go through a staffing agency because nowadays hospitals are very reluctant to help me with the visa status. (Of course I don't want to be an ilegal alien!)

So it'd be like [Pass NCLEX-RN]-[Contact a staffing agency]-[Get the greencard visa(which usually takes longer than 1year]-[Go to the US]-[Have a job interview for positions the agency offers]. I am thinking this whole process would take roughly minimum 3years and I'd like to gain work experience which would make me a competitive candidate for ICU positions in the mean time. My point was although I ended up taking a dialysis nurse position here, I'd like to give a shot at an ICU nurse position in the US and I wasn't sure if my work experience at a hemodialysis clinic for patients with chronic kidney disease would be of service at all.

cracklingkraken - I appreciate your wishes! It seems like I have a long way to go but hope I make it all the way through. Well, even though you were here only for a short period of time, hope you had a good time(and that was probably enough Korean experience for you... just kidding! ).

[middleagednurse]

In the US you must earn overtime if you work more than 40 hours a week.

[cracklingkraken, ASN, RN]

cracklingkraken - I appreciate your wishes! It seems like I have a long way to go but hope I make it all the way through. Well, even though you were here only for a short period of time, hope you had a good time(and that was probably enough Korean experience for you... just kidding! ).

Please let us know how it goes!

Actually, I am half Korean, so I visit my family over there every now and then. The culture is very different, but I had a great time.

[Gisellee]

Sorry for your experience, and I know how the culture is in Korea. It is one of the main reason why I do not work in Korea as a RN. I am a Korean-American who was born and raised in Korea. I moved into the U.S years ago, graduated the nursing school here, started to work as a RN. What I can tell you is there are many Korean nurses who got the visa to work in the US especially in the area where many Korean populations are in. It is not easy to get the visa, because the hospitals have to pay extra to hire you. Though, KEEP TRYING. There are agencies looking for EXPERIENCED nurses(not new grad). I still learn English Everyday since my mother tongue is Korean. I had to concentrate every moments in clinicals in hospitals and classes. I graduated with decent GPAs, got my license and had no problem communicating w/ my peers, docs, and patients. Keep trying girl. You speak good English :)