Too many jobs in a short period?

caliotter3 · Oct 17, 2008

You are moving around too much only if you exhaust all possible employment in the area where you live. Even if you leave on good terms, there are some employers who will hesitate to hire you back if you reapply. One time I was asked during an interview if I was a job hopper. I replied honestly that the frequency of low end jobs were because I was in nursing school at the time. If I were you, I would try to stay at the second hospital for a minimum of one year while doing home health on the side. You might not like home health and might encounter difficulties getting another job when they see that you never lasted long in hospital jobs. Two short stays is the beginning of a pattern in some employer's eyes.

AmandaCRN · Oct 17, 2008

Thanks for your advice caliotter3. I was thinking about requesting PRN status at the hospital. Maybe work some weekend days here and there. Do you that think that would help with the job hopper reputation? :specs:

caliotter3 · Oct 18, 2008

I think PRN status is a lot better than resigning outright before you have completed one year of employment. A very good way to keep your foot in the door and yourself in good standing, as well as staying in the loop communication-wise. I saw early in my career that many nurses do this when they change jobs and it is not frowned upon.

Wishinonastar, BSN · Oct 21, 2008

The average employee has about 9 and 1/2 jobs before they are 35. Job hopping is typical in nursing unfortunately. Personally I worked at two hospitals before I went into home health. The first one I stayed one grueling year to get a year's experience, then the second one I could not bear for a whole year- I made it about 8 months. I figured I would give the second one a chance before I made any assumptions. I had worked 6 years before that in one hospital job as an aide though.

I got into home health and I stayed. I loved it! Sometimes you realize that something is just not right for you. I loved hospital work, but I hated the hopital environment. I always felt like I could not do the job I was trained to do because we were so short staffed all the time. The problem is that you really need a good clinical base for home health. Are you ready for it? I worked orthopedics and telemetry in the hospital and I was clinically very strong when I went to home health. I had great IV experience and a lot of being in charge so I was ready to be independent. A lot depends on how prepared you feel for the independence of home health. If you feel ready you will probably be ok, but a year in one place is pretty much the minimum that employers look for. If you can bear to work casually in the hospital too I would recommend that you do for at least a year. Keeping your foot in the door is always a good idea because you never know if you will like the new job enough to stay there either.