transferring to another unit, how easy is it?

Tweety, BSN, RN · Aug 5, 2003

It's very easy to transfer at the hospital I work at. Basically if you are in good standing on your old unit (not write ups, good attendance, etc.) and the manager on your new unit accepts you into a position, the old unit can not hold you. The old manager may keep you a max of 30 days before she/he is required to let you go.

Most hospitals would rather keep a good nurse within their institution rather than force an unhappy person to stay on one unit.

Of course you can do as I did. I said "I transfer or I quit". The VP called me to say I could transfer anywhere I wanted to.

Good luck.

HARN · Aug 5, 2003

I have not transferred units before but am thinking of this in the near future. In the hospital I work you can simply bid on another job in any unit that has a posting. Then the person with the most senority gets the position. The actual tranfer happens when your unit is able to let you go. That can take as long as it takes...that;s the bad part waiting to leave can be a long wait.

Good luck

NICU_Nurse, BSN, RN · Aug 5, 2003

I have no first-person experience with this thread, but a co-worker of mine is doing this right now. We work on an NICU, and we had, to put it bluntly, a terrifically sucky manager who was way too busy to take any time for us. Well, my co-worker decided she was goign to switch to days and move to one of the other units within the hospital who'd listed a job opening on the job board. She went down there, interviewed, hit it off with the other unit manager, and they offered her the job on the spot. So, she goes to put in her resignation notice and filled out the formal transfer application to move to the other unit.

Now, before I go on, let me say this. This nurse is EXCELLENT. She's conscientious and compassionate and extremely bright. She's been a passionate advocate for a number of relevant issues on our unit, and has been generally a huge asset to the team. In the last six months, her three children all came down with the chickenpox, and she'd missed some work because of it, but had done it within the rules of our facility and had provided documentation, etc. Otherwise, she's never missed a day of work.

So, the new manager contacted our old manager to verify employment and apparantly asked something along the lines of "What is your opinion of this employee?". Our manager said, knowing all of these things about this nurse, "Well...I...I don't know her that well, really, so I couldn't say. You're welcome to come up here and look at her record, but I can tell you that she's missed quite a bit of work recently."

So, the new manager called her in and said, Well, your boss didn't really seem to speak very favorably of you. Is ther anything you need to tell me about your chronic absenteeism? CHRONIC ABSENTEEISM?? Come ON.

Furthermore, in our facility (I just left there, actually), your current manager can hold you for NINETY days, not thirty. So she decided to hold her for ninety days, the other job was filled by someone who could start sooner, and now she's stuck here unless she either quits or tries again with a new opening on a totally different unit.

So, IMO, that's your worst-case scenario.

I freely admit that my old facility is terrible, so I wish you the best of luck!

ainz · Aug 6, 2003

If you start new at a hospital, many have a policy that you cannot change positions for 6 months, some 9 months, some 1 year. I would verify this.

If you are doing a good job and your old manager likes you, they will not let you go willingly. It is true about the managers of your old unit and the new unit you want to go to. If you are a good nurse and the old manager likes you, they can do things to slow the process as described above and potentially you can lose the new slot, or they can say something to the new one and both agree to keep you put, or they can move you without any trouble.

I think the comment about saying "transfer me or I quit" is very powerful. It works if you are well thought of by your hospital. If you are not well thought of, a transfer request is a good way to get you out. I would use the transfer or quit as a last resort, but it is very effective.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Aug 6, 2003

Actually a good manager who likes you won't hold you back. I've moved twice within the same hospital the last 10 years. I've had a good relationship with both of them and the loathed to see me go, but were kind enough to allow me to move one.

The last unit I wanted off so bad I was willing to quit. I expressed like, "if there isn't a position on A4 (the name of the unit I wanted one), please consider this my two weeks notice". I also said it wasn't a threat, but an expression how much I needed to leave that unit. So it wasn't like I sounded.

Originally posted by ainz
If you start new at a hospital, many have a policy that you cannot change positions for 6 months, some 9 months, some 1 year. I would verify this.

If you are doing a good job and your old manager likes you, they will not let you go willingly. It is true about the managers of your old unit and the new unit you want to go to. If you are a good nurse and the old manager likes you, they can do things to slow the process as described above and potentially you can lose the new slot, or they can say something to the new one and both agree to keep you put, or they can move you without any trouble.

I think the comment about saying "transfer me or I quit" is very powerful. It works if you are well thought of by your hospital. If you are not well thought of, a transfer request is a good way to get you out. I would use the transfer or quit as a last resort, but it is very effective.