VENT!!

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I'm 10 months into my first nursing job (subacute rehab in a nursing home) and am nearing my limit of patience!! I've been aggressively applying starting at 6 months, but with no luck so far other than a couple of failed interviews.

What makes things worse is the work environment is just becoming more and more intolerable. callouts almost every day, running short both nurses and CNAs on the same night, being floated to a LTC unit with 50+ patients for one nurse (that all the night nurses are furious about), power tripping supervisor, an administration that doesn't care and just dumps more onto the staff without caring abut staff input, and the lack of protocol and professionalism. The list just goes on and on...I'm getting really tired of it. And I'm getting sick of working night shift 5 days a week, physically and mentally speaking, and with the increasing amount of paperwork, all the finger pointing and throwing under the bus. I requested to switch to evenings twice so I could at least learn more hands on nursing, time management, communication with families....no luck with that either.

I'm trying to stay as positive as I can, trying to put a smile to my face and be as helpful as I can to the residents I'm assigned to, and then I get notified that a patient complained b/c "nurse was impatient with me" (note: running short staffed that night, don't recall anything specific. just running around, and back pain.) And that's the thing, I've been known to keep my cool, but my frustrations are getting harder to deal with.

I just really want to get out, but I feel stuck. I know the grass is not always greener, but there's gotta be something better than this. I really want to work in acute care, but even if I get into a different nursing home that's day shift I feel that would be better, but geographically I'm stuck and have limited options at the moment...My husband has an internship so I can't afford to not have a job, but many nights I day dream of putting in my 2 weeks...

Sorry for the long rant...anyone have any advice? any idea how to make myself more marketable? the first interview I felt like I was looked down on by the interviewer because I work in a nursing home.

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Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.

Turn your LTC experience into a plus- people who look down on that have no idea what the job entails.It is every bit as demanding as any med-surgery assignment.And work on your poker face and body language-it can take years of practice.

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Specializes in MICU, SICU, CICU.

50 patients in subacute rehab? How is that even legal? It is time to part ways with this facility. Find another job waiting tables, delivering pizza or working a cash register, then change your status to perdiem. Work the bare minimum at this facility. Do this as a bridge to a better position and do extend your job search to HH, hospice, assisted living homes, medical daycare faciities, the health dept, jails, school nursing, and insurance companies. All of these jobs are better than where you are right now. Good luck.

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Specializes in Emergency/ICU.

I used to be a business HR manager. My advice: If you can hold out 2 more months (maybe as per diem?) it will look so much better on your resume. If after 6-10 months you are communicating to potential employers how difficult this job is, they may think you quit when times get tough instead of hanging in there and working things out.

That being said, the place where you work sounds horrendous and I'm impressed you stuck it out as long as you did, you are almost at a year. Turn the challenges of this job into positives about you during your interviews. Let the interviewer know that you are a survivor and describe some creative ways you turned a very challenging patient load into a workable situation (it's all about marketing).

Only towards the end (after you have impressed them) do you gracefully say that you would prefer to work at a facility with more reasonable ratios. Do not "dis" your current employer during the interview ever. If they ask if you have had any complaints against you, again, turn this into a positive, "Yes but I learned a great deal that particularly bad night, and I changed my practice by doing A, B, and C when times get tight at work now." All this shows you are a problem solver and not a complainer.

Keep on smiling and trying to keep a good attitude, knowing you will soon be gone! Best wishes to you.

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Specializes in Psychiatric Nursing.

As ktw stated, use your LTC experience as a plus when interviewing. I found that I learned a great deal about CHF, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease while working in LTC, and that knowledge is invaluable now that I am working in psych. Continue to look for other employment opportunities, and in the meantime, use your days off to pamper yourself and relax. You must take care of yourself to keep up with the demands of your current job. Treat yourself to a massage, take a long nap, wander around the mall, whatever you find refreshing or relaxing. LTC is rough, but you can use it to your advantage when job hunting. Good luck!

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One time when I was in an impossible situation, I started taking two or three days off in a row from my "time off" pool and found that with these preprogrammed days off, I was better able to tolerate the situation until I was able to leave altogether. This type of time off is typically called a "mental health" day. If you have accrued PTO, you might consider it.

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wow, thanks for your input! I wasn't quite sure how to market myself and the examples you gave are really helpful.

I didn't think that employers would perceive that I'm a quitter--that's an interesting point. I didn't think about that and personally I don't want to be a quitter when things get tough kind of person either. I'm going to try my best to stick it out for another two months. I've been trying to focus on the things I accomplish and do well and what I can do better/learn. Practicing not dwelling on the negative things too much. Hopefully this will be enough to endure all the headaches!!

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One time when I was in an impossible situation, I started taking two or three days off in a row from my "time off" pool and found that with these preprogrammed days off, I was better able to tolerate the situation until I was able to leave altogether. This type of time off is typically called a "mental health" day. If you have accrued PTO, you might consider it.

thanks for the suggestion.I'm going to try to do that. Our scheduling coordinator is infamous not approving time off requests which contributes to the call outs, but it's worth a try.

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50 patients in subacute rehab? How is that even legal? It is time to part ways with this facility. Find another job waiting tables, delivering pizza or working a cash register, then change your status to perdiem. Work the bare minimum at this facility. Do this as a bridge to a better position and do extend your job search to HH, hospice, assisted living homes, medical daycare faciities, the health dept, jails, school nursing, and insurance companies. All of these jobs are better than where you are right now. Good luck.

sorry for the misunderstanding. I mainly work the subacute rehab floor (17 patients) but bc there isn't enough permanent people for the ltc floor, we've been forced to rotate floating there (50+). It's just way too much to do there for one person in 8 hours. Minor things can feel like emergencies because you stress about time and safety. It makes me feel bad for the residents that this is the kind of care they're getting. That floor also can border on subacute sometimes.

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Not really on topic but why would anyone sign up to pass meds to 50 patients? Why do you even have to be a licensed nurse for such task work. IMO it would be better and safer to employ several MA types with a lower patient load to pass pills than one licensed nurse.

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Not really on topic but why would anyone sign up to pass meds to 50 patients? Why do you even have to be a licensed nurse for such task work. IMO it would be better and safer to employ several MA types with a lower patient load to pass pills than one licensed nurse.

if they could hire medication aids to hand out the pills, then that would help a lot. They would still need a nurse on shift to be able to recognize when someone needs to get sent out and take care of any changes in status, the multiple gtubes, ivs and such.

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Does anyone recommend taking ACLS in the meantime? I've been going back and forth trying to decide if it's worth it to spend the money on and sacrifice my sleep for. I would like to learn it regardless I'm just not sure of the timing, as I hear it's only really useful once you start working on the acute floor and can apply it. I'm also not sure if it will really give me a leg up over applicants.

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