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.
I took ACLS to put it on my resume, but frankly, only one employer even mentioned it during an interview. Usually best to just wait until an employer wants it and pays for it after hire, unless you go into an area of nursing where it is expected.
caliotter3
38,333 Posts
I took ACLS to put it on my resume, but frankly, only one employer even mentioned it during an interview. Usually best to just wait until an employer wants it and pays for it after hire, unless you go into an area of nursing where it is expected.