hi, i've been a nurse for almost two years now, mostly in the ed. i really started to dislike my job when the 'ptb' gave me a hard time about time off to spend with my newly adopted twin daughters from poland.
adopting from poland is very difficult. they are now part of the eu and beginning to experience many of the same problems with fertility that the us has had for the last 15 years or so. i have two wonderful adopted daughters, 15 months old, but my experience with the so-called catholic hospital where i worked has made me question my catholic upbringing, if i want to raise my children as catholic, and if i even want to stay in nursing. i know i don't want to stay in bedside nursing.
my husband and i had to make three trips to poland (to krakow, a very long flight). for this the hr director said that i was 'coming and going as i pleased'. this occurred around the holidays. apparently, the 'ptb' were concerned that 'others' would be asking for non-fmla leaves around the holidays also. we were adopt abroad so we had to go when we had to go. (as anyone who has adopted internationally will tell you, it's not the easiest or most predicatable of processes).
then i got the hr meeting, then they dragged out the adoption assistance (2500.00 per child, or 5000.00 altogether) and refused to pay it out according to their own policy. they violated the policy they wrote, and apparently, this is perfectly ok.
when they were supposed to pay the assistance money, i got into an argument with the snake of an hr director. basically, she said/i said another. she then suspended me 'pending investigation' because she thinks i told her that i tape recorded the hr meeting. what i said was "this isn't in my recording of the meeting". i told her that i knew she didn't want to pay this money or she wouldn't keep changing the goal line. she also asked me to transfer to a lesser-known, older, outdated hospital that has real problems with retention (because it is lesser-know, old, and outdated!)
i don't want to stay in bedside nursing. i'm sick of the politics and the egos and the absurd workloads. the stress of working in hospitals has really affected me, and my marriage, and my enjoyment of my children. it's making me depressed, to say the least, and taking its toll on what i thought i was good at.
my husband is 100% supportive of whatever i want to do, work agency for a while, or go per diem someplace, or go back to school in a few months once our girls are settled.
has anyone else had similar experiences out there about hospitals being butt-heads about these kinds of things? i feel that i was lured there under the pretext of getting adoption assistance (some companies in this area pay up to 10k for each child adopted, that's amazing).
anyone have any ideas where i can work in normal clothes, with my adn degree (almost done with my bsn). i'm not particularly interested in being a management stooge, as the two unit managers i've had were astonishing in their ignorance.
