What do you think?

[petertheparrot]

When I was in nursing school two years ago I posted on here with a different account and got a few good responses and a few funky ones that made me wonder. I am currently a little confused and worried about my career.

For starters nursing is not my first career. I am in my early 40s. In approximately 2 years I currently on my fifth job. I am also struggling with nurse practitioner school. Also, like some other people I got other things in my personal life outside of work I am struggling to overcome. So it happened like this.

Right out of nursing school I got a job in a small hospital back in my hometown. The hospital didn't have a good reputation at all. I was a new grad working in the ER. It was overwhelming and I felt disrespected by my coworkers, unwelcomed, and that the chain of command was disfunctional. One day at work my preceptor said some really-things to me and I finished the shift never went back. So I worked there approx 2 months.

I then got hired at a large hospital a level 2 trauma hospital as a cardiac telemetry nurse. It was very hectic and face paced. I noticed the CNAs were very manipulative and lazy.I was there for appox 6 months I thought moving to a large booming city would be a good career move and I got into NP school shortly aftermoving to the BIG city.

In the legitimately big city the unit I was on was non tele. The patients primarily needed/ wanted pain and nausea medicine and charting was much more micromanged.Things there didnt go as I had hoped but I stayed employed there for a year. I thought I left on good terms.

I went back to my previous hospital with the lazy CNAS. The unit had changed and I was 6-1 at nights with close to 30 beds and 2 CNAs and codes were a daily thing. I felt bullied and spoke up about it. The behavior didn't change. I was failing one of my classes in NP school and took a leave of absence. My personal life was also suffering and one night when census was low and my preceptor started in on me. I politely said I was going home. I had already texted my manager but got no response one hour previous to experiencing some negative attitude. I clocked out and went home. The wheels of justice turned for a few days. I had interviews at other places lined up and thought the hospital would side with me since lateral violence is a hot topic. NOPE. I was fired.

One week later I am on the pay clock for a home health private duty comapny learning a couple new skill sets and patient age group. The pay is better, but no PTO, and the commute is very long.

NP school cranks back up in Janurary and I got a few questions I would love some feedback from you guys on... MY old manager in the big city wont give me a recomendation I discovered...why I really don't know and my last manager fired me, so how do I go about getting back into hospital work if I wanted too? Home health might be a better fit for me... I don't know.

5 jobs in two year? Does that make me a bad hire? I kinda think yes, but nursing in hospitals is a GRIND.Everyone says be honest about your work HX, but I think it best to not mention anything about the hospital I was fired from. What do you guys think? I hope to hear from some of yall. This is rather troublesome since I have to find clinical placement soon for NP clinicals, and its the holidays.Hope some one can relate and exchange posts with me.

[Been there,done that, ASN, RN]

I feel your pain.. put it in paragraphs dude.

[petertheparrot]

Ok I will edit it.

[petertheparrot]

OK, I put it in paragraphs hope I get some more input than I feel your pain.

[loriangel14, RN]

Why do you mention lateral violence? What violence occurred?

[chare]

OK, I put it in paragraphs hope I get some more input than I feel your pain.

With a space between them, it's still hard to follow.

[NurseCard, ADN]

When you left the hospital that night.. when you "politely told my supervisor that

I was going home?"... did you have a patient load of your own? Did you formally

report them off to another nurse? You didn't specify and I'm curious.

I don't have a lot of advice for you at this time. You are going to NP

school... what is the requirement as far as clinical? I don't understand.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Where do you currently work? If you are presently employed, my advice is to stay put and stick it out at your current workplace for a couple of years, even if it is not the shiny exalted acute care hospital position you desire.

Here is the honest truth...yes, you would be viewed as an enormously risky hire after having burned through five jobs in two years. HR directors and hiring managers can select candidates with more stable employment histories, as well as new grads who have yet to prove themselves.

My manager hired a nurse with a spotty work history a few months ago. Guess what? My manager recently informed this nurse that her services would no longer be needed. This nurse had 10+ years of experience, but her lengthiest amount of time with any single workplace was a whopping 11 months. Red flag...my manager should have known better.

As straightforward as this sounds, an unstable work history is often a warning sign of deeper issues with workplace personality, likeability, attitude, or performance. Keen managers know that old habits die hard, so they avoid taking a chance on the candidate whose employment history has red flags.

Good luck to you!

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

Staff note - edited and spaced.

[TriciaJ, RN]

I don't know where to begin. To start with, nursing requires an extremely high BS tolerance. Yours seems really low. Unfriendly coworkers? Lazy aides? Incompetent managers? Welcome to the club.

"Preceptor started in"? What exactly does that mean? Your preceptor probably believed he/she was giving you appropriate feedback. What was so bad about it that you felt the need to walk out in the middle of a shift? Was there nothing that you could use?

I get that you've had some bad jobs with rough working conditions. As a new grad, it can be really hard to sort out whether the job is that bad or you just haven't hit your nurse stride yet. But as we keep saying here on AN, the common denominator in all this is you.

You might have to do some soul-searching to decide if nursing really is for you. A lot of the crap you described is pretty much what the work entails. I've had some pretty stellar jobs, and some I had to run away from screaming. (But not literally.) But I always gave every job my all; I always sucked up feedback when I was new, and made it my mission to prove myself. I always left every job on good terms: gave and worked my notice (sometimes the longest 2 weeks of my life) and didn't give them attitude on my way out the door (but it was tempting).

I think if I was in your shoes now I would focus on career damage repair, if you even decide nursing is still for you. That means put grad school on hold. Find a job in a crappy place that's desperate for warm bodies. Suck it up with a smile on your face for at least a year. Re-evaluate at that point. Give proper notice before you quit and work it through. Or just decide that life is too short and nursing isn't worth the aggravation. Your call. Good luck.

[caliotter3]

ITA with Tricia. Your tolerance level appears to be very low for nursing in particular, and workplaces in general. You can't just clock out and go home every time someone says something you do not like. Don't know any other way to put it.

[BSN-to-MSN, ADN, BSN, RN]

Yes, risky hire; there are plenty nurses with better track record looking for work out there. One cannot jump jobs like that, and hope something good will come out of it. Stick to the NP school if you have finances. Find some counseling at that school as well. Think BEFORE you do.