What's considered "Job-Hopping" in nursing?

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.... Would you say that nursing has a highe tolerance for Job-Hopping? Is there a higher acceptance of this when it comes to new grad nurses, as they are 'finding their niche'??

Just wondering, bc I work with a few people who have stuck it out at this (not that great) job for years, while a few others move on and then move on again.

Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
especially since management invests months of training into new hires.

New GRADS, sure. New HIRES (with experience), no. When I've taken new jobs in my specialty area, training lasted a week at most, sometimes only 1 shift, sometimes only a few hours.

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Specializes in CVICU.
If you change jobs every two years it's going to take you a really long time to get that four weeks of vacation! You won't get it until you stop job hopping and stay in one place!

True, but when changing jobs q2 years one should not look to the employer if time off is wanted. You can have time off and enjoy life without paid vacation. It is called planning. When you know you are going to be changing jobs in a couple of years, save your money and then make a plan to have what ever stretch you can afford to take off between jobs. Take the 2 weeks your employer gives and take a couple between jobs and walla you have 4 weeks off.

My first gig as an RN back in the days when MTV still showed music videos was at a NH for $10/hr. It may sound like a pittance today, but I thought I had it made considering I was making less than $5/hr as a CNA. There were no hospital jobs back then in my state. My classmates who were hell bent on working ICU left the state. If I had a do over, I think I would do the same, but be that as it may.

I had a verbal agreement with the NH that I would stay there at least a year. I actually stayed 1.5 years and toward the end really hated it. However I kept those feelings to myself and kept pursuing a hospital job.

I finally landed a hospital gig on a general medical floor working straight nights 1.0 8 hour shifts. I left the NH on a good note, said thank you to the NM for the experience and moved on. I planed my finances so that I could take a few weeks off between jobs. Being unemployed with money and a new job in the bag is simply awesome.

Again I had a verbal agreement with the manager that I would stay in this position for at least a year. This was my foot in the door and I did not plan to stay there more than 365 days. The work was no much different from the NH except that there were no CNA's and the confused old people now had IV's to pull out.

As I neared my tenure with the medical floor was nearing it's end I landed a gig at the same hospital on a cardiac surgery stepdown unit. This gig was straight evenings .8 and was a huge step in the right direction. I was off nights and was going to build upon what I learned on the medical floor. This NM did not pin me down to a time frame. I actually really liked the gig, however my ultimate goal still was to get into an ICU. After a year or so a friend of mine was doing agency nursing and doing quite well. In fact his hourly wage was twice mine and he was working almost full time doing it. He convinced me to give it a try. So for the second year on the tele floor I worked an occasional agency shift. I ended up working fairly regular at one hospital which wasn't so bad. In fact they were even offering OT at agency wages. I wasn't able to do much because I already had a full time gig.

So half way through my second year on the cardiac stepdown I decided that it was silly to work for $13.50/hr when the hospital I was working agency through was paying $22.50. That is a no brainer. So I went per diem with the stepdown unit, and started working agency full time.

Agency full time was going well. It is a great gig if you aren't tied down and can be flexible. Agency work is not dependable, it is feast or famine. However since I didn't have anything holding me down, I feasted when the feasting was good and when there was a famine I took the money I saved from feasting and would simply go on vacation.

After about a year of doing this I hit an extended famine. What to do? I was not going to go backward and go back to the hospital for peanuts again. I ultimately wanted to work in ICU, but now there was a twist. The weather in Minnesota was brutally cold. So I said to myself, If I'm going to take a full time job again, I has to be in ICU and not only that it has to be some place warm.

So I landed a gig in an ICU in San Diego (the story of that is long and worthy of it's own post). I was going to make $15.75/hr. More than I made on the cardiac stepdown, plus I'm getting trained to work CVICU. I had an agreement that I would stay at least 2 years. During my time in San Diego I met quite a few travel nurses. That looked like fun and like something I might want to do.

So after 2 years I started travel nursing. Again I planned my finances and arranged things so that I had a month off between my CVICU gig and my travel assignment.

After doing travel nursing for a year I ended up landing a gig in South Florida in a CVICU for $24/hr. (late 1992 now). As you can see that after 6 years of job hopping at least q2 years, I built up my skills and marketability and increased my wages more than 100% from the first NH gig. I ended up staying on this unit for the next 14 years. My wages kept increasing and when I left I was making $45/hr. (2006).

I have been with my current employer since 2006 and was offered a little more than I made in S. Florida, however I live in a market with a much lower cost of living and much better schools so the net effect on the pocket book was very positive. Plus there is a lot of opportunity for lateral mobility.

To sum up if the reason a nurse job hops is because he/she is unhappy or hard to please then it doesn't look good. Nobody faults a nurse for leaving a position after a reasonable amount of time. I think what matters is the reason for leaving. Most NM's respect leaving a position for personal growth. Every position I've had, I have left on good terms and had been told I could be rehired any time.

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

The biggest complaint I have about working only a few years with an employer before moving on is losing my vesting. I've never worked anywhere long enough to become 100% vested (my longest gig was 4 years, shortest was 16 months).

I'm used to taking vacations unpaid - like the previous poster said, with a little advance planning, it can be done easily. My current job, I took a 2-week overseas trip two months after starting (it was written into my employment agreement - I asked for the time as soon as I was offered the job). I think I had 2 of those days paid.

I'm the type of person that I start to get antsy after 2-3 years, and want to learn something new. I don't consider that 'job hopping' though, and my varied experience in different areas of nursing has only helped my job prospects, never hindered them. I really really like my current employer, though, so I'm hoping that when I do start to get antsy, there will be ample opportunity for advancement within the same organization.

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New GRADS, sure. New HIRES (with experience), no. When I've taken new jobs in my specialty area, training lasted a week at most, sometimes only 1 shift, sometimes only a few hours.

Oh, absolutely. Did the job hoppers cause this or is it the other way around? I was "lucky" to get 3 days orientation, even as a new grad. That type of treatment doesn't inspire much loyalty. I dont get paid well either. Other than that, it seems to be a nice enough work environment ... I like the pts and staff so ill stick around for awhile.

One of my coworkers, a new LPN, is going on her third job in 6 mos. She gives proper notice and doesn't seem too worried

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Specializes in ER.

I've changed jobs before, although I'm not a job hopper. One thing I noticed is that I've taken ME to every job. Some of my dissatisfaction with previous jobs had a lot to do with ME and MY attitudes toward others. MY ego, MY intolerance of others, ME, MYSELF, and I.

Just remember that when thinking of leaving a job. You'll encounter similar problems whenever you go because you take yourself with you.

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Maybe people are just looking for a job that doesn't exist and get disappointed to find the same problems, different location. Maybe the next job will be better.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
I've changed jobs before, although I'm not a job hopper. One thing I noticed is that I've taken ME to every job. Some of my dissatisfaction with previous jobs had a lot to do with ME and MY attitudes toward others. MY ego, MY intolerance of others, ME, MYSELF, and I.

Just remember that when thinking of leaving a job. You'll encounter similar problems whenever you go because you take yourself with you.

:yes:

If more people realized that, the world would be a happier place.... :whistling:

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
Maybe people are just looking for a job that doesn't exist and get disappointed to find the same problems, different location. Maybe the next job will be better.

True, how much longer will one seek and throw in the towel, instead of realizing the limitations and complexities of the human condition???

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I think that nurses tolerate a lot of working conditions that people in other fields would not. My first two positions as a nurse were held for less than a year. My hiring manager (at my current facility where I have been for years now) indicated that she knew what I was coming from and why I was leaving. She also noted she knew I would be grateful for better working conditions at my current facility (she was right).

I am not surprised that some nurses job hop. I am surprised that so many tolerate poor working conditions. I think that folks that have not worked in other (better) industries and/or for better companies may not realize that working conditions can be markedly better. If presented with someone who had been job hopping, I would carefully look at the facilities from whence they came and ask them questions about it. I also might consider that they had initiative and standards. --Both the facilities I left behind (with proper notice) had some unsafe practices.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.

Rules to job-hopping:

1. Never quit a gig before you have a new one lined up.

2. Never leave on terrible terms. Always put in your two-week notice and leave with grace.

3. Try to stick it out for at least year, especially if you are a new grad.

4. Save, save, save.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Float Pool Nursing.
It seems that these days one can always find an excuse for job hopping. People get their "dreeeaaaaam jobs" and find out that they don't really like it as much as they thought they would or that the grass looks greener somewhere else.

Part of the key to finding happiness and fulfillment at work -- as well as in life -- is to want what you have. Enjoy the job you have now for the things you like about it, and learn to tolerate the parts you don't like. Otherwise you could be chasing happiness and new jobs for the rest of your life.

Firstly, I don't think that there's anything wrong with job hopping if that's what a person wants to do. Some people are bored working on one unit and like to find a different unit to work on every year or two, in order to continue learning new things.

Secondly, you shouldn't have to force yourself to love your job. Loving your work should come pretty naturally. You shouldn't have to find reasons to want to stay.

From the perspective of a hospital getting frustrated that people are job hopping and making a lot of lateral transfers, well that's the hospital's fault for not making certain departments difficult to break into.

I used to want to work in the SICU so I applied a year ago. Although I had worked in a surgical floor briefly, my background primarily was general medicine and telemetry and the manager told me I was not selected because they found that nurses with surgical or critical care experience were more likely to succeed. So instead I had to take a job in the MICU where I have no intention of staying to get critical care experience, and then transfer again to surgery. It's stupid, but I have no other alternative.

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Specializes in orthopedic/trauma, Informatics, diabetes.

I left my old job for truly my dream job at my dream facility. I didn't leave the old one b/c I did't like it, I left because I got a great opportunity. Not leaving anytime soon. Old enough to know the grass is definitely not always greener. ;p

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