What's the shortest time you stayed at a job and why did you leave?

nurse_flo_marie, MSN, RN · Jan 1, 2018

for me it was 3 days. It was an extra job and I realized I didn't need the stress of working
in a more stressful environment than my
main job so I never picked up shifts there.

The shortest time I stayed at a job was six months. It was a nurse leadership role. Communication among leadership lacked respect for most of my six months. It was a toxic environment, which I tried unsuccessfully to improve for five months. When I moved onto the next job, I read a name on the employee list which reminds of your situation. I asked the scheduler about the nurse, hoping maybe her behavior was just a fluke, only to find out she was unprofessional with this company as well.

Sorry to hear the extra job you were hired for was more stressful than your current. Why did you take on the extra job? I would advise against not being responsive, even if you no longer plan to work at a company. I say this because when I left the job I was in only for six months and started a new job, I was part of the hiring process and the above story. Nursing is a small world. Let's say you applied for another side job. A hiring manager mentioned your name over dinner with a nurse friend who worked for the company you left, and the friend told the hiring manager all about how you started, quit after 3 days, and didn't pick up shifts. It would be seen as unprofessional and even with a fantastic resume, you won't get the job. Trust me, I've had to make that decision on several occasions for the safety of patients.

CharleeFoxtrot, BSN, RN · Jan 1, 2018

Three days, I was just out of school and a much better offer came through. Felt bad, I got along great with the folks there but just couldn't pass the other offer up

Elfriede · Jan 1, 2018

2 days in home mechanical ventilation.

Completely insufficient material and a supervisor

who doesnÂ´t cares.

klone, MSN, RN · Jan 1, 2018

16 months - my second job as an RN, working in inpatient OB. I was burned out working nights and working postpartum, so I left to do something different (perinatal research). Was out of inpatient OB for 5 years, then came back to it a little over a year ago as a manager.

westieluv · Jan 1, 2018

Three weeks in a sub-acute rehab facility that was woefully understaffed, under equipped, and just plain dangerous. I feared for my license.

Is it just in my area, or are all of these beautiful new facilities with fireplaces, fieldstone exteriors, and lavish interior design just facades for an unacceptably unsafe working environment? It's like they spent all the money that should have gone for hiring more staff to make the place look stylish and impressive. We had one thermometer, dynomap, glucometer, and pulse oximeter for 70 residents, several of whom required daily AC + HS blood glucose checks and daily BP checks before getting their BP meds, not to mention only three computer work stations for four nurses, meaning that one of us would have to wait to do all documentation until someone else was finished for the day. Whaaaattt???

Davey Do · Jan 1, 2018

Lessee... This was February 1991. St Anomaly's Healthcare Center. Surgery.

A few weeks. The nurses were **-****** and even after I proved myself with satisfying the so-called "Nazi Surgeon", they were relentless.

"Bye bye", I said.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Jan 2, 2018

Three months. There was a pilot program to train Clin techs for the ICUs, and each of the ICUs contributed an instructor for the length of the first class -- three months. I stayed the time I'd agreed to, but turned down the offer of a permanent teaching position. I loved the teaching but hated the hours and couldn't wait to get back to my three 12-hour shifts a week!

SmilingBluEyes · Jan 2, 2018

3 months in a LTC. It was horrible. The staffing dismal and dangerous. I once walked in at 6 am to find a resident duct-taped to a wheelchair. YOU READ RIGHT an RN actually did this cause he would not stay still!!!! I had to call the state and report ourselves. It was not fun at all. There was a night shift agency RN stealing morphine and was seen doing it. Reported. Nothing was done, until we came up numerous vials short. Again, the state was in, and everyone was held in the nursing home for pee tests.

I had reported my concerns several times and basically told to shut up they would handle it. It was handled poorly to say the least and yes, said RN did test positive. They just let him go, never reporting him to the state, how do I know? Cause he turned up in another nursing home with no stipulations about handling narcs, in the local area. Hooboy that was hard to swallow. Being under suspicion by the state, awful. Of course, I did not test positive, but the whole having the state in and assuming our guilt was an experience I can't forget.

The culture was dog-eat-dog with mean, gossipy and careless nurses and CNAs.

I was gone as soon as I found another job.

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Jan 2, 2018

Three months. It was in an assisted living facility owned and operated by a well-known "senior living" company where profits, not health care, was the top priority. Even I was required to participate in sales calls and serve lunch with a napkin over my arm. This was completely unacceptable to me as it took me away from my duties as the NURSE, not the executive director or the PR person, and it was not what I had gone to nursing school to do. I also had an issue with the fact that they paid their workers crap wages while they made a big deal about giving away fancy water bottles, stationery, gift bags and other frou-frou items with the company logo on them. I made a lot of money while I was with them but it wasn't worth the BS of working for a for-profit ALF.

KatieMI, BSN, MSN, RN · Jan 2, 2018

Speaking about an assignment - one shift. That was unit of my dreams where I couldn't get an interview for good 6 months, was immediately assigned by my temp agency and found it to be a big and helluva hot mess. I had enough brain cells left to run out of there.

Job - 6 weeks. Terminated for, frankly, being too smart and too loud for that place, and a foreigner in addition to that.

TriciaJ, RN · Jan 2, 2018

I worked for 5 months as night supervisor in a free-standing (private, for profit) psychiatric hospital. Really poor staffing. The adolescent unit knew this and tended to break out of the place after the evening shift went home and we were left with a skeleton crew. No security measures were ever improved. No constructive suggestions ever implemented. It was crappy and unsafe.

A couple years later they were written up in a local expose' rag; nothing I couldn't have told anyone. They soon closed down. I suspect Blue Cross pulled the plug on them because they were shameless at milking insurance.