working in hospitals?

[123lisa]

Hello all,

I am an experienced BSN nurse from the long term, acute/subacute/Medicare field. I have 5 years experience. I currently am employed with an agency/Home Health business. They are requested me to work some shifts in the hospital setting. I do not feel that I am qualified to do so, especially as an agency nurse. The nurse manager still wants me. What are your opinions. I have always wanted to try this setting and the pay is good. What do you think?

Email me at: [email protected]

THANKS

[oramar]

Lisa, I know you wanted to people to respond to you via email but I thought I would like to post so that people could respond to my post. This thing they are proposing to you will be difficult at best. The good thing is that the nurse manager wants you and this means she know yours back ground and is expecting that you will need more support than usual. You realize of course that most agency nurses recieve little or no orientation and are expected to hit the floors running. This means experience, experience, experience is needed to survive in an acute care setting when you are agency. I have been out of acute care for over a year now, the only thing I have done is a little LTC. I would NOT accept an agency job on an acute care setting at this point because I have gotten rusty and I know it. I have done agency work in the past and I know what is involved. I must say that even when I was ten years younger with skills honed to a fine edge I would some times find agency work a challenge. I am not telling you not to do it, I am just saying be prepared to feel stressed at times. Here is what I would do if I wanted to go into acute care via agency. I would accept a job at a hospital part time, I would go through a six week orientation then work for a few months just to get back in the grove. Finally, after I was comfortable back out on the floors, I would go agency.

[HotSpam]

Lisa I have to agree with oramar. The Home Health / Staffing Agency is a school of hard knocks. Sorry to generalize but in most cases they just want to throw a body at a staffing need and you will probably feel alienated, slow, and that your licence is in jeopardy. The hard part is you probably won't get much of an orientation and at the agency you also won't get much real support - just buttered up to keep you going out the next time. When something bad does happen you will realize how alone you really are.

Sorry for generalizing and being negative. Many nurses do it and nothing is stopping you. If your got at dealing with pressure, working alone, and your assessment and tech skills are intact - go for it.

:-)

HotSpam