I work for one of the "Big Two" dialysis companies as an acute inpatient dialysis nurse. For those of you not familiar with this, my job is to provide dialysis treatments to patients who are acutely ill and hospitalized.
The problem I am having, is that I and the other nurses that I work with are expected to work extremely long hours on a regular basis. A few days ago I worked 17 hours straight doing back to back dialysis treatments, and then I was still on call for the remaining seven hours of that 24 hr. period, meaning that if the hospital had an emergency treatment and I got called, I could have conceivably worked almost 24 hours straight. It's scary, because by the end of that 17 hours, I was so tired that I was blurry-eyed and fuzzy-headed. This is not the exception, because I have not had anything less than a 14 hour day in weeks.
Needless to say, our acutes department has a real problem hiring and keeping nurses, and I hate this job because of the ridiculous hours. The only reason I am still there is because I have only been with the company for about 15 months and I hate to be a job hopper, because I was only at my previous job for about that same length of time and I'm afraid that no one will hire me if I quit another job after 15 months. However, I really do not feel like this is safe, and definitely not in the best interest of the patients.
My question is, would you be willing to work hours like this? Everyone I talk to thinks it's ridiculous, but if I or any of my co-workers complain to management, we are made to feel like we are being crybabies and whiners. I have applied for a few jobs, but I just don't know if I will look like too much of a job hopper to a potential employer. At this point, I am really getting concerned about my license, but I have to work and carry benefits for my family.
