Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Time to mix it up?

Lately I've been thinking of exploring my options in Nursing.
There are some other jobs available at a hospital which is literally 5 minutes away from my house.
Some pros of moving would be that I'm way closer, and would save the $105 per month in parking fees. The con would be that I wouldn't know what kind of nurses I would be with. (The brand new grads who think they're better than everyone else, or the old bitchy nurses that should have retired 10 years ago.)
My good friend Aaron is my acting manager right now. As luck would have it, I was talking about our current situation at my current job, and was saying that it feels like we're in a sinking ship, and things aren't looking up anytime soon. We have many nurses leaving all the time, and right now, we have about 8 vacant nursing positions. We're chronically short staffed, and the few full time nurses that we have (about 7 full time, and 30 part time) are getting worn out simply because the part time nurses are only working their scheduled shifts, and not picking up any extra hours. This leaves the full time staff to pick up the slack by ALWAYS being short staffed.
I really pity Aaron right now, and can see the stress mounting every single day. The kicker is, when he was asked if he was interested in the temporary management position, they told him that it was start in May, ending in September, with a tiny chance of it carrying on to January. Well, guess what....they've asked him to stay on until January.

I've always said that the work will be the same everywhere. It's always been the staff on my ward that have kept me where I am. How do I bring a better morale back to my ward? It seems like the fun is slowly draining away little by little each day.
Aaron and I have started the baseball team, but as soon as the season is over, there are no more activities planned.
I also told Aaron today that it would take a lot for me to leave, but I think I will fill out a few applications, just to see what is out there. Wish me luck!

4 comments:

Rock Chef said...

Good luck. It is a shame when things go like that. Maybe it is time to move on.

Mike said...

it never hurts to explore your options...

as you know, I'm doing the same. The lord will take care of you.

Slyde said...

good luck in whatever you decide...

on a more important note: do you realize your wife is having fantasies about prunes?

James said...

Oh that's a tough one Chris. You obviously care about the job and Aaron. He will probably take it bad if you leave. But sometimes you have to look after yourself. No good going to a place where you are going to be unhappy and stressed.