Sunday, June 7, 2009

I walked out!

I walked out of my hospital job yesterday. Did i quit or am i going to be fired? I'm not sure at the point. So here's what happened. The last day i was scheduled to work over there was May 16th. I am PRN, so i have to turn in my availability beginning of every month. In April, i was so overwhelmed, i didn't see myself working through the whole month, so i put mt last available date as the 16th. I was supposed to turn in my 2 weeks notice that day and quit at the end of the month.

I didn't do it. They called me in to work May 29th and i did, no problem. I didn't turn in any availability for June, but they called me on Thursday and said they needed someone to do a 1:1, which means instead of watching 24-28 patients, you only watch one patient. If it's at night and the patient is stable and asleep, that's a pretty good deal. So since she needed someone for the whole weekend, i agreed to go in Friday and Saturday night. She promised me that it was going to be a 1:1 for sure and nobody will change the schedule.

I went in on Friday and everything was fine. When i came home Saturday morning, i only slept for 3 hours cos my nephew and niece were around and it just wasn't possible to sleep. Then i woke up and had to give my dog his medicated bath. I then carried myself to the track and worked out for an hour. I got home around 8pm, by the time i got a chance to lie down it was past 9pm and i had to be at work at 11pm. Suffice to say, i didn't sleep a wink.

On my way to work, i kept obsessing over whether that had changed the schedule. I just told myself that if they removed me from the 1:1, i'm coming back home. My instincts never lie. I get there, don't see anyone doing the 1:1, i'm wondering what's going on with that. I get behind the nurse's station and was told that i might have to work P hall cos they sent someone to the hospital with the person who was supposed to work there.

P hall is the worst hall to work. The most unstable patients are put there, they have the tendency to wake up early, plus there are camera's in each room, so u have to actually stand there and see the patients breathe and check the bathroom every 15mins and it is the largest hall so u have more distance to cover. There was no way, as tired as i was that i was going to do P hall and stay awake all 8 hours. Besides doing the 15min checks in each room, i would have to file the flow sheets, and make new nurses notes and then get vitals signs on all the patients later in the morning. If there was an admission, i would have to search the patient and do the initial assesment. I didn't sign up for that.

So the person who told me i might be doing P hall said i should wait and talk to the charge nurse. I turned around and walked back to my car. Instead of me to drive away like i planned, i wanted to give the charge nurse the courtesy of telling her i was leaving. Stupid! I should have known she won't let me leave when they were short staffed. So after talking to my friend who basically told me to make my own decision and stick to it, i went back in (big mistake) and told the charge nurse i wante to leave, of course she said i couldn't. So i went to speak to the lady i was supposed to take over from and she made me call the scheduler who promised me the 1:1. Long story short, scheduler said she will call me back and she didn't.

So i left abruptly without speaking to the charge Nurse again. I feel bad because i like the charge nurse and would not have left her stranded on a good day but i was TIRED. Now i think they probably have a bad impression of me. I should have just driven away the first time, i would have felt much better.

I don't know if i would be fired cos of this (probably), but like they say, i should have quit while i was ahead.

23 comments:

  1. You might feel bad right now but in the future when you look back you would certainly know you did the right thing.
    It was just a matter of common decency to have informed the charge nurse.

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  2. Yea Ttlolla is right........in the long run u wld realise that u did wot was best for u.Its nt easy hating ur job,there is no motivation to go to work so wts d point??
    Don't fret over it,ul be fine.Cheer up

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  3. i feel 4 u,
    u did d right thing, it was deecnt t tell d chareg nurse b4 u walked out..
    dont feel bad cos u were alreday planning to stop anyway or werent u???

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  4. Eya kpele, that is too much for you now and your were really tired.

    You can't kill yourself jare..

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  5. hey, thats not good, i would love to say nice one, but i need to know the consequences of you loosing the job, or not...holla

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  6. u did right informing the nurse in charge.

    My hat off to u, ur job na hard one ohh

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  7. Thanks guys for ur comment. I just feel weird i left like that. A lot of people liked me at that job and i wanted to leave on a good note.

    @Baroque, i am starting med school in August and i was going to quit both jobs this month anyway, so i can have a break before i start school.

    I have worked and gone to school straight without ANY breaks since Dec 2002. I need a break, to say the least.

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  8. Hope you've gotten some rest now...cant really add much, they really stressed you in your job it would have been nice to inform that lady but I guess like you said she would have tried her utmost to get you to stay. p

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  9. Sorry about that...I know you felt bad, but sometimes you just have to do what's best for YOU. You definitely deserve a break!

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  10. Wow, first of all I have to give you props for being so diciplined, only sleeping a few hours and then working out for 1 hour :-O
    Secondly, it's never worth working a place where people don't treat you as worthy. I thikn you did right by letting her know though. Just because they might act irresponsibly doesn't mean you have to. You deserve to leave with good credits because you have done nothing wrong.

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  11. Guess you didn't have much of an option anyways....But maybe, just maybe, it might have helped to talk t the charge nusrse.. But u never know.. it might have worsened the situation...Its all done now.. focus should be how to resolve it going forward I would think..

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  12. I went back and spoke to the charge nurse and explained everything to her, but she refused to let me leave. I left anyway, cos if i had stayed i might have fallen asleep at the job and that's instant grounds to be fired.

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  13. mehn it sounds so hard
    ohh u informed the charge nurse n she refused to let u leave?
    well its betta u left than losing the job 4 sleeping on duty

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  14. Well, u just had it up to here with their shenanigans...just breathe. everything will work itself out

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  15. Babe, I think though that it may be a good idea to try to straighten things out. You want to be sure that if you ever need a professional reference from them in the near future, it won't be a problem.

    All the best hon. You always have to keep yourself happy.

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  16. they are no tgoing to fire you

    if they do they have serious problems

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  17. u did the right thing at that point, at least u tried to tell them. it was their fault they changed ur schedule. u should try to go talk to the head sometime soon so u can get a good reference tho

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  18. I can't blame you, reading this post sef made me tired, like wow. You wouldn't have been able to effectively function like that.
    I hope you don't get fired. Do keep us posted.

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  19. Damn! I'm sorry you had to go through that. I can imagine how difficult and tiring your job is..and then add no sleep to this, it's impossible! I hope your walking out hasn't affected your employment status with them...and if it has, would it be easy for you to get a new job?

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  20. at least you have the guts to even consider walking out.

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  21. You did the right thing. Don’t feel bad about going in to tell the nurse you are leaving. It's the right thing to do.
    I am sure they will understand what the job demands and that you as a human being reached your breaking point and needed a break.

    Rest and worry about nothing my lady.

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  22. In this time of austerity??? Babe, you get balls ooo!

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