Categories
Antiwork

Am I quitting my healthcare job irrationally?

Caution: VERY long post but just the tip of the iceberg with this jobs antics. I am going to try to explain this as best as possible. I am making myself physically ill over making this decision. I am a respiratory therapist and have had a few different jobs over the last 11 years. Up until 3 years ago, I worked in adult hospital settings-no children ever. I then traveled for a year, again adult care in an acute setting. When I stopped traveling to come home I transitioned to a facility best described as a pediatric nursing home. We take chronically ill/medically complex kids. Most of our kids have a trach in place and most are on ventilators and feeding tubes. Right as I started we got 3 1 year old boys with some complex issues and on a ventilator, but otherwise aware and cognitive. They are now 3.…


Caution: VERY long post but just the tip of the iceberg with this jobs antics. I am going to try to explain this as best as possible. I am making myself physically ill over making this decision. I am a respiratory therapist and have had a few different jobs over the last 11 years. Up until 3 years ago, I worked in adult hospital settings-no children ever. I then traveled for a year, again adult care in an acute setting. When I stopped traveling to come home I transitioned to a facility best described as a pediatric nursing home. We take chronically ill/medically complex kids. Most of our kids have a trach in place and most are on ventilators and feeding tubes. Right as I started we got 3 1 year old boys with some complex issues and on a ventilator, but otherwise aware and cognitive. They are now 3. They walk, talk, play on tablets, watch TV, etc. All of our kids have different stories. Some were born ill, some had accidents, and some are abuse cases. I have been working steady nights since I started, and it has done nothing but drain me physically and emotionally, and I decided to casually start looking for dayshift jobs to take care of myself. I drive 45 minutes currently to work. I ended up having an interview for a skilled nursing facility LITERALLY 2 minutes from house. I'm used to working 3 12 hour shifts, and this new job would be for 5 8's. I enjoy my time off with 3 12's, I don't know how I feel about that. Neither here, nor there. My current work environment is ,and has been, since I started, extremely toxic. There are supervisors who don't have a clue for 1, but none of the night sups present themselves professionally either. Just 1 example amongst many, I overheard one of them discussing an aides hourly wage with someone else to help amp this person up to ask for a raise. Inexcusable. Quick to write you up for anything, when we have been so incredibly skeleton staffed for what seems like forever. We hire people and they leave quickly. We hire people and they never show up. Instead of the supervisors taking nursing assignments when they are short, they will dump all the kids on the other nurses to do “supervisor things”..no one knows what that is, they shop in the office for 12 hours. Day sups are a little different and have other tasks like family visitation etc. IMO we don't need a night sup. Anyway, management all the way to the top is a joke. The DON and ADON are mid 20's and have no business being in their positions either. No autonomy, the MD and PA are only there during the day and are complete jokes too. Keeping sick kids in the building when they need to go to ER for evaluation, and challenging us as we try to advocate for the kids. The almighty dollar, because we don't get paid when they kids are out. So I interviewed at this SNF, and then a few days later my current lead RT resigned and I decided to go for her position, along with 1 other dayshift RT who would have been great as well. Either way, I could now get to dayshift. But then blind sided by our newest RT applying as well, who has only been off orientation for only a month. Every single nurse, aide, RT, and sup on nights has complained to us how lazy she is, not answering alarms, and blatantly not doing scheduled therapies. She is capable, and choosing not to do her job. Someone who used to work at the childrens hosp she came from checked in with his old colleagues about her, and BEHOLD… she had told everyone including management in her initial interview she was a lead there. She was not. Never held any title other than regular old RT, but felt entitled because she would OCCASIONALY offer to hold the charge phone if needed. No real lead responsibilities. Wouldn't you know it this is who they hired for our new lead position ? I mean, what in the actual F***. Loyalty and going above and beyond means nothing here. In the announcement it basically said off the basis of her previous lead experience. They never checked with those references obviously or would have found she lied, and they never consulted with our night sups at the very least about how she is to work with and if she seemed like a good fit just because she is so new and no one knows her yet. When I tell you every person in that building is on fire over it. Same day I got an offer for the place I interviewed at. On top of the schedule not being my fave, its a significant pay cut of about $8 an hour. After much deliberation I decided to accept, this was my last straw. But I have been crying for 3 days straight about leaving my 3 boys. They have become a huge part of my life, and I love them like my own. I am extremely attached. This is stemming from my husband and I's inability to conceive, and part of the reason I am so attached. They fill a void in my heart. I just can not do it with the company anymore. All of the good employees leave, and I am next. I feel extreme guilt, like I am abandoning them. Am I being irrational because i'm so angry about who they chose to promote? Or was this truly just the straw that broke the camels back. I don't want to regret my decision. Words of encouragement would be GREAT.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.