First assignment may not be successful
So I started on Monday with all of the onboarding and shadowed for 4 hours afterwards. Today, Wednesday, was my first and only day of orientation. My first day on my own was to be Saturday, the 4th of July. So literally one day of orientation. I know that's not uncommon and have been told by many some places only give you 1 day of orientation, but I had been frequently told you usually get 2 or 3 days.
I was told I'm "resistant to..." I think it was training? Direction? I forget exactly the word, but yeah. That people gave feedback about me, but I barely spoke to many people about anything at all? I didn't want to say something that people didn't like and report me to get me cancelled. I knew just to keep to myself. Guess that wasn't good enough. I had asked my preceptor about it and she said she didn't think it wasn't exactly what I was thinking it was, but that it's just I may seem to not want to do things the way *they* do it. After discussing with her, she actually went back to the manager and maybe clarified things, I wasn't expecting her to do that at all (I genuinely don't think she was saying anything bad either as she was a tiny bit confused at first when I asked her about feedback too, and I got her contact information too to keep in touch).
I honestly don't know what exactly this all was about, but it's whatever at this point. How am I supposed to know *everything they do* in just 12 hours? "That's interesting you guys do it that way, okay", "hmm, that's odd, but okay!”. Things of the sort. I'm making observations of the differences because I listened and acknowledged the difference. I do have autism and I get that I can come off differently, and I brought it up to my recruiter and said she can tell the manager about it if need be when they talk tomorrow, and I informed my preceptor too afterwards so maybe this way there could be an understanding so that maybe it's just the way I come off (it's not an excuse at all), just so it maybe wasn't a misunderstanding or something. She said it really wasn't and that it's just I'm a new traveler and I'm not up to par like experienced travelers are. That she saw I was smart and a good nurse and knew what I was doing, but just clearly not in the travel aspect of it, and this might not be the place for it. (Which is fine, I get it, but we all literally have to start somewhere).
Apparently the manager said they typically don't take new travelers for this reason too but the contract I applied to said no travel experience was required. I even remember asking my recruiter about it when looking at other contracts and she said the facilities usually are firm on not having new travelers if it's listed in the contract as so, so I know for a fact I only applied to places that said it was not a requirement. Then I thought it was a cardiac PCU (where all of my adult experience was on), and when I get there, it seems more like telemetry with a touch of PCU in certain aspects. Whatever with that. I can deal with it, but just not what I was expecting, but every hospital is going to be different so I also wasn't that upset about it, just mildly annoyed. I absolutely would have stayed with this contract even though it's not what I was anticipating it to be.
I'll find out tomorrow if I'm staying here on the unit, being moved to med surg (I offered to go there if the manager thought it reasonable/appropriate for me and they would take me, but there's no openings at all on med surg posted at this hospital, and all the surroundings want travel experience). I think I'm mostly upset about the money I spent on a few days in a hotel here (expensive cuz of the holiday coming up 🙄) and getting an apartment. Landlord thankfully is chill and I think he'll let me leave after a month. We didn't have a lease signed or anything, it was just reserved for 3 months and the posting said minimum 30 day stay. Just a week in any hotel here was going to be close to/right around 1k, and it was cheaper to get an apartment right away at 2k instead of being in a hotel/Airbnb like people usually say to do. Couldn't find a private Airbnb that took pets. I refuse to have my cat in a shared space as she is stressed AF around strangers (even on gabapentin), but she does well acclimating to new places with just me around.
Basically most important thing I want to ask about is this - how common is this to happen? The only 1 day orientation and contracts saying no experience is fine but expecting you to be able to function as an experienced traveler? Did I just pull the shirt string as my first contract? I wouldn't necessarily call it bait and switch, but I can certainly see aspects about it.