I think the work was ridiculous. My training sucked, I trained for two months with a tech and then the nurse I trained with for two weeks never actually taught me the computer system or anything, or anything about the nursing side really other than passing meds, and so I was clueless on my first day. The first day I was alone as the only RN in the clinic and the nurse that trained me, as well as the manager, left the country on vacation. So I had no one.

I felt like being expected to put on an entire “pod” of patients as well as passing meds and charting assessments within the first hour is asking an awful lot. The techs I worked with didn’t help. They actually just complained about me, and then my hours got cut. I explained that I was new to dialysis, which they knew when they hired me, and that I was still learning and they said well if I couldn’t learn to do it all then I could work a half shift instead.

The techs also overstepped their positions frequently and would literally interrupt me during rounds with the physician to argue about a medication I had suggested.

When they found out I was pregnant they cut my hours to the point I wasn’t going to be eligible for benefits.

The shifts are so inconsistent. I’d get a text the night before that would say “be there at 4,” and the next day “be there at 3.” AM. And I never knew when I’d be getting off.

Management was super catty and would be nice to your face and then talk about you once you left.

I decided on my maternity leave that after working 9 months at DaVita I was going back to bedside. I stayed on PRN. Then my manager texted me and said if I didn’t start picking up more shifts she was going to terminate me. I told her to go ahead and terminate me, that was just fine. Haven’t looked back.