I have worked for Intermountain Healthcare (commonly referred to as IHC) for nearly 10 years. It is a good, stable, non-profit company. There are things I like, and things I don't like about it, but overall, they have been pretty good to me.
Every Autumn, the muckity-mucks send out a Gallup survey, to see how "engaged" their employees are. I think it's out of a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the 'super-excited, I LOVE my job and can't wait to go to work' end of the spectrum. I think we consistently meet around 4--pretty good. At Primary Children's Riverton (where I work), our score is closer to 4.5. Everyone who works there loves it; me included. This is definitely the best job I have ever had.
Unfortunately, real life comes in to bite you on the you-know-what, and when opportunities present themselves, you need to take them. Ever since I transferred to Primary Childrens from Intermountain Medical Center (both within the IHC system), I have been 'floating,' i.e., working at places other than my home facility. This has been to keep my hours. At PC-Riv, we don't have enough cases to consistently allow every one to get their full allotment of hours (40/week in my case). Some days are busy, with surgeries going past 4pm. Many days are pitiful, with only one or two cases total, finished by 10am. Most days have a few cases, and it is rare that we work past 1pm. If you aren't concerned about your PTO balance, or if you can take that time unpaid, it's perfect. Most of us aren't in that situation, so we are scrambling to find work.
About a month ago, I found out that my friend (and fellow scrub tech at IMC) Shaunette was moving to Texas. That would mean that there would be a vacancy, and the thought just kept nagging me. I routinely float to IMC 3-4 times per month; I also go to the 'big house' (the main OR at Primary Children's) at least once per week, and occasionally to Riverton Hospital (the adult side; I work in the outpatient pediatric side). There are a lot of reasons why going back to IMC would be a good thing. I feel like I should write them down, so you can see my reasoning.
1) Money. At PC-Riv, I am not guaranteed a full paycheck, and the only times I get my full hours is when I float. The likelihood of being called off at IMC is much lower. The possibility is still there, but if you want to work, you usually can.
2) Position. I had my annual review last month, and while everything was fine, I was going to lose my OR Tech II status. At PC-Riv, there just isn't enough variety of cases for me to keep my skills up. I love the small, easy cases we do on healthy kids, but the only times I get to do cool surgeries is when I float to IMC. Even when I float uptown (PCMC), they put me in the easiest rooms, because they don't know what I can do. That is partially my fault, because I went to PC-Riverton full-time as soon as I was done orienting. I did get to do a mandibular distraction last week, which was really interesting, but the only reason I got to do that was because they assigned it to my friend Bethany (a co-worker at PC-Riv), before the assignments were changed. When we figured out the mix-up, they were worried about me being able to do it. Yeah, I struggled a little, but it turned out fine. To make a long story short, if I'm going to work at Primary Children's, I want to work at PC-Riverton. And as long as I'm at PC-Riv, I won't be scrubbing the level of cases I need to be at a Tech II level. During my review, it was decided that I would go back to a Tech I level and they would freeze my pay, i.e., I won't get a raise until the Tech I wage reaches what I make. And that could be several years. At IMC, I could easily keep my Tech II status.
3) Location. I don't love our apartment, but we live less than two miles away from IMC. Actually, I drive past it every day, on my way to Riverton. With gas prices being so high, and spending so much money just to fill up the tank every week, it has really been burdensome.
So, with all that in mind, I put in my application. I e-mailed my boss that day and explained all of the above, stating that my main reason for doing it was money; I don't feel like I have anything to hide, so I wanted full-disclosure. I ended up having my interview at IMC on a day when I was floating there: essentially, I was working at the job I was applying for. The interview went pretty well, and I told them all of the same things. I may have emphasized the 'opportunities for growth' more than the money factor, but both are absolutely true. I even told them that I would have been happy not getting the job, because that would mean I would stay at PC-Riv, but I felt like it was time to move on.
Well, later that week I was floating to PCMC (do you get the picture? It seems like I hardly ever work at my home base, anyway), and I was in an ENT room with Dr. Grimmer. I work with him all the time at PC-Riv, but he does his more complicated cases uptown. The day was fine, until we had to do a laryngoscopy with laser for venous malformations on a young girl. I just don't do those often enough to be comfortable with them, so I struggled. I had Sue, the ENT team leader in the room with me, and even she set it up wrong. I did my best, and Dr. Grimmer was pretty calm about it in actuality, but he was frustrated that nobody seemed to know what they were doing. I was really stressed, because of how delicate the situation was. Luckily, everything went well, and my lunch relief came right as we were finishing. So I went into the bathroom and cried. That's one BIG reason why I went to Riverton--it's a lot more fun to work with healthy kids. Working with the sicker ones is much more difficult than I thought it would be. Anyway, while I was on my lunch break, Human Resources called to offer me the job at IMC. I said yes. He told me that they would transfer me over as an OR Tech II (so I'll probably get a raise next year!), and we decided on a start date of November 13.
I hadn't told many people about it, because it's so hard to leave a place you love. I had been talking about it with my friend Allison, one of my favorite nurses I have ever worked with. (FYI, on the aforementioned Gallup survey, when they asked if I had a best friend at work, I immediately thought of her.) She went through something similar, where the people uptown were pressuring her to apply for the ENT Team Leader position, since Sue was stepping down. Taking it would mean that she couldn't go to PC-Riv anymore, and it was a really hard decision for her; I knew she felt the same way I did. Unfortunately, it all boils down to the same old thing: money. They made her an offer she couldn't refuse, so she ended up taking that position. Admittedly, her taking it was a kind of license for me to move on as well. I feel calm about it. It's the right thing to do, even if it hurts.
I was trying to keep it quiet, since I didn't want my leaving to be a big deal. Word got out last week, though, so pretty much everybody knows what's happening. It really is depressing, but I have to make the most of the time I am away from Ben.
Like Allison said, we are growing up. We have to make the hard decisions and do what is best for our families. She and I have very similar music tastes (and she loves U2 almost as much as I do!), and one day while we were cleaning our OR at the end of the day, "Everybody's Changing" by Keane came on the Pandora. We both said, "I love this song!" So it kind-of became our song.
So little time
Try to understand that I'm
Trying to make a move just to stay in the game
I try to stay awake and remember my name
But everybody's changing
And I don't feel the same.
There seems to be lots of reasons to cry these days. Sometimes I wish I weren't such a logical person.
