Hello everyone so I’ve been in this community for some time but decided to post today, so I need help guys. For context, I’m a new grad LPN I passed my boards back in December 2025 and since then things have been a bit rocky for me.
Around April this year I got my first impatient job in the ER as a new grad. I was super excited and so ready to start working as a new grad in the hospital setting, which is what I wanted. I loved it at first everything was going well at my first job, the environment was OK and people there were nice for the most part and willing to help train me, but as I went through my orientation I noticed a few things that were unsafe. They have something called ESI that’s how they categorize patients based off their acuity level on how sick they are. The protocol was that LPN’s were not supposed to be given levels 1 and 2 which were the highest acuity in the ED but we were able to handle levels 3, 4, and 5’s.
With that being said during the end of my orientation, I noticed the environment becoming suddenly more busy and charge nurses assigning LPN’s, including me-levels 1 and 2’s, while I was on orientation. Of course I spoke up about this to management several times, but they brushed me off and this continued for months. Eventually I was reported by 2 of my preceptors for making 2 mistakes: none of which caused patient harm but rather unsafe situations, I won’t go into detail about them but i ended up just getting a verbal warning and some papers to sign about being on a corrective action plan that was supposed to last for 3 additional months- and was also being “slow” and need to work on my time management and critical thinking- eventually I resigned before the action plan ended, the paperwork just said it would last until the end of employment.
Honestly I think I just got burned out. It was too fast paced for me and I couldn’t take any breaks because I was on orientation the whole 5 months, management and I kept on extending it because we were noticing my confidence needed improvement and time management.
So now I have 5 months of ER experience, possibly a verbal warning in my record, I’ve applied for 6 Jobs so far and got rejected from all 6. I had 1 interview since I left and they told me it was a good fit for me but later rejected my application.. what do I do now? I’m thinking about removing the ER experience all together but I’m afraid there’s going to be a huge employment gap. Before the ER I was just working in fast food, no prior healthcare experience, and my manager was encouraging me to use her as a reference but what if she’s telling them stuff I’m not aware of like my flaws. I’ve tried applying outpatient to primary care, impatient, and now I’m starting with assisted living facilities. I’m just disappointed in myself and I’m willing to go back to school and just start All over again if I have to😢.
What should I do? Go back to school? Or keep applying? I’ve been without a job for 3 weeks now nearly a month. I’ve Got to help my parents financially somehow.