[caroladybelle]

Originally Posted by ONCNRS914

How does the old saying go, "God closes a door, and then opens a window." It reallly doesn't sound like this was a good working environment anyway. With the demand for nurses you should be able to find an employer that appreciates your integrity and true care for the patients.

Don't give up the good fight!

While I have never been fired as a nurse, I have dealt with the, "Let's make you so miserable that you wish you were dead...so that you quit" syndrome. And let me tell you, I needed that kick in the pants, to go on to so many better situations in nursing.

[VivaLasViejas]

Originally Posted by caroladybelle

While I have never been fired as a nurse, I have dealt with the, "Let's make you so miserable that you wish you were dead...so that you quit" syndrome. And let me tell you, I needed that kick in the pants, to go on to so many better situations in nursing.

That's exactly what I went through at my hospital job........I probably hung in there a lot longer than I should have, just because I didn't want to give them the satisfaction of forcing me to quit. But then things got so miserable that I quit anyway.....but you know THAT story.

Weetzie, I agree with you about the RCM thing too---one of the biggest career mistakes I've made. You don't get any of the credit, but you get ALL of the responsibility, and of course all of the blame when survey comes in and issues the facility a batch of F-tags for missing documentation that pre-dates you by six months.

End of rant. Best of luck, always, and may your next position be the RIGHT one!!

[weetziebat]

Thank you, friends. I've had an offer of a job last week that sounds really good. Just waiting to see if we can up the hours a bit. Hopefully will hear about that ?tomorrow.

"Being a good nurse is not always the same thing as being a good employee"

Yeah, I like that!!

[Hellllllo Nurse]

Originally Posted by ZASHAGALKA

When I first got on this site, a year ago, somebody quoted somebody else that was a regular here and had this on their sig line. I LOVE the quote:

Being a good nurse is not always the same thing as being a good employee.

I sure wish I could attribute that to somebody.

But, if somebody fired you BECAUSE you put being a good nurse over being a good employee - well, aren't YOU better off?!

I would consider that to be nuthin' but a thang. And I'd move on without losing a single wink of sleep.

~faith,
Timothy.

Timothy, that used to be my sig line here. I don't remember where I originally heard it- wish I did. That quote has always struck a powerful chord with me.

Weetziebat- I was fired once, years ago from a hell-hole very similar to where you were working. I had a post CVA contiuous G-tube feeding pt who was coughing frequently, and had rales and rhonchi. We tried to keep her head elevated, but she was confused and would twist herself around in bed. I feared aspiration pneumonia. I stopped the g-tube feeding, flushed the tube and capped it off. I called her doc @ the GI clinic, but it took him 6 hrs to call me back.
I was an LPN at the time. I was fired for "practising beyond my scope by holding a G-tube feeding without a doctors order."

Well, not only was holding the feeding appropriate under the circumstances, I feel it would have been negligent not to hold it. The DON told me that I had put the pt at risk "nutritionally". Nevermind that the pt was about 60 lbs overweight, and the feeding was only off for 6 hours previous to the docs order.

When I finally got a hold of the doc, he said to do just what I'd done- continue to hold the feeding, continue to moniter the pt and he would squeeze her in at the GI clinic in the AM.

I did not practice outside my scope. I feel the DON used this as an excuse to fire me, because I was the only nurse there who refused to clock out at the end of 8 hrs and then go back to the station and do all my charting and phone calls for free.

I feel I was fired for being a good nurse, but a "bad" employee in the eyes of that twisted DON, and I think the same thing happened to you.

I know you will feel bad for a while. But, you will get an even better job- one where you are appreciated for your knowledge, and concern for pts and staff.

(ps. the pt was seen @ the clinic, had a different type of tube placed and was fine).

[weetziebat]

Originally Posted by Hellllllo Nurse

I did not practice outside my scope. I feel the DON used this as an excuse to fire me, because I was the only nurse there who refused to clock out at the end of 8 hrs and then go back to the station and do all my charting and phone calls for free.

Why do nurses do this? So many times we can be our own worst enemy. One of the reasons I believe nurses won't get what we deserve till we have more men in the profession. So many of us females being such good little, well-behaved, do-what-your-told-cause-we-want-to-be-liked ninnies gets us treated like servants.

Good for you standing up for what was right! That was in no way overstepping your bounds and what if she had died from aspiration pneumonia because you didn't turn off the feeding? Then you would have been fired for not using your nurses training to know how dangerous the situation was.

When 'they' want you gone any reason will do.

Wondering.......do you guys think some people go into nursing not caring, just wanting to get into administration so they can be in charge and have power? Or do good nurses somehow get promoted into admin. and then just get power happy and greedy, forgetting what nursing is all about? You know - all that stuff about power corrupting........?

[madwife2002]

Hey Weeziebat,

Sorry to hear about you being fired, but you will find like the others said it is for the best.,
I too have been 'fired' this year my contract was cancelled because I was injured in a MVA and cant work at the moment......at the moment being the operative word. I did nothing wrong I never asked to be injured but they said bye bye.
I dont really care I never liked the place anyway

[MrsK1223]

I was fired a few months ago after I requested an investigation into an incident between my clinical director and I. She was fresh out of nursing school, had no business in her position and was only hired after everyone that was qualified laughed at the administrator after hearing the pay. The administrator was a bit unqualified for her position as well. This is a small place and had been becoming toxic by the day. Anyway...it was the best thing they ever did for me....since then, the clinical director has been caught in lie after lie, dropping the ball in so many areas the doctors are getting upset with her, people are leaving left and right. The first thing that tipped me off to her negligent and oblivious ingnorance in the nursing field was when she TOLD me that I HAD TO give medications to a certain doctor's patients, after a policy went in effect that no nursing staff is to ever for no reason dispense medication to any patient. It had to be done by the physician in person. We had a doctor to get chewed out by a patient and rightfully so and the clinical director didn't want to tell him he would have to give out his medications to each patient since his office failed to do it prior to surgery like they are supposed to do.
I refused and she went to PACU and told them they would have to....they refused and told her that she was not going to put their licenses on the line because she was ignorant of the law and our own facilities policies. IDIOT!
She had even told us that she wasn't used to MANUAL labor after she failed to staff appropriately and had to actually circulate a room..this is a nurse out of school for not even a year and half....clueless I tell ya! What was administration thinking....and to think they fired me because I knew if they checked out what happened they would have seen what an idiot she was then but no, I lost my job of 3 yrs....she had been there 4 months. She would surprise us with changes that put our patients at risk as well as our own safety and I was very vocal about it and made my own nursing decisions about how to transport patients in regards to how well they ambulated and such. She didn't like that I looked out for my patients, myself, and the surgery center...in the end...something bad was going to happen and it was probably going to result in a lawsuit but you couldn't tell her or administration that....I was supposed to do what she said and not use my own 7 yrs of nursing experience to decide what was the safest mode to transport my patient. Wasn't going to put them at risk just because she was in an authorative position and just ignorant on top of that. It gets better and probably happened to lead you in a better direction.
Glad I'm out of that mess. It does get better!

[AfloydRN]

I found a better job and put in my 2 weeks notice and was fired that day. I was then told that this was a frequent occurrence at this hospital. My fiancee also resigned ... and was fired as well.

[doingourbest]

I too have been fired for not allowing wrongdoings to go on under my nose. As the night supervisor at a large facility, I had a nurse who was stealing narcotics from the patients and giving them to the DON and ADON. Many of the nurses where aware of it, but also aware that everyone who had broached the subject with the administrator was subsequently fired for some silly reason. When the DON found out that I knew what was happening and was going to report it to state, she called all of my nurses looking for a reason to fire me; asking if they had seen anything inappropriate or had any greivances with me. She couldn't come up with anything. A day later I was "let go" and when I asked why the response after a good minute of stammering was "well, we uh, just have to let you go, uh well we've just heard some things, ." When my response was "Heard what?" and the had no answer other than "Uh, well, uh, well" and they could come up with nothing. I told them that was not a very good reason and left. The only reason they did not make their drug supplier the new supervisor was because all of the other nurses told them that if they did they would quit. It took me a week to start another job that pays more without a third of the underhanded stuff that was going on there. Nursing fires people more than any other profession. Most typically it is for the higher ups to cover their butts. Unfortunately, if you are in a right to work state like I am there is nothing you can do about it. They don't have to have a reason to fire you. You just have to hope that the job you want has people doing that hiring that are aware that everyone is being fired and that often the ones who were fired were the good nurses who care about the patients. If they are not people who realize that then they are probably ones on the other side who are covering up and just out to improve their station and you probably dont want to work for them anyway, lest be fired again for standing up for the rights of the patients.

[elizabeth321]

Never fired....always have had union jobs....no major issues.....my career has been too boring I guess.

Liz