Fired from my med/surg job after almost 3 years

[gettingbsn2msn]

I was on vacation last week and came back to work my shift at the hospital 7p-7a on Sunday night. I was informed Sunday afternoon that I had been suspended and not to come into work. I was told that I needed to come to the hospital at that moment and talk with the nurse manager and director. I came in the following morning and waited almost 4 hours to see the director. When I finally walked into his office (I got tired of waiting) I was told he was too busy and I needed to see the nurse manager. I then went to the nurse manager office where I was told that I needed to go to HR. I asked "are you firing me?" She said that she, in good conscience could not allow me to come back to work.

I have excellent people skills, have never been late and sick one time (brought in a doctor note). I have (what I believe) excellent assessment skills as well. The floor I worked on is absolute chaos. I have managed quite well. This was my first nursing job but I am middle aged so this was by no means my only job. Here is why I was let go: We are to do assessments on each patient every 8 hours. That meant that I SHOULD have come in at 7pm and given my meds and sat around (like most others). However I always did my assessments between 7-10 because if something happened to the patient I would have the assessment completed. Anyway I was told that my downfall was I should have copied and pasted the assessment into the 11p-7a timeframe or have done it at that time. THEY FIRED ME FOR THIS. I had done this previously on occassion. I explained that the night said occurance took place I had 2 admissions and a women who thought she was having a heart attack. I also did not take a dinner break in over 12 hours.

I have been upset for days. They told me to write a resignation letter and it will not look so bad. I can also use them for references. I also made NO MONEY and the floor is always short. I am so hurt by this. I worked very well with the nurses on that floor. I welcomed new grads with open arms. The nurse manager even told me "everybody loves you". It has broken my heart and I am trying not to let it break my spirit as well. I have cried for days over this. I miss my coworkers. I miss my patients. I miss the culture. Please someone write me some words of wisdom to help me get over this. My heart is breaking right now.

I need to turn in my letter this week but I dread going to the floor to see everyone. She promised that she would say I resigned so that no one would know I was fired.

I am so worried that I will not find another job now due to the economy. Sorry this is scattered but I have been upset for days. Thank you for your kindness in reading this.

[JBudd, MSN]

So sorry this is happening to you.

Right to work generally means they don't have to give a reason for firing you. But if you don't want to stop working at this job, do not give a resignation letter. The next place you want to work at, may hesitate over the "firing", but a good place should listen to your side of the story. They will ask "if you didn't want to leave that job, why did you resign?", and all of this would come out anyway.

Ya wanna leave the southeast and come out south west instead?:heartbeat

[ckh23, BSN, RN]

It sucks that this is happening to you. I personally wouldn't turn in a resignation letter because it is letting them off the hook for possible unemployment benefits. If they are going to fire you than they are going to fire you. However it would be more beneficial to receive unemployment while looking for a job instead of having to live off of whatever you have saved.

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

Are you union? I can't believe they would fire over this. It's mind boggling. Idiots.

[suanna]

You got no warning about your charting deficiency? Hourly outputs, Q2hr VS with hemodynamic calculation is the policy where I work. If a nurse skips this charting it is dangerous for our hospitals liability- even if the care provided was exceptional. If some lawyer looked at that chart and can say to a jury "look, no one assessed this patient for over 8 hrs..." we are going to loose that litigation. What I don't understand is why you didn't hear about this before it got to the point of dismissal. Was thier some law suit the hospital lost over your charting gaps? Did some doctor loose big bucks in a malpractice claim over what you didn't chart and is pushing for your termination? Is the hospital under some sort of scrutiny for charting irregularities that you didn't know about? I don't mean to be unkind, but I can't believe there isn't more to this story than an isolated incident one night when you had a gap in you assessment charting.

[sailornurse]

Do not resign!!!! Make them fire you if that's what they want, they can then go thru the process and you should call the labor board in your state. File a complaint because you have nothing to lose. Ok you can walk away with your dignity intact, I have been thru something similar because I refused to be relief charge so they came up with a bunch of crap. The manage tried to intimidate me by sending me home, so I went shopping then ran into her at a high priced store at the mall. I also knew they had to give me 3 days administrative leave so 3days of pay, (thats so everyone has a cooling off period). Went to clean out my locker the next day after the 3 days were over. I had already gone to the next city 45 miles away and applied at another hospital. So they technically fired me, so I applied for unemployment. I collected about one week of that because I got a job doing home health. That same year I went back to school to get my MSN and became a FNP thinking I will never have to set foot near that hospital. Wrong! I got a job teaching and they sent me to the hospital I had been fired from and to the same floor I used to work on, Boy the jaws dropped especially when they saw I had my Masters and was now a Family NP!!! Oh yeah, the manager that fired me and the assistant DON? Well they had been fired while I was in NP school!!! so karma works, just may take many years. Walk away with your dignity intact. I also had inquired about an NP job at another clinic. The person that called me back had been the original manager that had hired me and said your name sounds familiar, when I realized who she was I told her oh I remember you and thanks I am not interested. You were once my manager.

[mer5992002]

This is so sad.I totally understand your situation.You sound like a really nice person.You dont deserve such treatment.It sucks!

[eriksoln, BSN, RN]

Sounds more like a back door layoff so they don't have to pay severance or make their unemployment tax go up. Don't give them a resignation letter if you're planning on collecting unemployment.

I was wondering about that myself. "Back door terminations" became rampant at my facility and a few others in the surrounding area. Word on the street was that the unemployment office supported the worker when it happened. I was surprised to hear that, but I guess there was some truth to it because the hospitals stopped doing it. I guess if these people had fought for their unemployment benefits and lost, they would have kept doing it.

Long ago, before I was a nurse, I was let go by a large chemical company that designed paints for numerous customers (cell phones, car, house etc). It was as you described your situation...............ticky tacky nothingness that all didn't add up to justification for a write up much less termination. It was late winter (late Jan.) and I wasn't going to be able to land a landscaping job for some time (thats what I did before working for the chem. company). I applied for unemployment benefits and they fought it. I had to do a phone court hearing even. During said phone discussion, I stressed that there were no verbal or written warnings, and of course the company claimed I had mult. warnings. They were asked if they could produce any written warnings...............they answered "no" and that was the end of it. I got my benefits and made it through till the next landscaping season. I found out the reason for the firing or "back door termination" two months later. They had lost their contract with a cell phone making company and had excess workers, most of which went to night shift working on a different contract. When I talked to the one guy who lived near me and still worked for the chem. company, we agreed everyone who had been let go like myself were people who refused night shift.

So, don't internalize the firing too much. Big (and little too) companies have hidden agendas to much of what they do. Sometimes, it truly is out of your control.

[kcmylorn]

I agree with all OP above. I too have been through this back door termination thing over a "documentation' issue. I had been a per diem for this hospital for 2 yrs- as a per deim I was barely getting any shifts, one summer and one winter I worked 2 shifts in a 2-3 month period. I would always sign up for more than my requirement( 2 shift per 6 week schedule) I was also trying to make it up by doing agency. That wasn't bring in enough shifts so I went for a temp position- 6 months temp @ the state DOH office / no cancellation. When the NM found out, she began calling me when she knew I couldn't work, cancelling me on my scheduled shifts, calling me at the temp job and nit picking my documentation. I had 3 patients go bad on one shift- I worked cardiac stepdown- One needed to go to the IR for an intervention at 0830, one- a post op thoracotomy with chest tubes when into respiratory distress and one , an non diabetic whose blood sugar bottomed out( I being per deim when I asked the regular staff about this said"Oh, she's been doing this for 1 week)pt was septic and I sent her to the MICU@ 5:30. I was fired because I documented on my 0830 @ 1000 as a noted:LateEntry: 1000- I guess I should have told the patient "wait, don't do anything- I have to document" Which is perfectly legal and acceptable as long as it is noted as such and mine was. I refused to give them a letter of resignation, I also had a Soney voice recorder in my purse recording the HR meetin with the NM and handed it over to the unemployment. I got my unemployment!! The NM real issue was I was no longer at the hospital's beck and call. Their expectation was- I was to get up at 530 each morning and wait for the phone to ring to come into work and they could cancel me at will- some days, I would go in at 7A and be cancelled at 11A or 3p. With the temp position- I was not avail for their whim and it was at the state dept of health- they must have had something to hide! No one can afford these hospital's nonsense in this economy. Moral of the story- these hospitals nowadays are dishonest and underhanded. Be careful of them. Let them fire you- they owe you the unemployment. Your unemployment will be the max one can collect from unemployment- sit home for how ever long you can. I did. I painted my dining room all summer. and collect the unemployment. After that- try agency- you said you have 3 yrs experience. and don't forget to thank you NM for making this long PAID vacation possible. Tell the NM thank you for her long hard work by going in to work each day and contributing to the unemployemnt benefits of your state. And have a big LOL on her/him!!

Oh and rent a movie for your self during the Nurse Manager's work hours, put your feet up and think of how the NM is running around stressed and aggravated/frazzled.!!

[kcmylorn]

Also. If an employee is terminated, the employER has to report that to the state department of Labor because the employER pays the unemployment insurance( this is an insurance premuim like car insurance) The employER's unemployment premiums have been raised this past year from $7,500 per employee to $15,000 per employee. If the hospital can coherse you to resign they save $15,000. They get away with unfair labor practices and save $15,000. Do Not resign. Let them fire you so you can collect your unemployment and they are forced to explain themselves to the state dept of Labor. The labor dept keeps statistics on people who loose their jobs and why. They also keep those statistics to see if there is a pattern in a certain facility or business. and if their is a pattern- the state goes after them. especially in this economy when there is high unemployment. especially in the south where you have the higher unemployment rates!! Just another food for thought. That hospital maybe putting a noose around it's own neck- an you can help the process!!

[mojitos2go]

You must feel like you are in a nightmare that won't end. I am sorry for your pain and the management team's soul-less behavior. How do these folks sleep at night or even get into nursing? The PTB want to run healthcare systems like businesses but offer no personal improvement program? Shame on them. Your situation reinforces my stance on keeping work separate from my personal life.

This type of scenario seems to be occurring more and more within our disintegrating profession. I witnessed half of my co-workers high-tail it out the ICU when a new director was hired to clean house. Others were blind sided, fired and too humiliated to fight back. It took 4 years for said director to get to me. Long story short, I refused to resign or go to another unit, applied for unemployment and like eriksoln had a telephonic court hearing.

I was on vacation on an island in the Gulf of Mexico and didn't even know if I could get cell service during the hearing. The director, HR rep and 4 other ICU nurses were on the line. You would have thought the hospital was defending a federal murder case. It was difficult not to laugh, knowing how reheorificed 5 out of the 6 of them sounded, I was on vacay and they were not! The hearing officer chastised them for their personal opinions and repeating the same thing. The 4th nurse, a seasoned ICU nurse, would have nothing to do with their script. The ruling was in my favor.

Did the firing affect future employment in the middle of a recession? Nope. In fact, the HR director at the new employer had worked at my former workplace and was familiar with the M.O.

Oh, and the darling director: she is supporting her out-of-work boyfriend, her kids have nothing to do with her and her house is worth 100K less than what she paid for it. Karma is a wonderful thing.

When one door closes another door opens but that hallway in between seems mighty dark. OP, do something really nice for yourself because you are worth it. Take care and keep us posted.

[MommyandRN]

That is ridiculous! Do NOT write a letter of resignation. Tell them to either fire you or you are going to keep working. They can not force you to quit. You can hire a lawyer to guide you about this. A friend of mine in a diffeernt field recently had a lawyer guide her through something similar. They wanted her to resign and her lawyer told her not to and she still has her job. If they want to fire you so be it. But do not resign. I personally would bring the issue to the DON or CEO. Maybe they can change their policy to an assessment at the beginning of a 12 hour shift and then once again either 4 or 8 hrs later.

This is a perfect example of why good nurses leave the field of nursing. There is no support whatsoever by management. The only profession where you would be fired for something so ridiculous. Kudos for you for doing your assessment at the beginning of your shift. That is the sign of a good nurse. However another assessment would have been required again at either midnight or 4am. I worked on a floor with that policy, and I would asses at 8pm, even if they just had one at 4pm. Then I would do another assessment at either midnight or 4 am depending on the pt sleeping etc. Maybe your floor needs to re-evaluate its policies.

[Ruthfarmer]

There is NO benefit to you in writing a letter of resignation. It would only serve to harm you.

File for unemployment and be prepared for your claim to be denied and be prepared to appeal the denial. Hopefully you will find another position sooner than later, because if unemployment is as meager in your state as it is in Louisiana ($247 per week and less than that in Mississippi), your days unemployed will be difficult.

The main thing I want so desperately to impart to you is this: Damn good nurses get fired EVERYDAY for NO good reason. Innumerable false "reasons" are given for firing them. The actual reasons have to do with baser aspects of human nature, such as supervisors who feel threatened by competent employees. Organizations that cultivate dishonest atmosphere where cutting corners and falsifying records are threatened by employees who demonstrate integrity.

It is a wretched thing to be fired for no GOOD reason from a job you have enjoyed and done well. The wretchedness is compounded by the super difficult economic problems our country is facing.

Keep your head up and carry yourself with pride and dignity. Be prepared for people to be make unflattering assumptions about you solely on the basis of your having been fired. Be prepared to be rejected for employment because you have been fired. Keep in mind that the organizations that reject you are probably not organizations that you really want to work for anyway. Keep your head up.

This is not a fun or happy situation to experience. I know you must be fiercely disappointed right now. Disappointment can weigh so heavily that it feels like failure. It is not failure.

As trite as it sounds, this can be a time for tremendous personal growth. You can find yourself utterly devastated and you can stay defeated and distraught OR you can pause and try to see just what you can learn from this situation. All you can do is all you can do. You can do nothing more. What's meant to be will be. Things will work out for you.

Yes, this is the voice of experience talking to you.