Discouraged

Nurses LPN/LVN

Published

Hello, everyone :) I'm new to the forum. I came here to vent my frustration. Hopefully, this will be read by someone who has experienced something similar.

I'll get right to it. 4 years ago I made a huge and careless mistake for which I was fired for (deservedly so) and I have not been able to live it down. No action has ever been taken against my license fortunately, but whenever I am asked in an interview "Why did you leave I have to say I was fired and explain the reason. It's extremely difficult rehashing this over and over and over again. I learned my lesson.

Brace yourself. I had removed meds from the narc box and lost track of the medicine. A dementia patient got a hold of an entire bottle of narcotic pain meds that was intended for another patient. I verified the count immediately and noted the count was correct, thankfully. But it was too late and the damage was done. Even though the patient had not ingested any of the med, it was negligence on my part.

I've since worked another nursing job (fortunately-but only because they hired me on the spot asking me very few questions. Was my first clue that the place was a hell hole) but it's just to get me by. I get so angry after interviews because I'm condescended to after I tell them about the experience. Professionally speaking the least they could do is at least TRY to contain their shock and dismay just to be courteous. I might as well have committed a felony or confessed shooting up heroin.

Fortunately, I've been offered a job in the 'medical field' because I'm a nurse. The downside is that the wage is unbelievably low, even for a new grad and I've been nursing for 12 years. I now feel like I'll never get a decent paying job again or have much to look forward to. I am SO grateful to start a new job that isn't minimum wage and so disappointed at the same time.

Any positivity and optimism is welcome and very appreciated.

Thanks :)

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We'll I'm sorry to hear that you are going through that ... I know in the mix if the hustle and bustle of things you can lose track of something .. I think we are all human and mistakes happen. Luckily no one was harmed. I know it's tuff to find a good paying job that is pleasant to work at. I would say don't put that employer on your resume. Keep your head up and stay Positive. It could be worse.

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I had a girl I went to nursing school with who made a similar mistake she simply would lie about the experience and after a few years no one would call. I am not sure if this is what you want to hear but I hope it helps!

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I'm very sorry to hear about your situation. I definitely agreed with Nurseypoo82 don't put the other employer in your application nor your resume. Stay strong and faith. I believe that you will get something better :)

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Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. It never occurred to me to leave that job off of my resume. It would leave a 1 1/2 year gap of time off of my resume and I've read in multiple resume writing articles that it's not a good idea to omit a job. Also, job applications request that time gaps between jobs be accounted for (even though I don't think it's anyone's business why you weren't working). I can't lie about it. If I did it would grate at me and I'd never sleep again. I'm just so aggravated and so sick of being rejected. It would be wonderful if my honesty about the situation was enough to garner some respect. Nursingiswithinme...I hope you are right that I will get something better. :)

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That doesn't sound unforgivable, to me ...but maybe you should gloss over it a little bit. I wouldn't leave the job off my resume, but I wouldn't go into so much detail about the incident, either. Just let them know you were "ready to move on" and leave it at that.

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Specializes in geriatrics, IV, Nurse management.

I'd hire you in a heartbeat OP. You're honest and open about your error. Most lie to me during interviews and I find out later.

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Specializes in Home Care.

When you talk about that error you need to talk about what you learned and how you won't make the same mistake again.

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Itsmejuli...I agree and I do. I state what happened and what I learned from it. I wish it was enough. It's tough 'out there'. I really appreciate the time everyone is taking to comment. It helps more than you know. I'm hoping Homecare might be good route for me considering it would be one patient at a time in there home; meaning the company might not view me as such a liability b/c there wouldn't be multiple patients to give wrong meds too. What a nightmare nursing is sometimes. I'm thinking very seriously about getting out of patient care.

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Is there another way you can word it? Medication error and time management issues? Those happen to everyone and it's pretty easy to learn from those mistakes. I wouldn't be dishonest about it, but maybe a little sugarcoating is in order.

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Thanks, NurseDirtyBird :) My experience with interviewers is that they ask me to describe the med error or to describe the incident. What do you think about me just saying that I gave the wrong med to the wrong patient?

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"Losing track of narcotics = losing nursing license." -Confucius

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