Do nurses get fired often?

Nurses Relations

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It seems like I see people talking on here constantly about how they were fired from their first job, or their last job, or know several people who were fired. Do nurses get fired a lot, especially for relatively minor errors? Is it a career ender? It just seems so odd to me, but I'm coming from a career in publishing where I only saw maybe five people fired in twelve years at several companies, and three of them were either stealing or using Media on their work computers. It's just really, really rare, so it seems totally bizarre to me to think that nurses get fired on a regular basis. Can you still get a job after that (assuming it was for something like a med error, not for stealing narcotics or violently abusing a patient or something like that)?

I just got fired because my husband wrote an anonymous email to my boss with legitimate complaints about one of my coworkers

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Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.

The only job I have been fired from is LTC. But the take in & spit out people like nothing. The last nursing home I applied at I should've known better. I had only been a nurse for a year. It seemed from the get go my ADON & DON didn't like me & wanted to get get rid of me. I didn't have much orientation then they threw me on the floor. I would try to ask other nurses questions or for help & I wouldn't get much. I would constantly get called into the ADON's office for counseling or to sign papers. Then finally I was fired.

But how you ask? Did my DON call me in, talk to me & tell me why and what went wrong? No. A coworker (very cliquey there) called me in & then told me to call her the next day. I CALLED her & she fired me OVER THE PHONE! I bit my tongue. I wanted to give her a verbal lashing but, I didn't.

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Specializes in LTC, Psych, M/S.

I was also fired over the phone! Actually, it was worded "seek other employment and then give resignation, or it will get ugly.". DON told me that "my coworkers didn't like me" and some other vague statements about my work performance but no specific examples.

Apparently it is easier for managers to fire someone over the phone than face to face.

Moral of the story: when work calls do NOT answer the phone. Let it go to voicemail and call them back, if you want.

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I got fired ( the only time) for not smiling enough.

Basically , it's how your manager feels about you... that determines whether or not you'll get the heave-ho for ANY issue.

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Hello all, maybe you can all help!

I just started a CNA state job and during orientation I ended up reporting a female CNA who has been there for a long time for (1) squeezing a resident's face, rinsing a resident's perineal area when providing perineal care with a basin of water in the bed, and talking about how ill a resident was, how he is going to die soon and how his wife is in denial of how ill he is in front of him and he was alert, but non verbal.

At first I just went to the orientation educator, who happened to be a supervisor, and asked her what I should do because all of those things upset me bc I felt that this CNA was not providing good care to her residents and I asked to keep this anonymous and the supervisor said she would, but then a week later after discussing it with the charge nurse she told me that the CNA would figure out that I said something either way and that they were just going to directly speak to her.

Now, for the past month I have felt that no one is helping me and the CNA that I reported told the charge nurse that I was too slow and talked to the resident's too much and it turns out that this CNA that I reported has been talking bad about me to other CNAs on different shifts and that is why no one is helping me. I found this out because a CNA that was helping me and stayed later was told by someone on a different shift not to help me because I would just go to the supervisors and tell on her.

Today I went to my charge nurse and they are going to look into this and float me until they figure this out. I feel like I did the right thing, but at the same thing I feel like the charge nurse was aggravated and now Im afraid that this will turn into something even bigger.

Please help me! Did I do the right thing? Any suggestions?

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I was fired from my very first nursing job. It was in a large cardio office and I was let go during my initial 90-day new hire probation period. I had been licensed 2 weeks. I was the only LPN in the entire organization, it was all RNs and MAs. One of the RNs did not like me because I asked questions and she doesn't like anyone talking while she's working--she'd even move to another station to avoid a particularly chatty MA. I had been assigned to phone triage one week and got a phone call from a pt demanding to speak to her cardio personally; when I told pt the doc was in surgery and not available she screamed at me and hung up. Pt called back, again demanded her cardio, I told the same thing, she demanded we page doc in the OR and have him pick up the phone. I said he's elbow-deep in someone's chest cavity and physically can't, but we could see her in the office with one of our other 9 docs. She screamed at me again and hung up. After a few more calls like that, I asked the head doc in the group, the founder of the practice, and he refused to take the call and told me I was doing the right thing. I told pt, again, to come be seen in office or go to the ER (her BP was elevated) and her doc is at the hospital and would be the one to see her in the ER. She yelled at me again. I was in tears at this point. When she called back (and every time she called she demanded to speak to me by name, refused to leave a message on the line) I asked if any other nurse would talk to her because she was not going to listen to me but would believe it from another source, and pt even asked to speak with someone else. Not a single nurse answered. I told her the same info, she yelled at me and hung up again, then called our main office and filed a formal complaint about me. A week later I got a call to go to the main office, and the RN that didn't like me told me I might want to bring my stuff with me because I might not be coming back. Yep, I was fired, and the RN knew she was going to let me go before I did.

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Specializes in Cardiac and Psyche.

Thank you enchantmentdis for your statement, "After 20 years in the business i am beyond hurt and discouraged. " Very well put. My sentiments exactly after 27 years, trying to hang in there until retirement.....

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Louisiana is in the deep South and Nurses here would give up their jobs before joining a union as apparently most of them are unable to think on their own about this subject.

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I was fired and was refused unemployment but I apealed and had a hearing with a judge (by phone) My x employer did not show up (by phone) and the judge took my testimony and I won and got my unemployment.

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I was fired after 6 months of work after an incident involving the charge nurse neglecting to get a md order for something that required it. In the 6 months I worked there we went through 4 dons with three being let go. We had 2 administrators and every week I was there another nurse was fired. It was a behavoral hospital and had run ins with the state. Whenever sentinel type events happened the matter was solved by discharging a nurse so the hospital could say they had taken care of the problem. It is really weird to have so many sentinel type events occurring in a hospital that never had more than 30 patients and often much less. It is actually the most nurses I have seen fired in my 42 year nursing career.

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Specializes in Critical care.
Louisiana is in the deep South and Nurses here would give up their jobs before joining a union as apparently most of them are unable to think on their own about this subject.

The reason I have worked all 43 years in union hospitals. It is just silly you can be fired without representation.

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I've only seen 2 nurses get fired. Both of their situations were similar with respect to the fact that they made the same mistake over and over again despite being spoken to numerous times. The mistakes were fairly minor as a one-off, but being habitual, it is effectively not doing your job and being aware that your duties are being neglected.

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