New Nurse Fired After 3 months (cant find another job)

Nurses Disabilities

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Hello all!

I am in serious need of help!

I was fired from my first job as an RN at a local hospital. I was put on a ventilator/respiratory floor even though I told them my interest was more surgical based...

In early June, I had a patient get out of bed and the alarm never went off. She made it into the bathroom and then fell. I had only been working since mid-march and was very overwhelmed. While filling out the incident report, I got no help from my preceptor. She told me to submit it and I accidentally left some information out of it.

When my supervisor came in that morning she asked me about it and I explained my side of the story. She called me later to say I had to have a meeting with her and HR to discuss discipline. I was fired..

I made the mistake of telling my supervisor I had anxiety, trying to be upfront with her... Maybe I should have known that my anxiety would be too strong to be a nurse at all...

She met with me once and mentioned switching floors, but she never got back to me...

I was fired in June. I have been putting applications out everywhere and cannot find anything. I am debating getting out of the nursing field altogether at this point. I have even tried to find smaller jobs just to make some money (since I cant get unemployment), but nobody wants to hire me because I'm over qualified. I cant even get reception jobs, whether its in the healthcare field or not...

I'm running out of money, options and desire to even live at this point.

Does anybody have any ideas? I've tried networking with professors and former class mates to no avail...

Thanks...

Specializes in Stepdown . Telemetry.

I know this post is a little old...but wow...

Your patient was a fall risk, you had them with a bed alarm, which is your main secondary prevention, but they fell anyways and the alarm failed to activate...so you filled out the incident report.

i have gotten extensive help on these reports esp in the beginning, and have always had the opportunity to talk to the manager to add things or clarify...

So basically your facility believes that one should be axed if an error occurs even if they follow protocol?

Maybe the alarm was out of position, or the outlet died...i guess if it was broken from the start one should make sure its functioning, and replace it. This last thing would be similar a failure to activate or use a bed alarm...a failure to follow safety protocol...

but still, this happens to the best nurses, an oversight, misjudgement, or an error...nurses should not be fired bc they are human.

I'm sorry this happened...i would definitely investigate more into the reasoning for firing you.

I'm very sorry silent wolf. It looks like you fell in a trap called nursing. You were wrongfully terminated. Your boss used you as the scapegoat. Yes, you were basically backstabbed by your preceptor aka another nurse. That's how this field operates. Your eaten and spit back out so you can endure more pain. You must of fell for the lie that is nursing. You probably see what it's really like now. If i were you, i'd stop wasting anymore precious time and find a career that you'll enjoy. Nurses make 50-75k on avg. Accountants, Engineers, Computer Scientists, with similar degrees make the same if not a little bit more. There are plenty of choices and a lot of job with way less stress.

Specializes in Infection Control, Med/Surg, LTC.

You were wrongfully discharged! First, the alarm may have malfunctioned and should have been evaluated by biomed or engineering. Most facilities are not even using alarms as CMS considers them a restraint, a passive restraint to be sure, but a restrained all the same.

Secondly, you should have received instruction regarding occurrence reports in orientation AND been told your preceptors would walk you through the first one.

That did not happen, so your ass of a manager compounded this poor excuse for orientation and preceptors, and actually retaliated against you!

For heavens sake, people FALL. Even with alarms. I had one fall standing right next to me. We were standing at a window side by side and he simply toppled over. I could not turn fast enough to catch him and probably could have done nothing to prevent anyway as at the time I weighed 99 pounds at 4' 10" and he was 6' 3" and about 220 pounds. Went over like a downed tree. Got a lovely goose egg. And laid on the floor laughing. We found out he had a heart problem that caused it. Lucky he was not on his job at the time - he drove a semi!

I think I'd find a labor lawyer. Unless you are employed in a 'work at will' state, in which case you may resign any time without giving a reason but they can also discharge you for no reason. Then you are screwed, because a labor lawyer can do you no good.

Silent wolves....I just happened to see this today...I see its a very old post....im so sorry this happened to you. ... I have had some bad experiences before but nothing that crazy. I hope and pray that you have been able to recover from that. I just recently lost my job for no other reason than I worked with a female nurse who lied and they believed her over me....why ? Because managers always believe what they are told. Makes it easy to backstabb your coworkers. ...females are cold *******...male nurses never act like that....you probably won't see this post but I was hoping that you were ok. I wish I could help. Ive been a nurse for 30 years and I have for most of that time regretted my choice of profession. It has sooooo many problems. You get treated like **** by just about everyone MDs, other nurses, patients, management. ....I havent figured out what im going to do yet...I would like to hear how you are doing now.

Specializes in Rehabilitation.

Hi tiredofthisRN! Things are a little improved... I got a job finally on a rehab floor in a nursing home. I've. Even there for 7 months now. It's been very hard, with my anxiety and worrying about getting fired again...

i wish I had known more about nursing when I first got into it. Not sure I would have chosen it after all. Now my health issues are flaring up and I have no energy. I don't feel like I will last an entire year here to gain enough experience to find a quieter job... Don't know what else to do though, so just working and sleeping away my days off...

Does anyone here know how to help me? I know this post is old but its still open and so I'm seeking help.

I recently let my emotions get to me at work and raised my voice at a resident as I was walking down the hallway. I was put under investigation for verbal abuse and ultimately terminated. I'm scared to even consider working again and I'm worried that this will lead to worse consequences later on. Will I be able to ever get a job again in nursing? If so how do I explain how I'm learning? I'm going to therapy/counseling soon so I'm attempting to learn and grow...but will anyone really take someone like me who has done something as serious as this?

Specializes in Infectious Disease, Neuro, Research.
Does anyone here know how to help me? I know this post is old but its still open and so I'm seeking help.

I recently let my emotions get to me at work and raised my voice at a resident as I was walking down the hallway. I was put under investigation for verbal abuse and ultimately terminated. I'm scared to even consider working again and I'm worried that this will lead to worse consequences later on. Will I be able to ever get a job again in nursing? If so how do I explain how I'm learning? I'm going to therapy/counseling soon so I'm attempting to learn and grow...but will anyone really take someone like me who has done something as serious as this?

Okay, is that all of the story? Raising your voice only gets you in trouble in a frilly-lace undies facility that has no desire to resolve issues, only pay their MBAs to take a trowel and spread a nice warm layer of BS over everything.:borg: "We all talk alike. We all like the same things. If you say a Member of the Collective is WRONG, you are a violator. We will not tolerate YOU."

If it was a scream-down, that's a bit more of a problem, but as long as it wasn't a disciplinary action with/to the BoN, it should not be a significant issue. I may be a variance of the collective here, but I have little patience for the concepts of "verbal violence", "bullying", etc.. Do they exist? Yes, but they are "Unprofessional conduct" or "Insubordination". Creating a special concept of violence is mental wanking for folks who can't deal with reality. Anyhow, if you're seeking assistance in new coping methods, and assuming your performance otherwise is good/excellent, it should not be a problem. Your main issue will be receiving constructive criticism constructively and changing something of your self-concept after termination.

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