ADVICE: Director of nursing DRAMA:/ unfair treatment? or Do I need to toughen up?

[lmjsierra]

ADVICE please.... Am I being treated unfairly?????

This is a long story but I will try to shorten it as much as possible while including the details needed.

I have worked at a home health company for almost nine years. Seven of those years ONLY as a CNA.The last couple years as a CNA and kinda a LPN. I love the company and love what they stand for. My goal was to be a RN there someday. I completed my LPN August 2014. Passed the PNCLEX. I was ecstatic! I immediately called the new DON who recently replaced the old DON who passed away. I left several messages for her but was never able to reach her. I finally got a hold of her and told her I passed the PNCLEX and if there were any visits I could do. She told me I needed a year experience. I was a bit disappointed but understood. I continued to work for the same home health company doing my same CNA visits while picking up LPN visits through various other companies. I was contacted by her in late February 2015 or early March 2015 (before the one year mark) asking if I could cover some PDN shifts for her that she couldn't find coverage for. This is their ONLY PDN case in the whole company. I picked up the shifts that needed coverage. Friday, Saturday and Sunday 5-10PM and still kept my CNA shifts with the company. I loved the family I was doing PDN shifts with.

During the next couple years I would email the DON and ask if she had any visits open that I could also pick up. She always responded no nothing is open. I would then be looking for nursing jobs online to make extra money and I would constantly see ads on indeed and craigslist advertising for a LPN/RN to do home health visits for this same company I was trying to get nursing visits at.

Throughout the year I was doing the PDN shifts Friday-Sunday 5-10PM shifts. My shifts constantly changed I was simply sent an email of updated nursing schedule for the family. In the end I ended up only having a Friday 5-10PM shift and was replaced by other nurses on the other nights. KEEP in mind I did call out only once and had a DR note because I had just had a medical procedure done. Ok....... I then had to have foot surgery I gave a 2 month notice had a dr note and orders for a 6 week recovery. After my recovery I contacted the DON she told me my shift had been permanently filled. I was very disappointed to say the least but i was understanding to the family that they had to get the shift filled.

Still seeing ads on craigslist and indeed for LPN/RN to do nursing visits I would reach out to her and still get the same reply that nothing was open. There was even I couple times I applied to the online application and never got a call.

I was once doing my CNA visit and ran into a new RN who was there giving my client his medication. We were talking and I told her i wanted to go back to school for my RN and I told her I was a LPN she was like why aren't you doing nursing for "blank company" I replied I want to but there are no openings for visits she said yes there is they just hired 2 new LPNs. I emailed the DON that night asking and she replied no there were no openings. I ran into the RN again and she said do you ask the DON i said yes she said there were no openings. She said you can have my weekend night visits I don't want them anymore. She said I will ask the DON if you can take them over for me. She constantly asked the DON and got no reply. Finally DON told her I could not take over her visits because I have not been checked off on med admin. I emailed DON and asked her if I could get checked off so I can take over the med admin visits. She responded that she had gave them to other LPNS.

June 2016: Still checking in with DON every few months and asking if any nursing visits opened up. She said there were no visits but she had Friday and Saturday PDN overnight visits 10pm-6am with the same family I use to have. I reluctantly accepted the position but knew at least it would be good experience and at least it was nursing work.

This past Tuesday I received a group email from DON saying a nurse had quit and they needed permeant coverage for 8 visits Saturday and 7 visits Sunday. I mediately replied that I would take all the visits. I was ecstatic! I knew most the names on there I was still there CNA and had them for the past 9 years. She emailed me back saying OK. I asked her if we could adjust the times of the visit a bit because I would be coming off an overnight we adjusted times accordingly and we both agreed to the new schedule. I was beyond happy. Two years later I finally got some visits! The next day I checked my work email and seen a email titled updated schedule she took me off 85% of the visits and replaced me with another LPN. I replied back saying I was upset that I was not informed of the decision to remove me from the visits. She replied that she thought about the fact that i had overnights the night before and she wants me to be able to sleep and it was a safety concern MIND YOU the updated schedule was 1000x worse for my sleep.

I get off my overnight at 6AM

30 min drive home.

I am supposed to be at a location X which is a 30 mins from house at 8AM

do visit drive 30 mins home and be back to be back at location X 30 min from my house at 12:30PM

drive the 30 mins home and sleep again then drive back to the 30 mins location at 3PM

how is this safer?????? UGH!

I am beyond frustrated!

[Pangea Reunited, ASN, RN]

After reading all that, the biggest impression I got is that you do not take "hints" well. It's time to move on.

[lmjsierra]

Thank you for the advice. It was honest and I appreciate that. I am not sure why she doesn't like me when I have done nothing but been a team player. I honestly don't even know her well enough to hate me but I do believe it would be worth moving on.

[caliotter3]

You can not blame them for taking advantage of you. You gave your permission. Better to be a slow learner than not to learn at all. Time to move on down the road.

[lmjsierra]

As my first nursing job and maybe being young and naive. I thought I would have to start somewhere as a nurse and starting at the bottom basically with the undesirable shifts. I guess even though I realized she did not like me. I had a hard time comprehending how she decided she did not like me from day one of my LPN nursing adventure with the company.

[nutella, MSN, RN]

To be honest - I do not know why you stay with that company at all.

You are a LPN, passed the test, are licensed and work as a CNA??? Why???

They do not want to hire you as a LPN. They only use you when they need somebody for CNA work. It might be something personal or something else, not sure. But it is very clear that they simply do not want to hire you for real.

If you want to find a fulltime LPN position you need to move on. Make sure you have a good reference from that company and apply to LPN jobs that are more substantial so you get solid experience.

[nutella, MSN, RN]

As my first nursing job and maybe being young and naive. I thought I would have to start somewhere as a nurse and starting at the bottom basically. I guess even though I realized she did not like me. I had a hard time comprehending how she decided she did not like me from day one of my nursing adventure with the company.

Sometimes things do not work out - in that case find a place where you fit in and they want you.

[lmjsierra]

Thank you for the comment. Very good advice without making me feel like an idiot.

[NanikRN]

As my first nursing job and maybe being young and naive. I thought I would have to start somewhere as a nurse and starting at the bottom basically with the undesirable shifts. I guess even though I realized she did not like me. I had a hard time comprehending how she decided she did not like me from day one of my LPN nursing adventure with the company.

Also entirely possible that she wants you to do,CNA work cause youre good at it Maybe she has trouble finding others to do a job as well. If so, its a one-sided arrangement. Shes getting what she wants/needs without considering your needs.

Move on...

[DowntheRiver]

It is time to move on. You know what you are worth. It appears from your post that this company is using you. I honestly don't know how you stuck around this long. Fool me once and I am gone. You seem competent - really, time to move on. Get your RN if you want to, get your MSN if you want - the possibilities are endless. Please don't put anymore time and effecting dwelling on this job and how this DON treats you. You deserve better!

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Still seeing ads on craigslist and indeed for LPN/RN to do nursing visits I would reach out to her and still get the same reply that nothing was open. There was even I couple times I applied to the online application and never got a call.

This particular home health company surely has positions open for LPNs/RNs that need to be filled. However, here is the kicker...they do not want to hire you to fill any of their open positions.

The harsh reality is that the DON feels a certain way about you that isn't terribly positive, or else you would have already been working full-time for this organization. They continually rake you across the coals and you still do not catch the blaring clues that they dislike something about you.

It is time to move on and find an employer who values your contributions. No self-respecting person would continually put up with this substandard treatment.

[gonzo1, ASN, RN]

It's time to move on. The fact that you can put 9 years of experience with this one company on your resume is very good. Jut tell interviewers that there was a change in management and you are taking this opportunity to branch out into new nursing experiences as you completed your LPN not long ago.

They will be able to read between the lines and see that you are a very stable employee and are leaving due to new management. This happens all the time and recently happened to me and about 30 nurses I worked with.

Congrats on your longevity and completing your LPN.