Advice regarding termination

go to your union, and if you're one of the unlucky nurses to not have one, hire a lawyer. miscounted narcotics happen with such regularity that if they used that as the standard for firing nurses, there would be no one working. hence, i suspect that your termination reason was really is a smokescreen for something else. they were looking for a reason to get rid of you.

good luck!

support your nursing unions!

That's an incredibly bogus reason for termination.

Don't tell them you were fired. Don't lie, but say that the ratios had become dangerous and you were no longer happy.

And good luck!

Get an Attorney.

Get an Attorney.

To do what? In my state, NY, it is "at will" and one can be fired because they don't like your nail polish.

Yes, extremely bogus reason and I know it was a smokescreen. They were downsizing,etc. However, i cant lie on an application. I work in a right to work state, Florida. Unions I wish. Thank you for your support, but explaining the reason to prospective employers is my dilemna. I was at that facility more than 2 yrs and its sister facility 2 yrs.

If your state is like mine (and we are an at-will state too), we have facilities around here that routinely fire people and then hire them back. It's like they are playing games. Being fired in nursing is so not like other careers, and sometimes I think a firing is not taken as seriously in nursing as in other jobs if a future potential employer of yours has been around the block in nursing. I say be honest but don't dis your firing facility, even though it is a well-deserved dis.

I don't know about FL in this regard, but consider filing for unemployment. In my state you can receive benefits if you're fired, if you didn't do anything really messed up.

If we continue to punish nurses for errors like this one which resulted in no harm to any patient, we will find ourselves without any nurses willing to step if if they do make an error. UMASS Med School just did a survey on reporting medication errors in LTC. We all make errors...most of the time it's a systems problem. The same thing happens in every facility....you're tired after a long shift and you hurry through the count. Technically, whoever accepts the count as correct and holds the keys is responsible for the narcotics, but to get fired for something as trivial as this when it obviously wasn't a case of diversion? Good luck with your search. I hope your next job has reasonable managers.

Tell potential employers exactly what you told us. Don't fudge the truth. People do check references, and they appreciate honesty.

well before you tell the truth....get a friend to check and see what they say first. I tried the truth and it put me back some

these folks that don't live/work in an "at will" state don't have a clue.

my advice, when you get another job, also get another job pt/prn. you'll basically never be without a job/references even if you lose one of the jobs, much easier to get another job when you already have a job.

nursing is just a job (they come and go), treat it as such.

Some helpful info on this site to handling firing with your next work search:

http://jobsearch.about.com/od/salary/a/fired.htm