I have been a nurse for 14 yrs, working in ltc for about 9 years. I was terminated from my last position because of an incident where the count was off by one but not noticed until the next shift. The error was found and accounted for within 24 hrs. The nurse I counted off with had noted it in the MAR and not in the narc book. This has never happened before. It was particularly noisy at the nurses station when we were counting. Nevertheless, the other nurse was written up and I was terminated. Lousy blow to the ego.I truly believe that this was related to internal politics. A year prior I had to report a nurse who was allowing her CNA to draw up insulin, do accuchecks, and give injections without her supervision. She thought it was fine because the CNA was a graduate nurse though she hadnt even taken her boards yet!!! Prior to my termination, they had downsized us, and instead of 20 residents we now had 30 with a nurse floating between the 2 floors (not good). I had an excellent rapport with staff, many who called me and supported me. I am still in touch with some. Well, sorry about the post...but now I am job searching ...what to say on an interview when asked why terminated...??? I am an RN in good standing, not under investigation, etc....I went above and beyond in this position...mentored many..any suggestions? And also I am considering going into Staff Development ..any ideas thoughts..Thank you
In this economy, this crap is happening everywhere. Management is jumping at any chance to get rid of warm bodies. I am sorry this happened to you. It's ridiculous! Here is a really good article that tells what to say in an interview: http://jobsearch.about.com/od/interviewquestionsanswers/a/interviewfired.htm Good luck!
I live in Oregon. When I am called about a previous employee the only thing we are allowed to say is if they would be a candidate for rehire or not. The only explanation of a "no rehire" has to come from the former employee.
Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.
We are supposed to only say the dates the person worked for us and if we would rehire. I live in a very small community....we all know or know of each other so we tend to say what we know about an employee and always off the record. One DNS doesn't want to stick another with a bad employee.
Ditto what CapeCod said in our state too (Missouri). One facility fired me for excessive abscences. I did put on the next application that I was fired, but never asked why. Claiming you were terminated on your app still makes you honest, but I wouldn't go into detail unless the next facility specifically asks you why. Just my less than 2 cents'!
Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.
Depending on the state where you work, if you were terminated for cause an attorney may be a total waste of your time and money. I don't recommend a consultation with an attorney unless you feel that your civil rights were violated because you fall into a protected class or there was a violation of your union contract that could not be resolved by grievance following the termination.
First of all, on a reference check your former employer cannot tell a prospective employer that you were terminated. They can give them the dates that you were employed there and your salary. If you worked at that facility for that period of time you might just want to explain to a prospective employer that they were downsizing and your position was eliminated and leave it at that. Since this incident involved a narcotic discrepancy I would be very careful in trying to describe this incident if you choose to discuss it. You do not want to make negative remarks about your former employer and you do not want to give anyone even the remote impression that you might have a substance abuse problem. If your employer reported you to the board of nursing at the time of your termination, that is a different story. If you are under investigation by the board, no one will hire you until that matter is resolved.
Before you apply for other jobs you can hire an outside agency to do a reference check for you for about $60. Thay act as your agent and they call your former employer and ask for reference information as is they were going to hire you. This is a way to determine exactly what is being provided when someone asks for a reference. HR does not give out much info however because they do not want to get sued. And if you are in a protected class this is a potential area of liability for them. But there is nothing you can do about the behind the scene references. When I was the director of a large ED in Houston I knew almost every other manager and director in town and we would always call each other for the back door reference check. If you are dealing with this, you will never be able to determine what information was provided to your prospetive employer and by who.
CaLLaCoDe, BSN, RN
1,174 Posts
Some helpful info on this site to handling firing with your next work search:
http://jobsearch.about.com/od/salary/a/fired.htm