Deciding whether to stay in nursing

[hartmoon]

I was terminated from my first and only hospital employment after nearly 24 yrs. in late Jan.I am an RN. I wanted to be a nurse since I was 10.

I have never done anything to cause anyone harm nor have I acted in an unethical way and after going through my 23 years of employment records and evaluations, I know that I have nearly all above ave reviews with several ave reviews and nothing negativein my record. Despite all of that I was terminated as a result of having to use professional judgement which I and all of my coworkers and physicians are suppotive of rearding pain medication delivery to a post op patient. The patient was never interviewed by anyone other than myself and the floor nurse receiving her and that nurse has also agreed with my evaluation of the patient and provided my Attorney wth a statement.This patient received Duramorph following and uneventful , routine surgery. She c/o pain in shoulder area in rr. I attempted to provide the patient with medication. I had to find the anesthesiologist, obtain order, go to pixus, none of the orderes were entered, i spoke with the pharmacist for at least 5 min. to staighten out the roadblock, and by that time the hour of rr time was complete, patient was in NO acute distress and spoke to myself and visitors in normal way. My Unit director had told all staff the day before this that PAIN was no reason to override the med. admin. system, therefore knowing i had to begin the next surgery in very short time and all of the above I decided to move the pt to her room , give report to her receiving nurse and allow her to mediacte her knowing by then the med would be entered in the system. I informed the patient of all of this and I did just that. the patient received her pain med within 10 min after stating her pain scale was reduced from 5 to 4 without med. I completed circulating and recovering the following pt and then was asked to change clothes and go to HR where I was suspended pending termination. I was terminated three days later and then informed they would be filing a comlaint with the state against my license. The formal complaint is Improper prescribing without criminal action. I have received full support from everyone with exeption of administration. I have a new job, an expensive lawyer and a list three pages long of nurses over 40 who've been terminated. There is currently another case against the hospital for wrongful termination which is preliminarily in the employees favor.My current problem is one of depression which is becoming more severe and giving serious thought to leaving this career. I don't understand why when there is the nursing shortage, a hospital can unthinkingly and uncaringly hire younger nurses to pay them less and get rid of their more expensive nurses and all the experience we have and be so cruel to affect the rest of their lives.

[Demonsthenes]

It appears to me, also, that the reason given for your termination was a mere "pretext" and that the real reason was based upon an illegal discrimination based upon age. There was a recent article by an elderly R.N. in the Dallas Morning News whose nursing credentials were impecabble but who hasn't been able to find R.N. employment. The reason was clear. She was illegally discriminated against in employment, like yourself, because of her age. The newspaper article went on to describe how illegal discrimination in employment because of age is as prevalent in nursing as in other fields.

I am a 59 year old R.N.. I believe that to hold you liable for in breach of nursing licensure or other legal duties that the general rules of professional negligence must apply. That is, the preponderance of the evidence must show: 1. Duty 2. Breech of duty 3. Causation 4. Damages. Given the same and the facts of your case, it appears to me that you have a very good case against your former employeer who should settle quickly with you, withdraw their complaint with the state nursing boards, and apologize to you.

Best of luck!

[Cassinia]

Sounds like you worked at the place I did. I was wrongfully terminated because they needed to cut the budget and I was the only full-time day nurse left; I also was there for 13 years. Which, according to them, I suddenly developed an "attitude problem" when they asked me my opinion on something during a meeting. An opinion, by the way, which never changed since the start of the program many years prior. The hosp. tried to block my unemployment, we went through arbitration, and the mediator wrote in his judgment it was clear I was fired for reasons other than what they accused me of. I got the unemployment payments finally. Actually, if I was nasty enough, I could have sued them for not following the Disabilities Act because as a hearing impaired nurse (bilateral aids) they didn't do anything to accomodate this when it came to the phones; at least not until 2 years prior to my termination when I made a comment during a training session and they were talking about the disabled patient; I made a comment about being the disabled nurse! I did speak w/IL Dept of Labor after the termination and I did have a case, but all it would do would get my job back. I didn't want it!

All this did for me was to make me decide I would never work in a hospital again. And, yes, I'm over 40. I thought about returning to teaching because I've got my certs for Special Education and Jr High as well, but I wanted something a bit more stable. I finally found a job in a private company which does case management for health plans. I miss the patients and the technical nursing, but I don't miss the politics! I'm not really happy here, but I'm still in the nursing field and use my knowledge as well as learn a lot of new things. My ideal job would be a jammie job at home writing novels; I'll just have to see how my third one does before I quit my daytime job. :chuckle

And, yes, it's stupid for hospitals to get rid of the older, well-seasoned nurses, especially during a nursing shortage. But, apparently, the business people know what's best for the medical profession.

[Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN]

Hartmoon,

I am so sorry. The "healthcare" industry pretty much just chews us up, and spits us out. They have a growing pool of uninjured, naive, and cheaper new nurses to pick from.

What happened to you is awful, and you have every right and reason to be depressed and consider leaving nursing.

I hope your lawyer is really good and can stick it to the hospital, good. Get them where it hurt$.

You are in my thoughts. We support you. :kiss :icon_hug:

[Sis123]

Hmmmmm. Wondering if this age discrimination will affect me, or if this is more a way to get rid of older nurses who are at the top of their pay scales.....

(I'll be nearing 50 when I finish nursing school.....)