Do nurses get fired often?

Nurses Relations

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It seems like I see people talking on here constantly about how they were fired from their first job, or their last job, or know several people who were fired. Do nurses get fired a lot, especially for relatively minor errors? Is it a career ender? It just seems so odd to me, but I'm coming from a career in publishing where I only saw maybe five people fired in twelve years at several companies, and three of them were either stealing or using Media on their work computers. It's just really, really rare, so it seems totally bizarre to me to think that nurses get fired on a regular basis. Can you still get a job after that (assuming it was for something like a med error, not for stealing narcotics or violently abusing a patient or something like that)?

I've only seen 2 nurses get fired. Both of their situations were similar with respect to the fact that they made the same mistake over and over again despite being spoken to numerous times. The mistakes were fairly minor as a one-off, but being habitual, it is effectively not doing your job and being aware that your duties are being neglected.

Did they change a patients brief?

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Did they change a patients diaper?

Whatever one of them was doing, it wasn't signing for their medications (apparently for the 239087238943th time)

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At the end of the duty shift, they're like ZOMBIES a walking dead .....

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Specializes in They know this too!.

I have been fired for the past year for...

A Facebook post. I don't have a Facebook. A staff nurse said I posted it so it must be! Not hanging Heparin. I documented it. Although this staff nurse said I didn't so the computer documentation must of been down that day. Ok once I did get to quit first but then they fired back stating I didn't document a medication and now my license has a pending report on it. Yay! This time because I refused to give an IV medication that I wasn't suppose to give according to policy and according to the patient being able to survive in life. I have no idea what to say about this one, lol.

Anyhow these posts really made me feel better. As a nurse for almost a decade it does not seem to be getting better for me just the strategy of getting another job is. Thinking I should get out of Travel and Agency work and forget getting into a hospital. They just don't like my happy face there.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I've seen about a handful of staff nurses fired over the years. Several times it was taking too much sick time, once for diverting drugs, once for out of control anger problems and once for mental health issues nurse was too anxious and spaced out (probably from meds for the anxiety) to do her job safely.

There have been others who got in trouble (usually not doing a good job or personality issues) who resigned or transferred out. I believe management prefers people to quit on their own and gives them a heads up that they are on thin ice. But I know of more admin staff getting fired than floor staff.

My facility generally doesn't lay off nurses, though if they reorganize the staff has to take what's available, ie nights. I'm aware other organizations seem to frequently lay off their older workers and then shortly after rehire new grads to take their place.

I think the best thing to do is try to get along with everyone, do your job well and keep an emergency fund for worst case scenario. Sometimes hospitals close or departments close and you could lose your job thru no fault of your own. It is best to be prepared.

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I was terminated once, and I never was given a reason. I still wonder why I was fired to this day. Maybe it was because I didn't brown-nose the charge nurse enough. Maybe it was because some coworker lied about me behind my back. Maybe it was because......... etc.

Could have been anything. I was told "You don't live up to what we are looking for" Whatever! I was a good worker. I even worked 18 hour shifts to fill in for other nurses. It seems to me, your work performance, caring for the patients and minding your own business don't count. It's about who you know and brown-nosing! At least where I got terminated, it was!

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Specializes in LTC, Psych, M/S.

I was asked " to find other employment and then give resignation" via a phone call from a nurse manager. She told me my coworkers did not like me along with some very other hurtful, yet vague statements. That was 5 years ago and I still wonder what the real reason was that she wanted me gone. About 2 month prior I had declined to work 2 OT shifts in one week and had a Dr excuse ( I recently found out I was pregnant). I figured it was best to just move on.

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Specializes in ER, TRAUMA, MED-SURG.
I was terminated once, and I never was given a reason. I still wonder why I was fired to this day. Maybe it was because I didn't brown-nose the charge nurse enough. Maybe it was because some coworker lied about me behind my back. Maybe it was because......... etc.

Could have been anything. I was told "You don't live up to what we are looking for" Whatever! I was a good worker. I even worked 18 hour shifts to fill in for other nurses. It seems to me, your work performance, caring for the patients and minding your own business don't count. It's about who you know and brown-nosing! At least where I got terminated, it was!

Oh yeah! Been there done that! I never really mastered the skill of brown nosing.

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If nurses are getting fired a lot, its probably because the field of nursing is saturated with nothing but women, and women do not know how to work with each other. So, in any occupation with SO many women, you will have a high school type environment of gossip and BS because that's what women like to do. (MOST NOT ALL). Also, why male nurses get paid more, were to busy trying to act like Doctors then worry about the bs

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
If nurses are getting fired a lot, its probably because the field of nursing is saturated with nothing but women, and women do not know how to work with each other. So, in any occupation with SO many women, you will have a high school type environment of gossip and BS because that's what women like to do. (MOST NOT ALL). Also, why male nurses get paid more, were to busy trying to act like Doctors then worry about the bs

Interesting first post. But also not universal truth. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that the percentage of males in nursing in 2015 is 9% of the workforce. Yet in my experience, it is all staff, not just primarily women, who participate in gossiping and backstabbing. Please stop promoting such a misogynistic view of nursing. And men being too busy "trying to act like Doctors then (sic) worry about the **" and getting paid more? Please, get over yourself.

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If nurses are getting fired a lot, its probably because the field of nursing is saturated with nothing but women, and women do not know how to work with each other. So, in any occupation with SO many women, you will have a high school type environment of gossip and BS because that's what women like to do. (MOST NOT ALL). Also, why male nurses get paid more, were to busy trying to act like Doctors then worry about the bs

Is this a joke?

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Specializes in Emergency/Trauma/Critical Care Nursing.

I'm getting a whiff of that distinct odor of a creature that lives under a bridge, lol.

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