There is currently a palpable low morale among the nurses in the very large teaching hospital where I work. Quite a few seasoned nurses have been fired for seemingly frivolous reasons. Working hard, well-liked, never call in, have never been in trouble and suddenly fired. Many nurses say they are trying to find new jobs because they are afraid they will be suddenly fired.
This issue was brought up in a staff meeting. We were told that there were good reasons why these nurses had been fired. If we wanted to find new jobs they would be glad to give us good references. Many have left over this issue.
To make it more confusing. The CNO is verbally asking, trying to determine why they cannot retain RN's? Stating it's so expensive to orient nurses and then they leave for no good reason. All are afraid to speak up for fear of getting fired by their manager. Seems as though the managers and the administration are not on the same page.
It seems they should be on the exact same page. They go to the same meetings regarding staff, staffing and budgets. What would explain the difference?
Specializes in Trauma, ER, ICU, CCU, PACU, GI, Cardiology, OR.
that happened to a nurse from l&d with breast cancer- her nursing director fired her for too many call outs during chemo. god is going to get that women for that. it enough to make you:barf01:
needless to say, after reading your post it may me ill, to think that such insensitivity does exist in the heart of some individuals.
I am so glad to be working in a hospital with a union. This would never happen. There has to be a very strong reason to terminate someone.
If it is only "seasoned" nurses getting terminated, especially if they are "Working hard, well-liked, never call in, have never been in trouble and suddenly fired." --I would guess that money is the bottom line. Currently, where I work, a new grad makes about 25$/hr and an RN with 14 years makes over 40$/hr. I would only guess that your hospital has a similar pay difference. Unfortunately, they may be trying to stick to a budget.
indirectly. i'm pretty low down the seniority roster and we're a union outfit. i smile every time i see a new person hired into the hospital.
in my last hospital, fully a third of the staff had been there ten years or longer. the manager announced at a staff meeting that anyone who would "hang out in the icu for a decade or so" had to be purely mediocre at best.
wow, that's crazy. where did she expect people to want to go?
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Jersey is notorious for age discrimination. I know this first hand. You would be best advised to follow linden's advisement- keep a detailed record.
I have seen managers- start to pick at documentation. If you use an acceptable abbreviation - they will play stupid and ask you what it is, like the fools they are. They will ask nurses to account for their every move- example: if you spend a long time in a PIA patient's room to keep the cranky pants in isolation whose shouting "all you nurses are stupid, no one on that night shift knows what their doing, get this tray out of here!!" from reporting you and every nurse on the unit- make sure you document every bit of your bedside stay in that room. Write a book if you have to. There will always be some coworker who will say "they can't find you".
If management wants to get rid of you, they will find a way. If a patient says something good about you- don't count on you ever finding it out. I've seen words twisted, and one word can mean the difference between good and bad. Don't discuss your personal business- they will find a way to use that against you.
The last hospital I worked at- they got rid of every nurse that had 20 + yrs there, handing out early retirement packages. Yes, we all know "they can't do that, it's illegal" but they did. These nurses were threatened- they were told" take the package and go quietly or stay and be fired and loose everything--you worked for for 20+years" I saw one nurse had her husband come in and pick her up. She walked out of the building on her last day holding on to her husband's hand for dear life - he was a witness just in case they said she did something on the way out and had an excuse to fire her so she would loose her pension. She worked there for over 30 some years, right out of nursing school. She was only in her 50's. The hospital was in financial trouble and this was how they helped get themselves out of trouble. If you have been there long enough to be"vested" into the pension- usually around 5 yrs- start looking over your shoulder- they do not want to pay out any pensions
Then they start attacking nurses with chronic health problems- could be anything HTN, Diabetes, cancer and lupus are big ones for them to pick on. i know of nurses who have had to make doctors appt only on their days off- very difficult if they work only weekdays 8-430. I've seen nurses given a bad go of it by management in the middle of chemo cycles- the choice is - the job/health insurance or stop the chemo. That's quite an ultimatum for a healthcare institution that professes to "put patients first" and patient satisfaction. That happened to a nurse from L&D with breast cancer- her nursing director fired her for too many call outs during chemo. God is going to get that women for that. It enough to make you:barf01:
Then after you've been fired for some ambiguous reason- which doesn't even make sense, try getting another position in the hospital after 50yr old- They actually put in writing "not the experience they were looking for. Application for an oncology nurse- with 18yr experience in oncology:nono: Nurse recruiter, Bernadette, go one nasty e-mail back
RubyVee and kcmylorn have it on the money. What the managers say to your face and what they do are two different things. Your manager will say to the staff anything to keep the peace but if she wants to keep her job she will do as she is told. I too was a victim of ageism/illness discrimination and i know of a many others too. I know of one nurse who has been looking for a position for 2 years and still can't get a job with benefits.
As long as the economy remains like this with a surplus of nurses....this will continue. Hospitals aren't hiring the "obese", if you smoke, and whatever else suits their fancy to maintain the cheapest nurses possible. It's the hard reslity. They, the administration and managers, are talking out of both sides of their mouths. It all about the almighty dollar and making sure the CEO gets his yearly bonus...
Specializes in orthopedic/trauma, Informatics, diabetes.
same thing in teaching. those that make more money, get gone for seemingly bizarre reasons so they can hire the cheaper, new grads. New grad=28k/yr; teacher with 10 years and a masters= ~50k. Get rid of the master teacher and you can hire 2.
I am afraid as an older new grad (3 weeks!) that I am going to have an even harder time getting a job.
I think I'm sort of in the middle as far as experience and pay. What I see: the young nurses get favored. The old nurses get treated not so well. I recently realized, due to a few other of management's decisions, that this was specifically about the pay involved...not about patient care, staff morale, or anything else that could not boil down easily on a financial spread sheet.
What to do about it?
I do try to "bring it" as far as, really earning what I make. Like, the Benner model (novice to expert)- bringing that expertise to the table. Working smarter, not harder. Keeping track of what I do- not a time study, per se, but just keeping track of successes, how many patients I have seen individually, ways that I personally have gone the extra mile.
Specializes in Certified Med/Surg tele, and other stuff.
Tokmom, just thought I'd reply to your comment. None of the hospitals in my area are union; as a matter of fact, there are precious few unions in the deep south, period. Personally, I live in a "work at will" state, which means you can be fired without cause. (You can quit without cause, too.)
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
There is currently a palpable low morale among the nurses in the very large teaching hospital where I work. Quite a few seasoned nurses have been fired for seemingly frivolous reasons. Working hard, well-liked, never call in, have never been in trouble and suddenly fired. Many nurses say they are trying to find new jobs because they are afraid they will be suddenly fired.
*** 10 to 1 this is a Magnet hospital. In my last job I was among the highest paid nurses in the unit. Not cause I had a lot of seniority but cause I was on the weekend program. I worked 36 hours and got paid for 54. We got a new NM who was heard to say how much she disliked the weekend program and how badly it messed up her budget.
Within one year 4 of the 6 weekend nurses had been fired over the most trivial reasons. The other two had their life made so miserable that they quit.
Yes you guessed it, a Magnet, non-union hospital.
Lucky for me I found a great job in a union, non-Magnet hospital making nearly twice as much money with better benifits. I remain on causual status at the previous job, mostly teaching in the nurse residency program and/or working critical care transport.
Heads (senior RN's) have been lopped and plattered at an amazing rate in our hospital. Lots of new, young faces keep appearing in their stead. I don't think I know half the nurses in the hospital anymore.AMAZING that myself with a background including ICU/ER M/S Tele, was told I didn't have enough experience to obtain an open Tele floor position...yet they hire new grads into it left and right with less than three months of experience. But I'm a 20-year RN, and higher-upper end of the pay scale. I have the distinct sense that there's a platter with my name on it.Definitely note-taking here, and keeping daily logs, names, etc. Layoffs, firings, and fear tactics... and the stench of dirty play fouls the air.
Tokmom, just thought I'd reply to your comment. None of the hospitals in my area are union; as a matter of fact, there are precious few unions in the deep south, period. Personally, I live in a "work at will" state, which means you can be fired without cause. (You can quit without cause, too.)
I know it's a generalization but most Americans have no appreciation for history.
There is an active and seemingly growing movement virtually everywhere in the US that has convinced a great many, if not a majority, that problems in the workplace are the result of government regulations and that unions exist merely to make union leaders rich. According to those who subscribe to this school of thought, if there were no regulations and no unions, the free market would self-regulate and worker utopia, with both better conditions and higher wages, would be the result. Today's lower salaries and deterioating working conditions are seen as the unintended consequences of government intervention with union activity a major negative contributing factor. To these unquestioning disciples of Mises and Hayek, free markets need to be free to do anything and once this happens, all will be right in the world.
Lost in this type of hyper-objectivist philosophy, one that is probably to the right of Ayn Rand, is the fact that we've already tried this. A quick look back at the history of the Gilded Age should make this clear to everyone. Yes, some Americans made fortunes and some of that did trickle down and stregnthen the middle class. But this ignores the flip side of letting individuals - and corporations - to make their fortunes in any way they like, restrained neither by government regulations nor by those evil unions. For every well-known outrage like the Trianangle Shirtwaist fire, there were hundreds of smaller worker tragedies. And how may consumers were sicked or killed by substandard or deliberately adulterated products? Americans either forget - or these days, are convinced to forget by a combination of advertising, faux news and talk radio - that things like the paid vacation, the 40-hour week were the direct result of union activity.
As Satayana said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
GitanoRN, BSN, MSN, RN
2,117 Posts
needless to say, after reading your post it may me ill, to think that such insensitivity does exist in the heart of some individuals.