Just curious to read a few stories from nurses who have been fired from the bedside. Patients and family members use very different criteria than we do to determine who is and who is not a good nurse. In the interest of full disclosure I have had this happen to me a handful of times in 25 years. The first time I was devistated. Not sure if it was the rejection or my competence being put into question. However since being in charge of an ICU for almost two decades I see this all in a new light.
One time I had the wife of a family member tell me they didn't want their nurse taking care of him. I'm thinking to myself, this nurse is one of my best nurses and if I had a family member in the ICU I would actually request that she take care of him/her.
One thing I learned from dealing with unhappy families is to let them do most of the talking and find out what I can do to make it better. She insisted that she wanted a different nurse. So I said OK fine. When I told the nurse in question that her family didn't want her taking care of the man anymore and that I was going to have to change the assignment, the nurse was devistated. I assured her that I hold her abilities in the highest of esteem and that if I or a family member of mine was in the hospital that I would consider it a priveledge to have her take care of me/him/her. I also told her that in my experience that when a patient or family member fires you it a lot of times has nothing to do with your skills as a nurse. Some people don't like others for a wide variety of reasons. I told her not to dwell on it and not to take it personally.
The nurse I replaced her with was someone who was OK, but not what I would consider the sharpest tool in the shed. The patient and wife loved her and thought she was great. Go figure.
