I have been a nurse for 2.5 years. I got fired yesterday from my first and only nursing job in a hospital setting. I know I'm going to need to brush up on my resume. Also, can anyone advise me what direction to go in? I'm a male nurse. I can't do OB for obvious reasons, ER, ICU, cardiac monitoring med surg floors, Pediatrics, nursing homes. I'm leaning to go into Psych nursing. I was known as the "psych" nurse on my floor. Plus I have alot of experience in dealing with psych patients since my mom is schizophrenic. My sister is a charge nurse on a psych floor and loves it. Since I got fired from my first nursing job, should I expect a pay decrease? Is there any other areas of nursing I'm leaving out? I was thinking of home health nursing but was told it's dangerous and gas prices are outrageous. Doctor's offices don't pay well. I won't have any experience except what I did for the past 2.5 years either. I don't want to do it anymore since it got me fired. I'm going to need references too. I have several work email addresses from my coworkers, would it be out of bounds to email them at work to ask if I can use them as a reference? How do I handle addressing from interviewers why I got fired from my first nursing job? Should I be worried about my nursing license? If you get fired from a hospital, do they report it to the board of nursing? I did not get fired from stealing drugs, narcotics, calling out sick, or patient's complaints FYI. I'll probably have lots more questions later. My brain is spinning. I never got fired before from any job! My wife said "I thought you had to kill someone with negligence to get fired" Trust me, no harm was done to the patient! I wasn't even on probation when they fired me.
I am not sure I understand what exactly you did wrong here you post is not clear. However, I do know managment is very touchy about blood related mistakes. I only knew one person who made a serious blood related mistake and she was put on probation not fired. It is possible that managment was trying to appease a difficult family and threw you to the wolves. You have my sympathy. Perhaps when the subject comes up in an interview you could say, "I made a mistake hanging blood, no one was injured because I identified the error and took action, believe me that will make me ten times more careful in the future".
It's been a week since the incident, I was told by management the patient is fine. I turned off the d5 probably 2-3 minutes within starting IV pump transfusion. When I checked the line, the normal saline was still running! Blood didn't even reach the patient's IV yet. I didn't correct the tubing situation, I failed to see it as I was overwhelmed(shift change, MD breathing down my neck in the room). Did I mention the family had a diary and wrote everything I said down and vitals, meds given, who were the nurses, etc for 3 days!?? I really don't want to think about it anymore because it's depressing. My wife is entering her last semester of nursing school this month, it's leaving a sour taste in her mouth about it. I felt railroaded. no one hasn't commented about my license situation? do I need to worry? I haven't slept more than 5 hours a day the past week and I have lost 3 pounds! Job options?? should I be upfront in Job interviews about this? There is more to this story, but please ask via PM. thanks
Are you saying that you piggybacked the blood tubing to the line that had the d5, but first flushed the line with NS that continued to run instead of the blood? If so, this isn't a grave error & not worth being fired for.
I can appreciate you wanting to discuss details via PM. I see that you only have a few posted messages & that would affect your ability to PM a response back. I think you need to have 15 posted messages before you get PM privledges. So, try to post a bunch, then PM me when you can. I will try to help.
It sounds like the cosigner of the blood sent you up the river. Do you work in the South? Your story sounds like behavior I have encountered in the South. Someone trying to save their butt by making an issue out of a non-issue to prove to higher ups that they are policing [sp?] the place.
From the sound of it, it isn't a license losing issue. Stop worrying yourself sick. You are allowing yourself to ruminate on this to the point you may start questioning your self worth. I have been in jobs (in the South) where your self worth gets attacked on a daily basis because of incompetent coworkers covering their tracks by belittling those with less experience. Remember that you have been nursing for 2.5 years and have a wealth of experience to judge things for yourself and not through another's eyes/opinion.
Until you stop questioning your competency, you are going to be no good to yourself, your wife and another employer. If the termination is the result of doing a minor infraction of the policy, you are better off not working there. This termination may just be a blessing in disguise to get you out of a place that was toxic. You have to, for your own wellbeing, start looking at his from a positive viewpoint.
It just sounds like you are going through the stages of grief right now-grief can take the form of a job loss, also-especially in a male.
I am not a nurse, not even staring school till fall, but... I do work on med-surg as a PCA, and I know everyone is super careful with the blood. Sucks you were fired, last year I know two nurses that got a two week suspension w/o pay for a mistake being made with blood, and the patient almost didnt make it. They suspended them, and made them take a class through the hospital about transfusions... but we are so short on nurses they didnt even think about terming them. If the nursing situation is anything like here I would say just tell them you learned a valuable mistake, maybe voluntarily take transfusion brush up class?? And psych would be fun. I still PRN at the local psych hospital, and I find very fun, and stressful! The nurses I work with there have never hung blood either! Although the nurses usually have 9+ patients!!!! The only thing I ever hear them gripe about is not having enough time to chart at the end of the shift.
I'm sorry that you are going through this. It really doesn't sound like you should have been fired since your patient was not harmed and you realized the mistake and corrected it. We are all human and we will make mistakes. I have, you have, and anyone that says they haven't, well....that's scary. It is what we do after a mistake that matters. You should not continue to beat yourself up over it. If there is something that I have to do that I do not have much experience in or if I have never done it, I always ask for help and I have been a nurse for over 3 years. The day I think I know everything is the day I need to quit nursing. But, from the sound of it you didn't have much support. I hope everything works out for you. I also wanted to make a comment regarding the post about working in the "South". I am from the South and have lived here all of my life. I am sorry you have experienced such poor work ethics while working in the South. Though I personally have not experienced what you have, to portray us in that way does offend me. I would never condone such conduct anywhere, but to say it is because it is in the South is unfair and judgemental.
Brother.....I don't know enough about your situation as I am still a student......It's obvious though that you are hurting and for that you will be in my prayers. Pick yourself up....dust yourself off.... and get back on a horse. As grim as it must seem, I'm sure that you will be able to recover from this. (Yah I'm only a student but I'm also forty years old and been around a little) Let us know how it works out for you. ~Dan
If you can use the hospital as a reference you might not even need to mention that you were fired. I was fired without warning because of an alleged error, the facility reported me to the state for negligence, I was cleared of all charges, and never had a problem getting hired elsewhere.
Hey there , Many many years before the days when the floors had pumps, I hung blood one night. Checked flow rate, connections, vitals, etc. Came back 5 min. later and realized I hadn't completely closed off the roller clamp leading to the NS bag. So, the bag of saline now was pink.....contaminated with blood. What did I do? Got a new bag of saline and new tubing and kept going... and learned from my mistake. Hang in there. Sounds like you DID get thrown under the bus. Hopefully you will end up in a better job with some TEAMWORK!!!!
It sounds like the cosigner of the blood sent you up the river. Do you work in the South? Your story sounds like behavior I have encountered in the South.
Stupidity knows no region of the US.
Where I work 2 RN's check the armband against the blood and the order for accuracy that the correct blood is being hung. We do not check each other's IV skills as that is something we should already know. However, if I'm not sure about something I ask another nurse, RN or LPN, to watch me and make sure I'm doing it right.
I still don't get what the problem was? If it was ordered at shift change was it the beginning of the shift change and the unit hung there long enough that expired and had to be wasted?
Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.
I'm hoping that the numbness from such a turn of events has worn off and you can reflect on this event objectionably,
From what you have written, I 'd take a look at your policy manual and request a grievence hearing. Progressive counseling should have been done for such an incident when no actual harm done to the patient.
Many facilities have that you need to apply within 7-10days of termination.
You have nothing more to loose from trying to get postition back, outlining steps to take to prevent such event happening again, and reading done re blood transfusion procedure and how this experience will help you educate others on your unit prevent transfusion problems.
Specializes in critical care; community health; psych.
Was the NS only supposed to be used for priming? You refer to D5 as being the maintenance fluid for this pt. Was there a sodium issue? Even still, your patient was not harmed. Stuff happens. Not a reason to be fired. Yikes! So sorry. It sounds like they were gunning for you.
oramar
5,758 Posts
I am not sure I understand what exactly you did wrong here you post is not clear. However, I do know managment is very touchy about blood related mistakes. I only knew one person who made a serious blood related mistake and she was put on probation not fired. It is possible that managment was trying to appease a difficult family and threw you to the wolves. You have my sympathy. Perhaps when the subject comes up in an interview you could say, "I made a mistake hanging blood, no one was injured because I identified the error and took action, believe me that will make me ten times more careful in the future".