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Discussion

Fired During Orientation

I am in need of some advice.

I took my first nursing job at a Trauma 1 hospital in an ICU setting. I thought based on the answers I got in my interviews that the orientation I was to have would be much different than the reality. There were 2 new grads just off orientation, 3 other new nurses on orientation who had started before me, two who started after (i.e.obviously a great deal of turnover on my very small unit). The "preceptor" I was assigned to had just over a year of nursing experience (anyone with any more than that already had an orientee I would come to figure out!) and was very impatient with me and seemed to use my orientation more to show me (and others around us) what she knew than to assess what I did not (and then you know...TEACH me!). I felt stranded, I studied a lot on my own but my time management was horrible because I only really spent a week or so working WITH my preceptor (the rest of the time she only popped her head in now and then/when I felt like dealing with her rudeness to ask a question) and my anxiety was through the roof (leading into it being very hard to retain things at work). I was tempted to quit within a month, but wanted to do the job I had been hired to do, and I WAS learning and seeing a LOT, and I had so many families thank me that I felt it could eventually be worth the extreme stress.

I had a meeting every so often with my manager, and the first one she suggested things would get easier as it progressed, second we decided to try with a different preceptor, and at week 9/12 (3rd meeting-only2 days of trying new preceptor...) of my orientation I was terminated for "failure of my orientation period." They let me know that it was not a reflection of me as a nurse and that I would excel elsewhere, but I was still being let go because I couldn't keep up (staying too late too often to chart, etc..)

I have NEVER had trouble at a job before, and I'm flabbergasted and depressed that this was my first experience in nursing. I want to hear from other nurses who have been terminated, and what your experience in getting another job was like, and from anyone who hires nurses and if you would consider hiring someone who was terminated two months into employment. Things to keep in mind: I was never off orientation, the ICU setting is NOT for me and is not where I will be pursuing my next job, but beside trying to look at the bright side that I will hopefully find a setting that suites me more, I can't help but think it was hard enough to find a job as it is. Also I certainly didn't do anything to jeopardize my license or pt safety...but could future employers think that???

PLEASE only respond if you have something positive and/or constructive to help me with. Thank you so much!

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    • Featured Replies

    JUst pray about it. Sometimes people get a little authority and they take it too far. Instead of making a positive impact on the new nurses coming in they rather try to embarrass them. One thing I know is that there will be drama where ever you go but to be fired because you took too long to chart. That's ridiculous! They shouldve been more willing to help you than just dismiss you but hey I am a firm believer in the devine plan that God has set. He is just getting you ready for somthing greater. Stay encouraged.

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    • Experts

    This may have been your first experience of something like this in your life, but it's not that uncommon in nursing. Plenty of other people have been in your shoes. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start job hunting again. Be prepared (practice in your bathroom mirror and on friends/family) to discuss your situation with this employer in future interviews without badmouthing the employer or sounding like you're blaming anyone else for the situation (harder to do than it sounds! :)) The standard phrase in nursing for this kind of situation is "wasn't a good fit," as in "it turned out the ICU wasn't a good fit for me as a new graduate." (And this is why lots of healthcare facilities won't hire new grads into ICU and other high-intensity specialty areas -- you'll notice that students and new grads who really want to work ICU complain about that all the time here, but many people who do get an ICU job as a new graduate end up having the same experience you have.)

    And I'm sure you've learned a lot from this experience about what to look for in employers (red flags and warning signs) for next time. I have always made a practice of asking, as part of the interview process, to talk (privately) with current staff nurses on the unit; specifically, the nurse who has been there the longest, and the most recent hire, and I always ask the newest hire about what her/his experience has been like re: orientation. Lots of healthcare employers will tell you all the "right" things about the wonderful, glorious, lengthy orientation you're going to get, but things often turn out differently in real life, once you're hired.

    It's perfectly appropriate and legitimate to ask to speak privately with current staff members; potential employers who have nothing to hide will be happy to set that up for you, and, if someone balks at letting you do that, that's a red flag right there.

    Best wishes for your journey!

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    I am in a similar situation. I was let go about 5 months in.....well I was given the option to resign. I am applying everywhere, but I'm dreading the time when I get an interview. I'm afraid that "it wasn't a good fit" is not going to cut it and I will be pressed for more information. Help!

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    Good Grief! With that amount of turnover in a "small" unit, I can only imagine the impact on patient care. What a mess.

    There are very few absolutes when it comes to orientation & on-boarding new nurses. BUT... in my experience ... asking semi-competent staff to serve as preceptors is one of my "never" rules. Preceptors have to be confident enough in their own practice to be able to analyze the challenges/problems of their orientee & provide appropriate assistance. Unqualified preceptors tend to use this opportunity as a 'bully pulpit' to show off their own superior skills. They revel in this feeling of superiority.. and are not really motivated to help the orientee improve.

    I am hugely empathetic to the OP's situation. Hopefully, OP will inquire about unit turnover as part of future job interviews. This is a huge red flag. High turnover usually indicates instability - often due to organizational changes &/or poor management.

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    This just happened to me! It was pretty tough, but I beleive there is a reason that this all happened. I was surprised because they had two nurses ready to give birth and two others were leaving??? It's like really, "am I THAT bad?" It feels so good to get support here! You will be fine, once you shrug this off (easier said than done). See my topic:

    Lost 1st job because "there are things they don't teach in Nursing School"

    Stay strong and carry on!

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    Just curious.. I was told by a professor that it is possible to shadow on a fl. you are interviewing for. It is appropriate to ask to shadow before they offer you the job or once they offer you the job..ask to shadow and then decide if you want to accept their offer?

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    I know it has been almost a year since you wrote this post. How are things for you now? I hope things are better for you. I have to say, your story could have been MY story, almost exactly. I went to nursing school with the intent of becoming a NICU or PICU nurse. I never really wanted to work with adults. I ended up getting a job as a tech in SICU because there were no NICU or PICU techs at the time. Although I didn't want to work with adults I LOVED working in SICU, and was always told what a great job I did. When I graduated there I wasn't able to get a job in the areas I wanted to I chose to stay in SICU. My supervisor and many of the nurses I worked with were excited and thought I was going to be awesome. Well, first off, I ended up with a preceptor that everybody warned me was not a "good" one. Seriously, I had at least seven people make comments to me, saying "I hope that works out for you", etc. I was so new that I wasn't able to see that she was doing anything wrong. Looking back now, I don't think she WAS doing anything. They just said her orientees came off not knowing how to do anything. This made me nervous, and I needed a schedule change, so I requested another preceptor. Before I sound like I am blaming my receptors, I need to say that it was a VERY high acuity unit to begin with, and then that summer we had a higher acuity level than usual. The patients they started to give me were train wrecks. The charge nurses were like "We normally don't give this kind of patient to a new person, but this is the best we can do". There were patients there that started out as 1:2, that turned into 1:1, and even 3:1 sometimes, trying to stabilize them. There's so much to learn about in that environment - all the numbers you have to memorize, all the equipment you have to learn how to use, all the things about nursing that they don't teach you. There honestly was just too much going on for me to learn. I made some mistakes, and then my preceptor became just awful. I know she had to watch out for me, but when you treat me like I'm stupid, that doesn't help me - it only makes me more stupid. There was less and less support. They would give me patients that had stuff going on that I didn't know how to deal with, but wouldn't tell me how to deal with it. They were just like, "Figure it out!" I was having nightmares all the time. Just about the time I started thinking that ICU wasn't for me, they let me go. They gave me the same spiel: It doesn't mean you're not a good nurse, this just isn't the place for you right now, etc. I had enough money saved up that I went two months without a job trying to get on where I wanted, and trying to figure out if I even wanted to be a nurse after all. I ended up applying for a med-surg job and got it. In fact, my ICU supervisor apparently put in a good word for me. So I did that and hated it for almost two years, but stuck it out so that I could at least build some skills and learn some prioritization and time management skills. I finally left that hospital last year for a PICU job. I'm doing a lot better, but I still sometimes have "flashbacks" to the ICU job, especially when dealing with the same equipment. Since I left that ICU, I have found out that they had a huge meeting with all of those nurses on that unit because they were so awful to the new people and to the nurses in the other ICU units that floated there. A bunch of people ended up leaving because they were told they were going to have to start acting decent or leave. I also found out that my second preceptor was KNOWN for being terrible to the new nurses (and she had only been one for two years herself). I sometimes think they were doing me a favor by letting me go. I had been told that maybe half of the new staff on that unit ever made it off orientation, so there had to be something to it. The place was just too much for me as a new grad. I still feel awful about it, and it was three years ago. I also hated how people there that had been my friends became very cold and aloof after I left. Oh well, I'm in a better place now!

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