I was offered a job at a busy outpatient urgent care clinic before I graduated. I will try my best to make a long story short. I was trained by over 6 different preceptors for the first few weeks. Each time I was switched to a new person, it wasn't because I wasn't learning or had an issue with another nurse; it was because the other nurses "didn't have the time to train me" (this was their explanation, not mine). I guess this wouldn't be a problem except that each time I was switched the new preceptor wouldn't let me do anything without "watching" her first. I barely had any hands on experience at all. This was very frustrating and boring, but I tried to watch and learn.
After almost a month of this, I finally got up the courage and spoke to my supervisor about this. I told her I felt that I wasn't getting appropriate training and I needed to be assigned one preceptor and actually given the opportunity to use my hands. She agreed, and finally assigned me an actual preceptor.
A week later, I was told on Monday that I was doing great. My supervisor and preceptor gave me some feedback about time management, but most of the feedback was positive. They literally said I was making great progress. I felt great, I thanked them for being so supportive, and continued to work the evening shift.
Then I ended up interacting with a very unprofessional, rude doctor. He belittled me all night, he would mumble orders and expect me to enter them in the computer for him. When I would ask him to repeat himself so I made sure I entered the right thing, he would get angry. The final straw came when he picked up a chart for a 15 year old patient and started talking to the parents of a baby about her medical history. I had no idea any of this was happening, until he swung open the door to the room, and shouted at me "What are you doing? What patient's room am I in? You gave me the wrong chart!"
I calmly walked up to him and pointed to the room number on the chart "That says room number 9"
He replied "Well I'm in room number nine!"
I pointed to the door. It was room 10. He was livid. His face was so red... We work in a clinic, the charts are left in an open area for the doctors to come to, first come, first serve. I don't hand anyone charts, and I didn't make any errors.
The next day I walk in and I am told that I am being terminated because it's taking too long to train me. My supervisor, whose voice was shaking and looked on the verge of tears told me that the doctors at the office decided I wasn't learning fast enough and they had to let me go.
I don't feel like this was fair at all. I was never given a chance to prove myself. I was never told that I wasn't performing to standards. The doctor I had the altercation with, I now know, is the co-owner of the practice. I guess I should have kissed his butt a little more and not corrected him in front of a patient. You live, you learn.
Now I am wondering if I will ever get another job. My contract said that I had 90 days to be in training. I wasn't unprofessional. I never had issues in clinical at school and I had three clinical professors offer to write me letters of recommendation.
I know that I should have spoken up earlier about the lack of hands on training but I really didn't want to upset anyone. I never, ever put a patient at risk and I never did anything that would be considered negligence. When I did start to do hands-on activities I was told I was performing well. The only thing I was asked to improve was prioritizing, which was I admit is a weakness. But I feel like their expectations were a little absurd for a new graduate. Did anyone else go through this? Any advice? Should I list this on my resume?
