Fired from my first RN job after only 2 weeks.

[Mountainrnbsn]

I am a new grad who graduated this summer with my BSN. I was let go from my first nursing job only after 2 weeks. I graduated with honors and had my capstone in a busy Emergency Department. I started my first nursing job on a busy orthopedic floor at a trauma 1 center. It wasn't what I was passionate about but wanted to give it my all. My real passion is ED, but I knew that I needed to get ICU experience before I get to the ED. The orthopedic floor would help me get my foot in the door for a trauma 1 ICU. I was hired along with 5 other new grads. Are orientation was only 5 weeks long but the director told us that if we needed longer that it would be okay. All other new grad started out with taking care of one patient at a time while my preceptor gave me 5 my first day. I found it difficult to find a routine and I was penalized for even asking questions or not knowing the answer to question. One of nurses on the floor noticed that I was being criticized more than the other new grads and that I should request another preceptor. Director told me it wasn't possible and the next thing I know the education department is following me around. They suggested that I spend another week on days, (I was hired on nights) and that I go down to two patients. I agreed, thinking it well help me develop a routine so I can provide safe care for my patients. The whole orthopedic unit moved from 20 bed unit to a 40 bed unit and nurses were taking on 8 patients at a time. They pulled me into the office last week and gave me some recommendation which I truly took to heart and made myself a whole new brain sheet and even came in an hour early to prep for the day with permission from the director. Yesterday they pulled me into the office and said that I have two choices, either I was going to be terminated or I could send her my letter of my resignation. The director told me that didn't have time to teach new grads how to real nurses and that I would never make it any hospital. She said I would be better off in longterm care where there is less critical thinking. She said I shouldn't bother applying to new grad programs because I would fail at those too. I don't feel like 5 weeks of orientation is enough to provide safe care for patients especially for new grads. I don't want to believe her but I feel like a failure and wasted my time becoming a nurse. I really am passionate about being in the ED nurse one day. I was an EMT/firefighter for 6 years before I went to nursing school. I'm not sure where I should go from here. I also moved to the city for this job. Any advice would be appreciated.

[Tigress01]

Why bother to reply Klone? She wanted advice and it sounds like you work for the preceptor. Keep your head up and maybe start at a place with a smaller rotation so you can take your time and become an E.R. nurse in no time. Good luck.

[KaylaSPN]

Sometimes you work with people where your personalities clash. I would not let this one experience stop you from applying at other hospitals. If you know you were doing stuff wrong then I would just recheck your knowledge and own up to it before starting a new job. What a horrible way to feel when starting your career. I graduate in may 2018 and this is one of my fears .

[Hpascall]

I have to say something similar happened to me. I graduated in Decembe of 16 and was hired as a GN at a local hospital. I started at the end of January. I worked there for a few weeks and just felt like my preceptor and I weren't really connecting. She would make comments about things that I didn't do or that things I should do. For example she would make a comment about how the Masimo needs to be on the patient at all times which I know, and it was off and turned off. But that was from the night shift, and I had just walked in the room. Just little things like that. I would be extra friendly, etc and wouldn't receive the same back although she would laugh and be buddies with my fellow GNs that I graduated with. I found out I passed my boards. I had been nervous on the unit obviously being a new nurse and all, and I would tell my preceptor to let me know if there was anything I was doing wrong or if there was something else I should be doing and she told me I was doing fine and that I'm worrying too much.Fast forward to the middle/end of March and I was called into HR and asked how I though I was doing because I had called in sick. I said pretty well but it's a big adjustment from school. I also told them I was having bad anxiety on the unit and said maybe a clinic setting may be a better fit for me. They said that they reserve those spots for nurses who are retiring and put me on administrative leave. they told me that my preceptor had told them I didn't have enough initiative. For examples then a rapid was called (not on my patient), I didn't rush in. However I remember being in the med room and getting meds for my patient and did not hear the page and neither did a fellow nurse. What she didn't mention was that the next time there was a rapid, I made sure to be in the room and getting the glucometer reading and assisting in Amy way I could, and I had been in there a few minutes before my preceptor showed up. Long story short, I was offered to submit a letter or resignation or be terminated so I resigned. They told me I could be rehire-able in the future once I got more experience under my belt. Needless to say I have felt like a failure. I am currently working at a psych hospital and like it so far, but i miss medical nursing. I am not utilizing my skills as a nurse here at Alex

[Pearl_15, RN]

The key is that they're asking if you've ever been asked (as in asked by your employers) to resign or terminate. Their thinking is that it's essentially the same as being fired, but with a little more honor. As always, the best answer is honesty. However, they might try to ask about why you left...in which case, be truthful, but don't make it sound like your employers were in the wrong. As much as you think they might have been (and I agree with you, they sounded pretty unfair), your new employers don't want to hear you bad-mouthing your previous employers...for obvious reasons I hope...

[xkrcxx]

I've been a nurse for a year and a half. I ended up going to a rehab SNF right out of school and just recently switched to the hospital where I'll be working on their rehab unit. My orientation on the floor there is 6-8 weeks!!! That's just for rehab and with almost 2 years of experience, so I definitely don't think they have you enough time to learn.

[shaneshaffer]

I only had 2 weeks of training as a new grad. I think new grads are spoiled nowadays with such legnthy orientations and want their hand held and caudling the entire time. I know I sound mean, but I repeatedly see new grads like you, where your not prepared by the end of orientation, need to extend orientation etc. etc. Nursing is hard, especially acute care, some people just don't cut it. Some new grads don't ever catch on and are so slow about eveything, not just slow with tasks, but slow comprehending and prioririzing and want to take the long methodical way to do everything-ot look like a deer in the head lights when you explain the simplest things. That's great if you have 1 patient, but it will never work on a busy unit. You're not a nursing student anymore!!

And I don't believe you had 5 patients on your first day! Maybe the nurse had you take report on them and you helped, but no way she had you do all the assessments, med administration and care under her license without at least seeing you do an assessment first.

Dear Wanderlust: Nice effort to try to elevate yourself by putting someone else down, but per your own previous post, you worked in Mom/Baby for the first 6 years. I felt proficient in Mom/Baby unit after clinical experience DURING nursing school. Your experience is not comparable to a level 1 trauma unit. This is why different units have different nurse/patient ratios and different lengths of orientation.

To MountainRNBSN: Keep trying. Don't let one person define your worth, or even one place for that matter. You'll be giving them even more power. There's another employer out there who will appreciate you. Dust yourself off and get back out there. You only worked for two weeks so there's no need to even mention that place. Delete it from your memory and resume entirely. Best of luck. You can do it.

[shaneshaffer]

Dear Wanderlust: Nice effort to try to elevate yourself by putting someone else down, but per your own previous post, you worked in Mom/Baby for the first 6 years. I felt proficient in Mom/Baby unit after clinical experience DURING nursing school. Your experience is not comparable to a level 1 trauma unit. This is why different units have different nurse/patient ratios and different lengths of orientation.

To MountainRNBSN: Keep trying. Don't let one person define your worth, or even one place for that matter. You'll be giving them even more power. There's another employer out there who will appreciate you. Dust yourself off and get back out there. You only worked for two weeks so there's no need to even mention that place. Delete it from your memory and resume entirely. Best of luck. You can do it.

[Fleurtyluxe11]

Tell the truth and explain that your probationary orientation period didn't go as planned and it wasn't a unit you felt you could succeed on and you & the unit decided parting ways was the best thing for you and your professional career, especially as a young, new RN.

I've seen this happen more times than I can count. Listen to the advice of everyone about never speaking ill of the unit, the preceptor, etc. and believe it that everyone else on the unit has been there a lot longer than you and is friends with your preceptor and will likely make buddy-buddy with you to almost "trap" you talking about them to say something to your clinical leader/manager. At that point, your preceptor has already decided you aren't going to cut it on the floor and you've got to go. Any little thing you do will be noted and reported instead of small errors that they can teach you and you can learn by. It happens within your first shift how your preceptor feels about you and how long you are going to make it. It sucks, but it's true.

My tips for orientees:

Be confident, but not a know it all.

Ask questions & be polite.

If you don't know the answer, say "I don't have the answer to that right now, but I am going to find that for you." Write yourself a note and find it out (for a patient, doc, charge nurse, preceptor....whoever)

Be prepared to know about your patient's D.C., he, meds, allergies, and any other extenuating circumstances. Being prepared is good thing. But don't be like a new nursing student who writes & rewrites a clear concise report every day (you can think of 15-25 people in your head who did this every day). Be fast and efficient and do everything on less than one sheet of paper. Have this ready (come to work 25 minutes early when you start work) so you can get your assignment and the background on them. Understand their BiPAP settings (if you don't, as a real. Therapist and follow them for a few pt's and make notes to make a few Flashcards for yourself....RTs are nice and helpful - they are happy to teach) and what their tube size and setting is at, etc. Just know your stuff and when your preceptor asks questions, be prepared to impress them a little.

Take notes, but not while important things are happening.

Chart correctly and make sure you chart everything you can, even the little things - chart every little I&O you can. If you help move someone down in bed5 inches - chart it!

Relay any message from a family member or friend of the patient that they tell you, make sure you tell your preceptor so you have a back up set of ears, but also write a quick note, "Family visiting and leaving. left number to call Carlos for any medication changes or discharge orders. Mother, Gloria, is set to return by 0900 tomorrow."

Always be ready to "See one, do one, teach one" - see your preceptor do a skill or task, do it yourself supervised and unsupervised (correctly!), and then "pretend" to teach your manager the skill as if she's a student.

[medg]

About a year ago, my friends mom was a newly graduated RN and went through something similar. She also told us that she was fired because she refused to take on 40 patient load. We all didn't believe her because we thought it was insane for management to expect a new nurse to take on such a large patient load within the first few weeks & immediately suspected that she may have did something to piss someone off (as klone commented), but now reading your post, I'm sorry we doubted her. As RNgemini commented, the hospital that I want to work at after graduating has a similar program, which i feel is how all new nurses should be trained. My advice for you is to keep all personal interests to yourself, find a smaller hospital to work. If you are finding the same issues then there is nothing wrong with working LTC to get some experience. The important thing is to be able to support yourself ASAP. Another thing to consider if you haven't already is to figure out your personality type. This is important to know as you may find that you are a better fit for a different department & may find success in different areas. Please keep us posted on how your doing. Good luck!

[Julius Seizure]

Congratulations on being a badass. 2 weeks of orientation and swimming like a shark. Awesome. It's a shame so many institutions have adopted the BS notion that a lengthy orientation process for new grads provides a more qualified care provider and better retention.

I've never seen any research on this topic, but I would be interested. Do you have any links to the research you have seen that you could share?

(Or article titles, PubMed IDs, doi's, etc....just something that would get me to the article!)

[Rocketskates]

I feel terrible for what you experienced and I hope you find a new setting soon that will be more conducive to learning as a new nurse. We cannot let others dictate how we view ourselves; we have no control over them. All we have control over is doing 'the next right thing' in each situation we encounter. For all we as readers know, you might have messed up big time; but for all you know, you may have done nothing wrong. Perhaps your preceptor had a friend in line for your job and set you up with a caseload that was impossible to handle...who knows? You may never find out so don't dwell for too long. It's noble to be able to examine yourself objectively, but you have to be willing to make mistakes if you are to learn, and you have to be able to forgive yourself when they happen; surely you'll make more, and surely your former preceptor has made worse!

[jodispamodi]

There has to be a correlation, there are lots of great, bright, and studious people in nursing school but most are not well-equipped to handle the first few months of being an actual licensed nurse and only a selected few will easily excell and acclimate instantly to the stressful environment but most will not.

That's why I wonder why the op needed to mention she graduated with "honors". I thought that it was irrelevant. The issue here is the amount of orientation that the op has had.

Two weeks of orientation on a busy floor, supposedly, is not enough and most have already established that here.

Again, I just really think that the OP should just accept that this happened and be glad she's no longer with that company.

Also, I do agree with some posters here, no need to add this on her resume, unless she's seeking a job with the federal governerment as they can check everything about you including your credit score.

I've noticed this as well and for me, I think it comes down to perfect world and the real world. On exams answers are black and white with completely defined answers, in the real world lots of gray and the patients don't fit the textbook example. I think the struggle is sometimes in the real world there are shortcuts and such and these people have trouble adapting. They need good preceptors who can explain the difference between the perfect world of nursing school, and the real world of nursing.