Fired from my first RN job after only 2 weeks.

nursemike, ASN, RN · Nov 3, 2017

I am starting to panic as I've been applying to jobs today that the one question if I have ever been asked terminate or resign from a job on job applications. I don't want this to haunt me for the rest of my career.

Do not panic. As others have said, you're lucky not to have gotten stuck in this mess. "Don't have time to teach new nurses?" That's a director who'll be looking for a new job, soon. Two things about nursing: most of the staff are young women. They get married. They get pregnant. They move away. Also, a lot of places are offering $10,000 sign-on bonuses. Not long ago, during the pits of recession, hospitals were looking for BSNs with at least one year's experience. Lately, the market is swinging back to what it was when I graduated in 2005--if you can spell RN, somebody wants you,

As for your next job, there may be a little to learn from the previous one. Mostly what to avoid. If you can, arrange a shadow day with any unit you are interested in. Get a feel for the climate. Definitely ask about ratios. For normal acuity, 5:1 is about right. I do neuro stepdown with 3:1, and some nights I get bombed. Realistically, you might have to settle for 6:1. My facility when from a firm 5:1 to 6:1 because it has been hard to find enough staffing. I think ortho may even hit 7:1 on some nightshifts. (Ortho patients are harder than a lot of people think, but a GOOD night may entail mostly passing pain meds. I worked ortho as a transporter, and one of my duties was changing out code carts when they expired. Still, not every night is a good night, and people who aren't sick aren't in hospitals.)

I probably wouldn't lead with wanting to eventually transfer to critical care. Most interviewers will know that's in your mind, because it's in a lot of minds. I'd go with something along the lines of, "I want to take the time to develop my skills while I learn where my best fit might be." And I'd give serious thought to asking for med-surg, because you will see a lot, or maybe surg-trauma if you're pretty sure you want ED. Both are hard places to work, but you will learn a ton and might just decide either is where you were meant to be--although both tend to have a pretty high turnover, because people do tend to move into more specialized care. THAT kind of turnover tends to make them accustomed to training newbs. Just keep in mind that some units have high turnover because they are toxic.

Right now, you're probably feeling humiliated. Don't. But humble is good. You don't want to sound cocky, but it wouldn't hurt to go into an interview at least a little aware that you are interviewing them as they are interviewing you. It's a seller's market--you can afford to be a little picky.

MelEpiRN · Nov 3, 2017

@Snowdin- a couple of reasons you don't want to mention thoughts of switching units: orienting is extremely time consuming and expensive. Many people are putting a lot of effort into molding and educating you, they may take offense at the idea that you don't even want to be there. It's kind of seen as wasting their time.

It kind of hurts when you love your job and you work with people who are telling you this is a pit stop (my words, not the OP) on the way to 'something better' (when logically it happens all the time and we can all understand people need to work where their passion is). It's just best to keep it to yourself.

It also takes up an FTE that could be occupied by somebody who actually wants to be there.

pixierose, BSN, RN · Nov 3, 2017

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.

My preceptor loved to say, "it's the newbies who think they know it all that are the scariest, not the ones asking questions."

So for someone who thinks they're the safest, bestest nurse at two weeks orientation ... I'll go with the "spoilt" newbie who requires the 10-12 weeks.

JBMmom, MSN, NP · Nov 3, 2017

Good luck, you can move on from this and make it for the best. For what it's worth, I was let go after 15 shifts earlier this year from a hospital position. Was also told that my critical thinking didn't meet their standards, I just wasn't going to work out. It really made me question things at first. I got another job in a difference hospital and I've had nothing but positive feedback since starting. I've even been approached about being a potential fit for an upcoming ICU job opening. Sometimes crappy things turn out to be for the best, hope it's true for you as well.

some-RN · Nov 3, 2017

I had a similar experience for my first nursing job. After 'resigning' from a small-town hospital (I was not from the small town), I took a job as a private duty RN for a quadriplegic for about 3 months in the same small town. The beauty of private duty night shift is they train you how to take care of the ONE PATIENT and SAME PATIENT every night. I put a lot of skills under my belt and on my resume from this experience (tube-feedings, vent care, etc.............). The skills from this job allowed me to apply for another New Nurse orientation at another hospital in a big town where they were more willing to actually train (& mentor) the new nurses. What you need to know is two things:

1) Apply within the first year for another orientation as you are still considered a NEW NURSE if it is under 12 months.

2) If you fail during orientation, it is generally not a reflection on you but rather more a reflection of a failure of the training process. I am very thankful that I left the small town (we also have no children, which is what small towns are all about!) where I was going to: 1) have no support, 2) have no friends, and 3) dealing with the "old boys club" (clicks which I didn't fit in with because I was not from there).

Count your blessings that you get a new start!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FLBritchickBSN · Nov 3, 2017

Don't let this one experience ruin your outlook forever. Nursing is a tough game- not every job we take is the right fit. It sounds like you didn't get what you needed, and sometimes starting off in a slower paced environment until you have honed your skills a little more will make you more confident, able to manage your time better, and juggle all the demands made of you. Lots of us out there were thrown into the lions den, and some of us survived less scathed than others. Try and find a position that proactively works with new grads, or join a residency program. The day I graduated I was thrown on a floor as charge that I had never worked on before. Not the best start, but there you go.

BlueeyesRN · Nov 3, 2017

I was in a similar situation years ago in another licensed healthcare field. It is very demoralizing what your preceptor said. Use that negative as a positive and prove them wrong. You deserve a do-over and as others have said, leave this job off your resume'. If asked by interviewers--you took time off for respite and visit family.

I left my job and found another job that led to praise from my patients and supervisors. I hope our words and advice have been therapeutic. This is just a hiccup in life, and in a year you will be so glad you left.

allnurses Guide · Nov 3, 2017

Don't panic and don't be too hard on yourself. I am sure we don't have all the story here, but frankly, anyone telling ANY new grad to forget being an acute care nurse because they will never succeed and not to bother applying and to just go do LTC...if that was really what was said, this place is no place to carry around an opinion from. That goes beyond cruel into small, mean and spiteful.

You weren't a good fit. Whether it was personality or they hired more new grads than they had willing preceptors for or you were overly anxious or overly confident or didn't look right in your scrubs doesn't really matter. You weren't there long enough to learn anything beyond "this is hard", "people aren't always helpful" and "my confidence is easily shaken".

Get back up on that horse. Put that person behind you. It isn't what people say about you that matters. It is what you say about you that will determine your destiny. You were an EMT/paramedic already. You already know you have what it takes.

TriciaJ, RN · Nov 3, 2017

This seems like good advice, and I hate to sound naive, but why is this? I'm still a student nurse and still far off from getting my first nursing job, but I'm very curious about what you've said..

It takes time and money to orient a new person (especially a brand new grad) to a busy nursing unit. If you're instantly talking about the magic day when you can jump ship, they're going to wonder why they should bother.

Management doesn't want to spend the money it takes to orient you if they're not going to benefit from that. Busy staff nurses will extend themselves in order to gain a competent coworker. Not someone else's competent coworker.

Why should anyone invest in you without expecting to benefit?

TriciaJ, RN · Nov 3, 2017

And by the way, that manager was really insulting about LTC. It's incredibly arrogant to assert that XYZ nursing specialty doesn't require critical thinking skills. If it didn't require critical thinking, they wouldn't spend any money hiring nurses.

Orca, ADN, ASN, RN · Nov 3, 2017

This seems like good advice, and I hate to sound naive, but why is this? I'm still a student nurse and still far off from getting my first nursing job, but I'm very curious about what you've said..

It gives the impression that your mind is elsewhere, and that you have one foot out the door even as your current unit is just beginning to orient you to what they do. It's bad form to imply that you want to be somewhere else when someone has just given you a job and is trying to train you.

Truth_be-told · Nov 3, 2017

I swear they only hire supervisors and management people that are either sadistic or have no conscience. It wasn't enough to just fire you, the witch had to insult you and possible damage you emotionally. A normal, civil person would just tell you that you weren't a good fit. If this pig follows the norm, she will also go out of her way to dish you if future would be employers contact her. They get off on that, and rest assured, your future employers will go out of their way to contact her. So I would leave that facility off your resume completely. In the old days, I used to get hired on the spot, sometimes even over the phone. My attitude was put me on the floor, I will show you in no time what I can do. Now that there is an abundance of nurses, their attitudes border on downright abusive. These hospitals and nursing homes are feeling the pinch of an economy that is in a permanent state of contraction and will completely collapse in 10 years or less, so they have ways to harass and torture their seasoned veterans who once commanded a decent salary and hire in fresh grads for a "revised' wage scale (ahem, significantly less per hour). Making you rotate your floors means you have to learn faces and their routines, which makes an already stressful job even more unbearable. At my last LTC facility, the day nurse had a stroke, the midnight nurse developed peptic ulcers, everyone else was totally burned out or exhausted and had to quit or were fired. Everyday, more threats and intimidation, they leave notices up by the time clock telling you to do this or if you don't do that (like pluck out your eyeball and donate it to the organ donor market or cut one of your kidneys out), it will lead up to 'disciplinary action' and their favorite words 'up to and including termination'. You walk into the place and its like getting slammed in the head with a baseball bat. Always some drama, people trying to stab each other in the back, or the one that happens all the time and everywhere you go, trying to dump their work off on others. New admits that sat their for 7 hours and nobody started a chart, got vital signs, or ordered their meds. When you start to think that gargling razor blades would be better than putting up with another day on the job and can't take the torture anymore and quit before you lose your mental health along with your physical health, they like to get even with you by giving you a bad reference, so you have to smile while they skin you alive and pour battery acid in the open wounds they love to inflict on you. Welcome to the nursing field. Truth be told, it's like this everywhere. The drama is minimized if you are lucky enough to get into home care. It doesn't pay well and you have to buy a new car every 4 years or so from wear and tear, but if you want to enjoy life and not have the sadists and slave drivers at the local hospital or nursing home suck your soul and sanity away, there are other options.