Fired should I just give up the profession

[erinsmom]

Ok here goes. I am an LPN. I worked in a wonderful hospital for 6 years. 4 as an aide and 2 as a nurse. I have also done home health and worked in a MD office. In January I started at a nursing home. I have never worked LTC before. So my experience in nursing is that I mostly passed pills and did some other things but was mostly overseen by an RN.

Well I have never had any issues in any other job I ever had. At my lasst time at the hospital I got an awsome evaluation. They couldn't even find a negative to say.

I hated the nursing home and I got another job in home health. I just hadn't started yet because I was waiting on my MD appointment for my physical.

Well, this weekend at the nursing home 2 big incidents happened.

1) On saturday I had a resident take a drink of hand sanitizer. I will be honest that I really didn't think of it as "poison" and I sort of blew it off. But the other nurse said I should call the MD and I did and she said that the resident would be fine and just to give her water and check her VS q 4 hours.

2) On Sunday I went to give one resident her 4pm meds and noticed her right eye lid was swollen and so I went to get another nurse and ask her opinion. The other nurse and I looked her over. No real edema anywhere else. But she was a renal pt and I had just wanted to make sure. That nurse said well (name) is coming in at 7pm why don't you ask her because I am not sure eigther. I might just write it in the MD book to have them look at it on Monday. So, I went about my day and when another more experienced nurse who is an RN got there I asked her to take a look. Well, I hadn't really been with that resident in those 3 hours and her swelling got worse. So that nurse listened to her lungs and noticed crackles and asked the resident if she was having chest pain. She said yes so we sent her out to ER. She was in fact having heart problems.

So, I got fired this week. My boss said one major thing with the swollen eye is that I made the other nurse mad by not doing an full assessment before asking for her advice. But the thing was I was really in my heart only asking for a consult on a swollen eyelid until we went to look at her I didn't realize her swelling was worse. I can understand, however I am used to going to RN's for advice. By the way, the assistant DON had had the resident all day and hadn't even noticed the swelling in the first place.

On the hand sanitizer I admit that I was wrong, but it was honestly one drink and she wasn't hurt and I called the MD and I really should have seen it as more serious. I know that was a mistake.

I also know that I should have probably checked on the swollen eye more but I really thought that was all it was, just too much fluid or something. It was very localized.

So, now, I am fired from the nursing home. I still have the home health job because I was already employed there.

Will I lose my license? What should my next move be? I know I was wrong. I will say that I probably should have left the nursing home long ago because I don't like being with that many patients on my own. I can't give them adequate care. The thing is I have never had any issues anywhere else but I am wondering if I should just give up.

[caliotter3]

Continue to work at your home health job. After 30 days and again after 45 and 60 days, call the Board and ask if any allegations have been filed against your license. Don't get into any discussions with anybody at the Board, just ask them if any allegations have been filed. If the former employer hasn't filed anything after two months, you are probably ok. Just make sure you keep your home health job as long as you can. The further out from the firing, the better off you will be.

[erinsmom]

Thank you for the reply. That is basically what I was planning. Especially since I love home health it won't be a problem to stay for a long time. But I am really worried about the license. I asked my mom (who is a manager in another profession) if I should tell the home health about my termination. She said since I already am employed there I shouldn't. ideas? more advice?

[Rascal1]

That is pretty extreme,to consider giving up your profession. I don't think there could be a nurse here at allnurses.com or most any where else that could say that they have never made a mistake or an error. The most important thing you can take from this is to learn from it and move forward. You don't need to share that you were fired with the home health care job. Always stay open to find something to improve on within yourself, don't put yourself down..! Good Luck... :redpinkhe

[caliotter3]

Why in God's name would you volunteer this information to your home health job? They don't need to know about it. It has absolutely no bearing on your job with them. Do not shoot yourself in the foot. Instead, be thinking of ways to lay low, do your job, and stay out of the line of fire.