Fired from longtime job, too much LOA r/t cancer, deaths in family. Not Fair.....

rehab nurse · Sep 23, 2007

after 6 years at my last job, being voted "nurse of the month" in my unit two months prior, having the respect of the physicians i worked with and also most of the nurses and aides, a new don came into town. her target? any nurse there before her, or at the top of the pay scale. i was in both categories, and had so many things done to me to make me quit. i hesitate to post them here in case there are colleagues (former) on here.

however, i needed lots of time off for surgery and treatment for my back and after i asked for modifications to my schedule and to my environment due to my disability under the americans with disabilities act, and also due to physician restriction, i was denied all of them. i was harassed continuously. my co-workers on my shift knew and helped me out so i did "meet" my restrictions.

then i was diagnosed with cancer at christmas-time last year. i started treatment, had surgery, and when i called my boss to tell her i would need some time off. she asked why, and i started to cry, saying "i have cancer". her response? "there's no reason for you to return. you're fired". click. i can't tell you how upset her careless response made me feel.

i gave 110% to that employer, worked extra, came in when they were short, helped institute a new type of "rapid response" team with the physicians, tried to help everyone despite the toxic environment caused by other shift nurses who refused to do their work. refused to do admits that came in 4 hours before shift change!!! refused to do orders after doctor's rounds...left them for next shift. ridiculous. when this new don came strolling in...i was targeted. i worked harder with a painful disability than some of the nurses there (i don't want to sound like a snob, but hey, we all know when other's aren't pulling their weight). i wasn't the only one let go either.

a nurse in her late 60's had a mi at work, was sent to er and admitted. she was written up for attendance!!!! "leaving work before end of shift". i'm not kidding. a few weeks later, her very ill husband on hospice passed away. she came back to work really fast, but it wasn't until later that i found out it was because the don told her she'd be fired if she took more than three days off, and to bring in a copy of the death certificate as proof of death!!!! she was so ill sometimes at work, but needed the insurance desperately. she was a very kind nurse, and was a good worker before she got sick. she was let go not long after me. fired for "excessive absenteeism".

there are no more "old timers" there. it's all new grads now. many mistakes were being made, state in to investigate complaints, etc. the new management ruined that place. it used to be a great place to work, very flexible, caring managers (not easy to find!!!), good co-workers (even harder to find!!), and decent staffing. until the witches flew in on their broomsticks and cast their spell.

i am pretty disgusted by nursing right now, too. fired for cancer??? where is the caring and compassion for the nurses who do all the caring for the patients??? we are supposed to care for everybody, except ourselves. oh, don't ever get sick, or need surgery, because you're not allowed to care for yourself, unless you want to get thrown to the wolves. especially all nurses out there with long-term disabilities like mine (back injury, chronic intractable pain), who could still contribute to nursing with our minds, are turned away simply because our bodies are worn out.

imenid37 · Sep 23, 2007

Rehab Nurse, That is just plain horrible. Don't these people realize that if it ever is them w/ an illness, they will suffer the same fate? To hang up on someone who found out they have Ca., is just unbelievably cruel. What the heck kind of person can do something like that? Imagine saying to a pt. who tells you my mother just found out she has Ca. "Too bad. I need to go pass meds in the next room, now. You can cry all you want. I can't help you." Why doesn't that compassion so many facilities use in their advertising extend to employees, in many cases?

OhioRN05 · Sep 23, 2007

Hi jls-sorry to hear about your friend. The situation just breaks my heart. Did the facility she work at not have FMLA she could have taken?

FireStarterRN, BSN, RN · Sep 23, 2007

I don't know the details of the situation, but I do know the character of this woman and that she was held in high regard by all of her co-workers. Before she became an RN she had nursed her handicapped son at home for years, he had severe CP and was total care. He died in his early 20s. During that period, her ex-husband kidnapped her other two children, but when the son who recently died became a behavior problem, the ex-husband put him on a bus and sent him back to her. That was when he was 12, I think he was 40 when he died. He had become a longshoreman and gotten married and had a son.

Her daughter is her best friend now, and has three children and lives near by. So this lady has some comforts, but I just can't believe that anyone could be so heartless as to fire someone after their son was killed.

Crash_Cart · Sep 23, 2007

If you think employers are somehow a shining example of a democratic society then your living in the wrong country.

Employers only care about 1 thing. The bottom line.

When you don't perform up to that expectation and make them money, then you are ejected and replaced with someone else who can meet that criteria. Basically, it's a cold and unemotional process that takes very little consideration for any previous employee loyalty in mind.

However, I do feel bad for her personal situation and I do sincerely hope things change for the better. However, just don't expect any building operated by a group of investors to express any thought on the matter. It's unfortunate, but that's not just limited to nursing in scope, It's just the cold hard reality of the matter in any operated business. Yes, nursing is actually a business just like any other and therefore is subjected to a similar set of operating rules.

My Best

kiwi77 · Sep 23, 2007

Reading these examples of heartlessness from healthcare employers who advertise themselves as caring and compassionate (at least if you're a patient) reminds me of my own nightmare. As said before, this is unfortunately not an isolated incident. It also seems that once a nurse is seen as "damaged goods" by management, no matter how good the nurse's previous record of employment is, it's just a matter of time before TPTB come up with a "reason" to terminate him or her. Get targeted and there's absolutely nothing you can do that's good enough. In some cases it seems to come out of nowhere, but other times, you see it coming a mile away.

In my own case, I learned early on how the system works. An honor roll nursing student, I was forced to file a grievance against my nursing school to return after an MVA (drunk driver hit me) and surgery which caused me to miss an entire semester. After the school board ruled in my favor, I was back in class and graduated without incident.

While in school, my employer promised me a job after graduation on the unit where I worked as a nurse tech----gave me the shift I wanted too instead of going straight to 11-7. Six months later, newly pregnant with twins, my HN called me into the office and told me they didn't have a spot for me and to "come back when your life settles down a bit". I hadn't thought to get her verbal agreement in writing and I was devastated. To prevent the loss of my health insurance, I had to scramble quickly and find another job in the same hospital on a unit where the news of my high risk pregnancy had not yet become common knowledge. I stuck it out until having to go on bedrest and then resigned to work at another hospital when my maternity leave was over.

12 years later, at another hospital, I applied for FMLA at the advice of my boss because of debilitating migraines. I wasn't calling in any more than the rest of the staff but I was told to do it or I might be fired. I began seeing patterns of discrimination, and brought the proof in writing to the ethics officer who opened an investigation and was in agreement that my suspicions were true. The end result was altho I was being targeted, written up for bogus reasons, got the lowest yearly evaluation in the department after previously getting the second highest, I knew nothing was going to change. With such a low evaluation, it now affected my yearly raise and when money and security are involved, the time was right to leave.

It's sad to hear so many similar stories of nurses who gave their all for their jobs and in return, get the shaft. I am sure it happens in other industries but it seems especially cruel because of how much of ourselves we give as caregivers.

FireStarterRN, BSN, RN · Sep 23, 2007

Thanks for the thread title revision, that's much better...

Mulan · Sep 23, 2007

That is just the thanks we get from corporate America, I actually have found a way out, will be leaving my nursing job in about a month. I am now doing something fun, and am securing my financial future.
There are other options out there!!

What are you doing? Share, share, share! :nuke:

FireStarterRN, BSN, RN · Sep 23, 2007

What are you doing? Share, share, share! :nuke:

Yes, yes, do tell. :idea:

Mulan · Sep 23, 2007

I hate nursing. I just found out that a lady I know in town was fired from her longtime job at one of our nursing homes. She and I got out of nursing school around the same time, she's in her early 60s now. She was a resident care coordinator for a long time, and I heard great things about her through the grapevine. She has gone through a couple of bouts with breast cancer, and of course needed time off for that. Then, last April her adult son was killed in an industrial accident. She was naturally devastated and needed a LOA. She now had only one living child out of 3.
I found out today that she was fired after this last LOA because she had missed too much work. I hate nursing. We are expected to give our last ounce of blood, and who takes care of us? No one.

Sorry to hear that but I'm not surprised, not one bit.

I'm not surprised at any of the other stories on here either.

crissrn27, RN · Sep 23, 2007

These stories break my heart. I have had major kidney problems for the last 18 months, and even with FMLA I was treated poorly, and eventually left to go to a new hospital. Thankfully, right now, the kidney stuff has let up, so hopefully there won't be any problems at the new place. I agree, nurses seem to be "targeted" when having family problems, medical problems, etc. More than the rest of the workforce. Probably because a hospital can't function without nurses. If a secretary is out for a few weeks, that can be worked around, but a nurse is needed 24/7 and it has to be someone that can function on the unit. That is why there should be a better PRN staff situation than there is at most hospital. I guess it all comes down to $$$$. So not fair!!

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Sep 23, 2007

I've always said that the "care" went out of "healthcare" when it became a business, a for-profit venture instead of a service to humanity. :madface:

At my last hospital job, older nurses and those who had health problems were targeted by management. They had no grounds to fire us, so they just made life as difficult as possible by giving us the worst patient assignments, issuing verbal and written warnings for the most minor of infractions, and encouraging us to give up our shifts on low-census days rather than sending nurses home by seniority and FTE status, as they were supposed to.

That last year I worked there, I used not only all of my vacation time but most of my FMLA leave as well due to illness caused by severe stress. I've always been a fighter, but that experience made me realize that sometimes it's best to cut one's losses and walk away. For a long time afterwards, I wished I'd been strong enough to stay and fight it out, because I knew I was being edged toward the door and I knew management was only doing this because they could---they couldn't get around union rules, but they could certainly wear us down by making it hard for us to do our jobs. But even $30 an hour wasn't enough to keep risking my health and my sanity, so I left.

Nowadays, very few of the nurses I worked with are still there, as the pecking continued until almost all of the senior (read: most experienced and best-paid) nurses had quit. It's probably 90% new grads and nurses under age 40 now. I used to be proud of the care we gave and the staff I worked with, but today I'd have to consider going to a different hospital if I needed to be admitted. There's simply not enough experience on that medical/surgical floor to make me feel safe as a patient. And that, my friends and colleagues, is what is wrong with health care in general, and nursing in particular---too much concern with profits, and little to none with people.