I just got fired. Well, actually, my contract with the VA has been terminated, effective immediately. The reason given was that "nursing management" has decided that ALL employees of the clinic will now be RN's. Funny thing is, there is only one other RN in the entire hospital that has any experience running a Hyperbaric Chamber, let alone the entire department, and he is needed elsewhere. So far, I have fielded twelve calls from freaked out nurses asking me how to do various things, from transferring patients from other VA hospitals, to actually running the chambers!
To say that I am livid is an understatement. More than twenty years of experience completely set aside because of the initials behind my name. More than many LVN's, I, mistakenly, believed that I was a valuable component in providing quality healthcare to our veterans, and that I was immune from the struggles faced by so many other LVN's.
Effective immediately, I would take that to mean I am no longer an employee. So the nurses calling to figure out how to do their job would be outta luck. Refer them righ back to their brilliant management that brought this on. Perhaps I'm just mean, but this is what the powers that be wanted, then let them try to fix it!
This is precisely what I would do in this case. There is a lesson here for all those LVN/LPNs who are actively trying to talk themselves out of pursuing the RN license.
Specializes in Hyperbaric Medicine and Wound Care.
There is a lesson here for all those LVN/LPNs who are actively trying to talk themselves out of pursuing the RN license.
You said a mouthful there...I am 46 years old and had no intention of taking on additional debt at this stage of my life. I am seriously rethinking this career strategy...
I have almost 20 years on you and have been talking myself out of this move now for more than 20 years. To think I was at one time 8 weeks away. It sickens me on a daily basis.
Please Please please stop answering the calls for help.
This is now management's issue.
How will they ever figure out that the way they have gone about this was absolutely unsafe for their patients, unethical, unfair to their staff (old AND new), and not good for their all sooo important bottom line, if you are behind the scene saving their behinds. Because that's what you are doing. It may feel like you are helping the new nurses, and in a way you are, but believe me, you ARE ABSOLUTELY saving the behinds of the geniuses that came up with this policy. For free at that.
Specializes in Clinical Documentation Specialist, LTC.
Please Please please stop answering the calls for help.
This is now management's issue.
How will they ever figure out that the way they have gone about this was absolutely unsafe for their patients, unethical, unfair to their staff (old AND new), and not good for their all sooo important bottom line, if you are behind the scene saving their behinds. Because that's what you are doing. It may feel like you are helping the new nurses, and in a way you are, but believe me, you ARE ABSOLUTELY saving the behinds of the geniuses that came up with this policy. For free at that.
LIKE x 1000!!
I did a brief stint as a Hyperbarics Nurse and it was hands down one of the hardest jobs I have ever done. It entails much, much more than just rolling a patient into a chamber and turning it on. It is crucial to do everything exactly right. There is no way someone with no training or experience can run those chambers.
ETA: Let them flounder and stew Caliboy. You do not owe them a thing.
I have never worked hyperbarics, but I have sent numerous kids over to get dunked after house fires/smoke inhalation. It's an important job.
And I completely get the fear of management deciding you are no longer good enough after years of service, due to some letters behind your name.
I'm an ADN and my hospital is phasing us out with a goal date of 2020. They're at least smart enough to keep us around long enough to train all the BSNs.
Effective immediately, I would take that to mean I am no longer an employee. So the nurses calling to figure out how to do their job would be outta luck. Refer them righ back to their brilliant management that brought this on. Perhaps I'm just mean, but this is what the powers that be wanted, then let them try to fix it!
That's exactly what I was thinking! Let mgmt deal with all the calls by the nurses starting to figure out the problem. Let the PTB fix it - they caused it, they can deal with it.
Specializes in Hyperbaric Medicine and Wound Care.
No, you did NOT just get fired. You were well aware that the credentialing was undergoing a VAST review.. by the vastest of systems.. the GOVERNMENT.
While I can certainly appreciate this point of view, please keep in mind that the majority of my hyperbaric training was conducted by the government. The USAF, more specifically. And, I've been doing this longer than hyperbaric certification has even been around. When they came available, I got them. CHT, DMT, EMT? Yeah, I got that AND a Nursing License AND wound care certification. When I accepted this position the program was in shambles. No SOP's, no Emergency Plans, nada. The very same Nurse Manager who just kicked me out the door was (grudgingly) praising me a year ago for writing the entire SOP's for the department. SOP's that SHE signed and put in to practice! It's not so much that this decision has been made, it's the self-serving BS excuse that I'm not "qualified to do the job" that really chaps my behind. Every single nurse in that hospital KNEW that I was the goto nurse when it came to wound care and hyperbaric medicine. Every physician, too.
HBO being what is, every new-grad RN, and every clinical new hire, spent at least a couple of hours with me during their orientation, getting shown what I did, and more importantly, why I did it.
Every time a bigwig from Washington visited, the first thing they did was parade them down to the HBO unit because it is the only HBO clinic in the entire VA system. I gave them my 5-minute schtick, and everyone was was happy, including management or they wouldn't have done it. I was "their boy" when it suited them. Ahhhhhh! Screw it, I'm done venting.
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
Believe me, I thought about doing exactly that! After a glass of wine (all right, more than just one), I came to the conclusion that it's probably not a good idea to burn that bridge, even if I was right to be so angry after being told that I was "unqualified" to run a clinic because I wasn't an RN.
What happened to you totally sucks! You are a better man than me. I would burn the hell out of that bridge and roast weenies in it to boot, probably to my own detriment.
LTCNS, LPN
623 Posts
I'm so sorry
Just shows how many in management positions don't give a rat's orifice about employees. Just throw them out with the trash. Makes me sick 