I find myself in a place I never though I would be. Due to politics at my facility I was fired. Someone decided they had it out for me and everything I did was micro-scrutinized. Everything I did was put under a microscope. I missed initialling a few places in a treatment book and put a completely harmless post on Facebook mentioning no names or other identifying factors. I didn't even have on my profile where I worked. I was dragged into the DON's office and told that the next mistake I made I would be terminated. Needless to say I was not at my best from then on. I was so nervous about making a mistake that I couldn't help making mistakes. I was grumpy with my co-workers and my patients and it wasn't long before they had me once again. They had a representative from their pharmacy follow me on a med pass to supposedly help us improve and correct mistakes. This woman talked to me the entire time I was trying to work despite my asking her to stop and needless to say I made mistakes, ie: forgetting to take a BP, forgetting to administer eye drops. I was toast. The DON tore at me for a good 30 minutes going on and on about what a bad nurse I was. I know it's not true. Most of my co-workers and supervisors told me they thought was done to me was wrong that I didn't do anything other nurses had done before and I was told by one person who was actually out to get me and I believe it.
Anyway do I tell prospective employers? as this happened to anyone else? I'm feeling disillusioned about nursing in general. This was my first position out of school and I thought I was doing a really good job. In my heart I know I'm a good nurse who was put in a very bad position. I love my patients and they loved me. I've been told they miss me terribly but I haven't had the nerve to go back to visit them. I've been questioning if I should even continue my education and my career.
I was there for just over a year. And my Facebook post was beyond harmless. I posted "I wish families wouldn't fight about patients wishes when there is a Power of Attorney and a Living Will that spells those wishes out so plainly" No names, no facility, no identifying factors whatsoever. But I have definitely learned my lesson. I am no longer FB friends with anyone I work with, even those I am legitimately friends with. It's sad that they felt the need to have to dig so deep to find a reason to fire me. The best part is that other employees had in the past and since made posts with patients names and obvious identifying factors have not been disciplined at all. I had been unhappy there for a while, I'm sure it was for the best but it's tough not being able to do a job that I love.
Yikes! I would never post anything about "families and Power of Attorney" stuff. It can get inflammatory, and really, in one's personal life outside of a facility, it is not our business. At work, we can only support the patient, who, after all. made a decision that we are not a party to. Bottom line, if you feel that way at work, don't post it on fb in your personal life. But lesson learned. And in interviewing for new postions, I would not go into "they fired me cause they were out to get me" a generalized "it was not a good fit" would probably be the best. And focusing on the positives--I enjoyed this patient population, I learned a significant skill set that I believe I can implement in your facility.....that type of stuff. No one likes having anyone look over their shoulder. However, you can now focus on what you learned, how you can organize your shift (so that BP's are done with assessments before meds), and the like. Good luck with your future endevours.
It's too late for you to do anything about this job, but reading your post, I saw lots of red flags--not that you did anything terribly wrong, but once the momentum is in motion, it's hard to stop.
First, as others have pointed out, don't ever share anything about work on Facebook. Actually, besides the most vanilla, harmless posts, don't ever post anything that could come back and bite you. This also goes for people posting on your wall. I don't want to sound paranoid, but the picture of you drinking straight from the wine bottle might be funny to your friends who know the inside joke, but would alarm employers or prospective employers (who often check the Facebook pages of applicants before they interview them). This goes for making political comments, religious comments, but especially referencing anything that goes on at work. HIPAA is specific and general in its language; the comment you made about 'families' might link you and them if there were ever any reason. Consider this: the patient you were caring for dies and the family members continue accusing each other of not caring for Uncle Albert appropriately. The fight draws in lawyers who figure out what nurses and docs were responsible for Uncle Albert, then they check out the Fb pages of those employees. Far fetched? Maybe... but not unheard of. Your manager imagines such nightmares, too. (And, wonders what ELSE you might post on Facebook... or share with friends... or talk about with neighbors.) In health care, absolute privacy is the goal, and anything short of that could potentially be a HIPAA violation--which no one wants to ever deal with.
The other red flag I saw was that the manager was 'gunning' for you. We (and you) have no idea why this manager decided you were not working up to expectations, but it probably happened long before the Facebook episode or the missed initials on a form. Once a manager loses confidence in an employee they look for evidence that the employee is either competent or not. When you first suspected you were being watched, that would have been the time to go to your supervisor and ask to talk. At that point, the relationship, and trust was spiraling downward and you could have tried to stop it. There is no guarantee this would have worked, but you may have been able to put things back on track by saying, "It seems I'm not living up to the expectations of a new nurse. Can you help me identify my failings so I can try to remedy them?" This gives her an opportunity to give guidance--it also gives her little reason to fire you. It also creates a pivotal point of your relationship and your employment where there is a 'before' and an 'after'... most of your slate gets wiped clean at this moment and you can work on creating an unblemished new work reputation (I'm speaking of her attitude towards you--not any written employee records).
Other posters have suggested you were fired because you're a 'threat' or that you're victim of organizational politics. I've been a manager for years and can tell you that office politics do cause negative environments, and can cause innocent employees to be victimized. I can also say that a manager perceiving you as a 'threat' is rarely the case. Managers want successful employees; they want employees who have ambition, who are motivated, careful, and dependable. No manager wants to fire employees--especially trained, competent employees. Dealing with vacancies is a nightmare; dealing with training new employees is another nightmare. While there may have been an unproductive political atmosphere at this workplace, it will serve you no purpose to merely blame 'them' for your dismissal. Nor will an 'I'm better than everyone else, so they fired me because they're jealous' serve you any purpose, either (not that you said this, but I'm cautioning you not to take this advice from others).
If you truly want to learn from this experience, do not enlist a convenient defense mechanism and blame others even if this is true... doing so will never help you! Think of what you could have done differently. Think about how to ask for help.... how to avoid getting sucked into workplace politics... how to improve your organizational skills... how not to 'threaten' superiors (just in case their could have been a hint of this).
Did you have an exit interview? If not, you may ask your manager to speak with you. Tell her that you want to learn from this experience so you don't repeat the same mistakes again.
Best of luck to you. This was very unfortunate. Much of it may have been caused by miscommunication--both from your manager who failed to mentor and counsel you, and from your lack of experience in this situation--you may have slowed or stopped the spiraling downward cycle by asking for guidance.
Wait- couldn't failing to take a BP before administering certain meds like beta blockers or ca channel blockers have pretty serious potential consequences? Not being a smart Alec, legit curious.
Whatever the little mistakes you made...I don't think the way you were let go was in any way respectful. Getting fired is already a tough life lesson for anyone to go through but when you have someone sitting across a desk from you telling you how unworthy you are they are trying to shake you up and get thier own gratificication out before they dismiss you. That to me is so sick. I have seen it happen before and even people that I felt were not doing thier best at the job NEVER deserved to be treated like that.
You didn't go into nursing for a DON, so you certainly have no reason to leave because of one.
Take some time to yourself and get your confidence back. Thank God you left a place like that, look forward to a better one. Never doubt yourself or your abilities. You're a human, and when you are put to the test with people looking over your shoulder constantly it is basic psychology that this type of stess will cause you to mess up and fail. Shouldn't all the nurses on this board know that?? They got the reaction they planned on, but don't give them any credit.
I wish I'd heeded the warning signs and left my job sooner. Lesson learned.
You will find another job. Get your resume together and find some great references. Instead of your previous supervisor use a clinical instructor. When you interview put a positive spin on your previous job and don't say anything negative about your previous manager. There are lots of great tips under the interview forum.
I have learned valuable lessons from this. And I did go to her long before this and asked for help which was never given. I was basically told, "No one ever helped me you need to work this out for yourself" This DON has done the same thing she did to me to several other nurses as well. As far as I can tell my only offense was doing my job well. Another nurse had a problem with the fact that a doctor who had previously looked to her for help and praised her as a good nurse began to ask me to do things for her and was complimenting me. Asking to have me assigned to her patients. Shortly after this I began to hear rumblings that this nurse was out to get me, to watch my back. We all make mistakes and we are supposed to learn from them and I was doing my best in a very bad environment. They were starting to cut back on all types of staff and purchasing inferior supplies. I had already begun to try to find a new job. They just beat me to the punch.
As far as my exit interview, it consisted of 20 minutes of my being told why I was a bad nurse and how long they had known it. Although they had no answer for why it took so long to fire me if I was "dangerous"
I am trying not to let this disillusion me. I love being a nurse. I loved my job with all my heart, I just no longer liked or felt comfortable where I worked.
It might have but we had just discussed in a meeting earlier in the week how we were doing entirely too many unnecessary BP's on med passes. This is a LTC facility. It's supposed to be a persons home and I know that my Doc has never told me that I need to take my BP before every time I take my meds. It may be necessary for some patients who have a tendency to drop their pressure on a regular basis but for the most part it should be ok to do it once a week or so. That being said, I normally did do it but I was distracted by the RN following me and already rattled by the earlier warnings I had received. I was perfectly willing to take credit for the mistakes I made but a policy needs to be enforced uniformly to be fair and this was not the case where I worked. Things much more harmful than the mistakes I made were covered up and brushed under the rug for those who were part of the "click"
Specializes in Give me a new assignment each time:).
Please review your Facebook settings. I believe you can adjust it such that only family, friends, etc can read or write on your Facebook wall. That way, what people can view is restricted. I hope that helps. Anyway, back to the thread...
Specializes in Give me a new assignment each time:).
I totally agree with MJB2010 and the other contributors with similar responses. Do your best to recover from this negative experience to that you can go to a new interview with renewed strength and positivity. But, it's important to let that garment of negative feelings drop!
It can be a painful thing when you have tried to hard to do better each time and somebody is simply out to get you for whatever reason. But, you will rise again. I know you will;and on the next job you will feel so much stronger having this experience behind you.
One more thin: whenever we find ourselves in this situation, we should be certain that Human Resource has our side of the story on file. They can tell if things are fair or unfair. They deal with this all the time. Sometimes the environment is simply toxic and even if you are let go, H.R. might still be willing to put something positive in your termination note on file.
I'm saying this because it happend to a friend of mine He was told that in his file, they'd simple put, "employee and employer parted company on such and such a date". No other infomation.
H.R. was willing to put in a good word the my friend and he got the next job.
"The good you do and embody, gives you the only power obtainable." Mary Baker Eddy.
Specializes in Give me a new assignment each time:).
Wait- couldn't failing to take a BP before administering certain meds like beta blockers or ca channel blockers have pretty serious potential consequences? Not being a smart Alec, legit curious.
You are right. But she was distracted! Distraction can be dangerous!
jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B
9 Articles; 4,800 Posts
Yikes! I would never post anything about "families and Power of Attorney" stuff. It can get inflammatory, and really, in one's personal life outside of a facility, it is not our business. At work, we can only support the patient, who, after all. made a decision that we are not a party to. Bottom line, if you feel that way at work, don't post it on fb in your personal life. But lesson learned. And in interviewing for new postions, I would not go into "they fired me cause they were out to get me" a generalized "it was not a good fit" would probably be the best. And focusing on the positives--I enjoyed this patient population, I learned a significant skill set that I believe I can implement in your facility.....that type of stuff. No one likes having anyone look over their shoulder. However, you can now focus on what you learned, how you can organize your shift (so that BP's are done with assessments before meds), and the like. Good luck with your future endevours.