Last week I was forced to care for a patient that is fostered by the pediatric Chaplin on our unit. The chaplain has been very malicious to me since I met her two years ago. The charge nurse and I both had been fired from caring for the patient. She had basically fired every single nurse. I had never cared for the patient but knew I was not wanted, she had verbally explained that to me several times. During the night I was forced to care for her I was very mariculture in my care. I knew she would be all about getting me in some kind of trouble. After I went home that morning, and came back to work my boss was waiting on me. She stated that a formal complaint had been filed against me for harming a patient. I was shocked and very confused. I was written up for the first time for this incident. I was accused by the chaplain of turning the telemetry monitor volume down( I did not), and allowing the alarm to go off for 30 minutes with no intervention. I worked with a second nurse that night, and both of us agree no alarms went off that night. I fought the write up, because it was malicious in nature. However the chaplain was out for blood, and once she found out I would only be written up, not fired, she went strait to the legal department. My boss warned me that this was not good, but since I had never been in trouble before I most likely wouldn't be fired, but would be watched closely for six months. I leave work to return three days later to be terminated. There had been a second formal complain filled for bullying. And I was fired d/t a no tolerance policy. I am a very very nonconfrontational person, and quite shy. I have been bullied actually, since I began working at this hospital. Ironically I was fired for that very thing. I guess my question is, what should I do? I work in the Picu, I have no desire to work in any other area. It is my dream job and it never feels like work. I was a model employee, all of my yearly reviews were without any corrections or issues. I'm so confused and hurt by this. I have applied at the other hospital in town that he Picu and even with my 3 years of experience I was rejected. I feel so alone, and helpless.
It sounds like that chaplain needs to take a Bible refresher course! Chaplains should never be malicious, their job is to provide spiritual support and guidance.
That's awful. She may be a great Chaplain but she is a parent of a chronic child and they are sometimes the worst to deal with. Your HR was wrong to bend to her.
Hopefully your manager will learn to set a care and behavior contract with this mother. We have had to do this and it does work.
It sounds like that chaplain needs to take a Bible refresher course! Chaplains should never be malicious, their job is to provide spiritual support and guidance.
Nurses, doctors and teachers should never be malicious as well. But you know what... at least some of them just are.
P.S. I absolutely believe in story if it happened in one of these religious-associated hospitals. In such places, religious people hold a lot of power and can do whatever they want, however inconsistent with what they are preaching.
As I posted on another similar thread. There is no coverage under your malpractice policy for you being fired.
Going back to the OP, I am amazed at the number of responses to workplace complaint issues to 'call your malpractice insurer'. The malpractice insurer does not care about this since they do not cover you for your workplace complaints or conflicts. They are not going to keep a record of your call nor are they going to open a file unless you are calling to report something that will trigger your coverage, and I have spoken extensively here about events that will trigger your coverage.
They might very well keep a record of her calls. I would not call them unless threatened by circumstances that the insurer covers.
They might decide to not insure her any longer if she calls them about things like this.
Whoever fired you, with no chance for you to be on some sort of improvement plan, no chance to give input or rebuttal or anything - perhaps they will fall afoul of this vicious individual and find themselves fired.
Is there anyone at all you can speak to? DON, CNO, Hospital President, Chaplain's boss (someone hired her, someone can tame her or fire her), HR Director, anyone?
Talk about bullying. I am sick of this word. It is overused. Not saying it doesn't happen, just I am sick of it.
Never accept a patient with family like this chaplain if you can help it. You should not have taken the patient, given that you knew this miserable individual did not want you caring for her child. Don't do it again.
It seems the monitor should have a record of what settings the alarms were on. Can you check with the people who maintain these monitors?
Is there a camera that shows you going into or out of the room at a certain time?
Can other staff (techs, aides) vouch for you?
The patient suffered no harm, I am assuming. How far will the bosses let this woman go in maltreating staff? Who is she sleeping with, who is she related to, follow the money to figure out why she is so damned powerful. Sorry to be crude. It just makes me mad that she can tear your life apart and disrupt the whole ward with her apparently unfounded complaints.
I guess she's scared for the child's well-being, but this is over the top (to fire you if you had absolutely no c/o against no and had perfectly great reviews).
" It sounds like that chaplain needs to take a Bible refresher course! Chaplains should never be malicious, their job is to provide spiritual support and guidance."
Naivety is not a sin...but it can be dangerous. The nature of a Chaplains position in itself commands that you believe nothing completely, in that all ways & paths are true if the person wants it to be. Hence you are a glorified counselor. Just as with most things in the USA, not only is a Bible not needed, in many places it is need not apply. I am not surprised at all that a upstanding hospital 'chaplain' would behave as anyone else in any job, I'm only surprise when anyone else believes they must believe in the Bible instead of the opposite. I expect as a new RN to see in them: the good...the bad...and downright ugly.
As I posted on another similar thread. There is no coverage under your malpractice policy for you being fired.
Going back to the OP, I am amazed at the number of responses to workplace complaint issues to 'call your malpractice insurer'. The malpractice insurer does not care about this since they do not cover you for your workplace complaints or conflicts. They are not going to keep a record of your call nor are they going to open a file unless you are calling to report something that will trigger your coverage, and I have spoken extensively here about events that will trigger your coverage.
Doesn't it make sense to give a heads up with a patient family member going to legal like that?
"How far will the bosses let this woman go in maltreating staff? Who is she sleeping with, who is she related to, follow the money to figure out why she is so damned powerful. Sorry to be crude. It just makes me mad that she can tear your life apart and disrupt the whole ward with her apparently unfounded complaints. "
Sadly, when there is butt kissing and "friends of friends" type of trash behavior going on, the person who is the target is usually defenseless. I have learned (the hard way) that if the so-called "powers that be" want you gone, you will be driven into quitting or you will eventually get fired. My experience has been that if they (i understand that is a very nebulous "they") can't find a terminable offense, they will make something up. Your malpractice insurance (if you carry it) exists to protect or mitigate damage regarding patient centric things that Your actions may (or may not) have created. Calling them and griping about something such as this is akin to reporting every little ding, dent and fender bender to your auto insurance, even if it is so small that your deductible frees them from having to pay squat. They start to wonder how long it is going to take before the really big claim is going to hit.
I think your only recompense at the moment is to file for unemployment. If they truly cannot prove that you did anything different than a reasonable nurse would do, then you will get the pittance that unemployment offers. Use that time to find another job and consign this to the "I learned something" barrel and leave it.
This is a rotten way to change jobs, but sadly is more common than you would think. I was in this boat once, a number of years ago. A few months following, i heard that the person that was instrumental in my firing, was fired herself (and she got escorted off the property.) If i said i didn't get a little amusement out of that, i would be lying. I like to think that I am not the vengeful type, but karma is a ***** and i would not want to meet her in a dark alley. Just saying....
Specializes in Healthcare risk management and liability.
Doesn't it make sense to give a heads up with a patient family member going to legal like that?
No. The malpractice insurer primarily cares about two things for which you may have coverage: the BON actually filing charges against you, which may trigger your licensure defense coverage; and you being named in a malpractice claim for which you have no other insurance, such as you working as an independent contractor or performing nursing actions outside your job, such as doing dressing changes for a neighbor who develops a wound infection. Issues of workplace discipline or other job actions are not covered by your malpractice policy. A patient or family member complaining to Legal, HR or Admin does not trigger coverage under the policy.
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
As I posted on another similar thread. There is no coverage under your malpractice policy for you being fired.
Going back to the OP, I am amazed at the number of responses to workplace complaint issues to 'call your malpractice insurer'. The malpractice insurer does not care about this since they do not cover you for your workplace complaints or conflicts. They are not going to keep a record of your call nor are they going to open a file unless you are calling to report something that will trigger your coverage, and I have spoken extensively here about events that will trigger your coverage.
I beg to differ if your license is or has been reported you can call your insurance company and ask for advice. As the OP said she
was accused by the chaplain of turning the telemetry monitor volume down( I did not), and allowing the alarm to go off for 30 minutes with no intervention.
If it is straight just being fired then...no. If the license is in question then yes they do cover you. You CAN call and ask advice.
I'm surprised no one mentioned this but if it were me, I'd sue the chaplain for slander. You may not get your job back if you were an at will employee but you'd surely get some satisfaction. She chose a really foolish complaint. If you are in an ICU, they can retrieve all those tele records. Your co-worker backed you up. You have good reviews. What of the bullying complaint? Unless there is some witnessed event then she has no leg to stand on. I would go after that horrible woman and put an end to her shenanigans
(see other comment posted on this).
fawnmarie, ASN
284 Posts
It sounds like that chaplain needs to take a Bible refresher course! Chaplains should never be malicious, their job is to provide spiritual support and guidance.