I'm in a very difficult situation. I've been a RN with a BSN for over 10 years. Since 2012 I've been terminated from 3 separate jobs, for different reasons.
The first job I was termed from was as a nurse manager in LTC. The reason for being termed was I had opened and started completing an assessment on an admission who had not yet arrived, but was someone I knew well for over 20 yrs and had cared for. I knew her history so I started answering what I knew to be correct (the assessment was accurate). The next day, without warning, and a raving evaluation just a month prior, I was terminated.
2 months went by, I finally got a position in home health. One day, I went to see a patient, and she called and complained that I didn't have a name tag (which I didn't, but was told they were taking new ones soon), that I didn't wipe my equipment down, etc. I had NEVER had a pt call and complain, ever before. At this point I had worked there for 18 mo. My supervisor told me about it, and during the next visit, I wiped everything down in front of the pt, explained why I had no name tag, and the visit went well. The pt said to me "I hope this doesn't affect our visits" and I told her of course not, that I hope that if she feels I've done something wrong to please bring it to my attention so that it can be corrected. All seemed well. The next day, I was fired. The pt said that I never cleaned my equipment, that I told her that my not having a name tag wasn't "my problem," and that i told her I'll try not to let her calling and reporting me affect my care for her. None of this was true but i was still termed. Again, I had just had an eval and my pt scores were at the top of the agency, but when I asked my supervisor if she thought I could speak to a pt like that, she said honestly, yes I can, but at my eval, she told me I was "so fun and down to earth and can see why my pts loved me." But it never happened, I practically begged for my job, offering to go with my supervisor to the pt home to get to the bottom of it, but my supervisor said no, and even tho i had pts call and give raving remarks on my trwatment and care (i still get calls from pts thanking me) but I was still termed. The pts daughter now has my job.
The most recent job was as DON at a basic care. Upon hiring, my boss, the administrator, was showing me my duties. One of them is updating/initiating of care plans. He told me there is "21 days" to complete them (paper charting) and pulled out the 1st chart to show me. Wouldn't you know it, the care plan wasn't done, and it was well past the 21 days. He was responsible for doing it (he's a nurse as well) but hadn't yet, and he said me "oh this is a back example haha." There were 3 charts total the care plans were not done. My boss backdated all of them to be in compliance telling me that sometimes there are significant changes and you can wait to do them until a baseline is established. Last month, i had an admit, and thats exactly what happened. She changed, a lot, from ambulating to meals to refusing all cares, and I wanted to see if she was going to turn around or cont to worsen. Then, my boss termed me, for the care plan. I explained, as he had, why it wasn't done, but he fired me. He told me "you're clinical skills are excellent, your attendance is great, and your work performance is good, its just this care plan." I was completely side swiped. How can he fire me for something that he himself did, and illegally back dated?
So here I am, with the 3rd termination on my record. I feel all of them are unreasonable, but i know how it looks to employers, and I just want to crawl under a rock.
Should I leave nursing? Start flipping burgers or greeting people at Wal-Mart? I don't even know anymore.
