Fired after 15 years in nursing

buildingmyfaith57 · Jun 30, 2007

Hi,I know what you are going through, I am still involved in a lawsuit against my former employer after being fired in retaliation for whistleblowing/complaining about patient care issues.My state of Wisconsin has a whistleblower retaliation protection law. Dont lay down and die because you may THINK you have no recourse.You wont know until you have a consultation with an EMPLOYMENT lawyer, some will not charge you anything at all for the consultation and if they feel you have a strong case , they very well may take your case on contingency of winning, where no money is exchanged until you win, and if you dont win they dont get paid.Some state's retaliation laws actually provide for lawywer's fees to be paid by the employer if you win, again if you lose, no monies are paid. It is a long arduous ,nerve wracking process to go up against the hospital or nursing homes bulldog lawyers, BUT is worth it to me. Good luck, private message me if you want.

i live here in wisconsin also. i didn't know people here in wisconsin has the right to fight. im not a r.n. or a l.p.n. but i was a c.n.a been certified in california for 20 years ,came here to wisconsin got my c.n.a here for 6 years and i have never got fired in my life until after 2005 i got fired left and right. i mean i can see why i got fired at one place but all the others i have no clue it just happens. if you go take a look at the c.n.a registry for wisconsin you will see there are alot of them every month and it makes you kind of wonder if their from the same place. or what in the world is going on?

Simplepleasures · Jul 3, 2007

The only problem with Whistle-blower laws, is that they don't cover everything. They may keep you your job, but you can get denied for promotions, raises, they can put you in a horrible department, on a horrible shift, and pick your job apart until they have a valid, legal reason to fire you, pluss make your life a living hell on top of it.
The laws need to go much further.

Whistleblower laws protect the nurse most when she/he has been fired. My state whistleblower retaliation protection law provides for reinstatement, lawyers fees, back pay with interest, some front pay if not returning to work.If one does accept their job back, you may indeed be harrassed, but then you are again covered by the fair employment act in which you can once again sue your employer for retaliating against you for filing a previous lawsuit. Yes you may end up miserable in this job , BUT your employer may end up willing to pay a nice fat severance package to you to avoid being sued once again. There is absolutely no reason to let the unethical and unscrupulous employer win by making your life miserable once you return to work, if you return to that job.

There are laws out there that can protect us, but if we surrender even before the war, we will always be the vanquished.Nurses should be darn sick of having to do this difficult, demanding job, while being at the mercy of the unethical employer.I speak from experience here and I for one am NOT giving up my fight. There are states that have better whistleblower laws and I do agree that the laws need to go further , thats why I think a FEDERAL whistleblower protection law is desperatly needed, so we can get heard in a federal court, sue not only for back and front pay, but be allowed to sue for punitive damages in which we are allowed to ask for monies because of personal damage done to us, not only financial. I have hope that one day when things get SO bad, nurses can forget their political leanings and get together to form a NATIONAL powerful union, we will then have a decent place to practice our noble professions.