Forced to resign after 7 weeks

Nurses New Nurse

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I desperately need advice. I was forced to resign my first new grad RN position after 7 weeks, and it's been almost Impossible getting another position. I've used sources on now to articulating my failed experience in a positive light. How I have grown from it, and why I am a better candidate because of it. I used the whole the whole positive, negative, positive formula.

I've even been told by recruiters that I interviewed so well, but the manager probably won't hire me because of it... and I've not gotten a call back yet.

Do I actually NEED to disclose this at all?!

But here is why I was forced to resign:

I was hired as a new grad RN to a med/surg unit. Orientation was 4 weeks in class, and 4 weeks bedside. Week 5, my first week bedside I was not precepted on the unit I was hired for. When I got to my unit I had a different preceptor every day, and it became evident that I did not fit in with the culture of the unit.

How I learn, is by asking (appropriate) questions. I always understood that it was good to ask questions (appropriate), it shows you are interested and actively engaged. Unfortunately on this unit, my inquisitive learning style was constantly misinterpreted as a potential error/mistake and NOT a method learning.

Some examples of my "potential errors" are:

A) Bringing an order for 75 units of lantus to my preceptors attention, (THAT'S A LOT!) questioning the order, and asking her what 75 units of lantus looked like.

-I have never seen 75 units of insulin, and an insulin syringe only holds 30 units of humalog. I couldn't fathom what 75 units of lantus looked like.

**viewed as potential medication error

B) I was in the process hanging Zosyn when my patient told me he was in pain. He had an order for prn dilaudid he could get now.

I know Zosyn runs for 4 hours. I also know give the dilaudid I needed to document a pain assessment, go to the Pyxis, get a vitals machine, document vitals, flush, push over 2-3mins,and flush. All that could take me 15mins.

I know some meds can't be given close together, So I asked my preceptor if I should stop hanging the zosyn and get the dilaudid. She didn't answer me, so I just finished hanging the zosyn then took care of the dilaudid. I did not want to make a medication error by stopping the zosyn in 15 mins to give the dilaudid, but since she didn't answer me I just finished what I was already doing.

******My preceptor told my manager I WAS NOT ASSESSING MY PATIENTS PAIN!!! I NEVER intended on holding the dilaudid for 4 hours, and that is NOT what I DID. I just wanted to know if the zosyn drip could be stopped to give the dilaudid.

When being forced to resign, what the had documented as "ISSUES" were my situation appropriate learning questions. I never DID anything wrong or made ANY errors!! I was beyond floored while being confronted with LEARNING as reason for me being forced to resign.

So- once again, here are my question.. any anyone could answer them:

A) do I need to disclose this 7 week employment on my best job interview(s)?

B) will this job show up on a background check?

Hi Porkdumpling,

I think you are probably way too smart, to blindly follow orders, but that is pretty much what nurses do. It's a weird combination of skills, and nurses tend to not be terribly creative. The only reason I say this, and I know i will offend many, is that I used to get into trouble constantly for asking questions like you did! You were musing about "how insulin might look". Just in sort of a dreamy creative way probably. There is no time for that in nursing. Nursing is sort of like being a car mechanic and you wouldn't want your mechanic dreamily contemplating the pattern that used motor oil makes in the pan. You just want the mechanic to change the oil! I tell everyone that I am absolutely in the wrong profession, but here I am still doing it. I have gotten fairly successful also, but the only way to do that is to not talk, ask few questions, pretend you're a robot, and just concentrate on work. Absolutely just leave the first job off your resume and say "your sister has a new baby and you've been helping her", or "your grandmother was sick" or something that is true for your family somehow- so it's not a total lie. I have no worries at all about your ability to care for patients. Just stay focused on the work while at work! Good luck!

Specializes in LTC, Rehab.

I was misunderstood similarly to you, I think, but in my case it was comments and/or questions I asked when I was interviewing.

Btw, though, there are insulin syringes that hold 100 units. In my facility we sometimes have syringes which hold 50 units, and sometimes 100.

A) Bringing an order for 75 units of lantus to my preceptors attention, (THAT'S A LOT!) questioning the order, and asking her what 75 units of lantus looked like.

-I have never seen 75 units of insulin, and an insulin syringe only holds 30 units of humalog. I couldn't fathom what 75 units of lantus looked like.

**viewed as potential medication error

This concerns me. As others have mentioned, insulin syringes come in multiple sizes. I find it a little strange that you didn't learn that in nursing school. I'm also a bit concerned that you are comparing Lantus to Humalog as they act in entirely different manners.

I'm going to agree with what some others have said - it might not be that you are asking questions, rather the manner in which you are asking them. Take time on your own to do some digging when you have questions that aren't time critical.

I was once precepting a new nurse who drew up 3 units of regular insulin, in a 5 cc syringe. She obviously didn't know what she was doing, and that is worse than asking a question. I had to report this of course, and the nurse was angry at me! I told her, "Look, I just saved you from killing someone, get a clue". So questions of any sort are fine by me, and it's better than making an error. Also, I have noticed that new grads these days are not given the same education regarding syringe sizes that us older nurses were. My most recent job was a fairly stressful working environment, and there was a huge turnover and lots of new grads. I found myself constantly explaining that, "You can choose to use a needle size that is appropriate". They were trying to use 1 inch needles on tiny Japanese ladies (less than 130 pounds) for deltoid injections. I had to explain about 5/8 inch needles for IM. They didn't seem to know this.

OP, I was in a similar situation. I agree on limiting questions as much as possible, asking only after doing research and in emergency situations (i.e. how to hang blood if you never done it before and the patient needs blood stat).

Just want to add this -

-Be careful where you research and write down what you learn. There are nurses who would fault orientees for looking up a term on their own (no joke), and there are nurses who would get nervous when orientees write down what they are learning.

As a nurse relative of mine advised me - get in the mindset that the employer expect you to know what you are doing. Act as if you know what are doing (though, ask questions when necessary). Get the "I am a new nurse" notion out of your head. Employers do not give two sh#%s that you are a "new nurse." They want someone who can perform independently as soon as possible, no matter how much orientation time they promised you.

-Take the time now to review your nursing material and do things that you probably did not have the time to do (for instance, get in shape). When you do interview again, you do not want to look like a neet, right? ;)

Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.

I think you're damned if you do & damned if you don't. If you put the job on your resume & talk about it, it might make hiring managers weary. But if you leave it off how will you explain the gap between school? That will also make hiring managers weary.

I don't want to pile on everything that has been said but I agree that you were probably asking too many questions without looking for yourself first. Even in nursing school they want you to do the research if you don't know what's going on. Where did you go to school where you only gave Humalog? That's a little worrisome.

Not knowing where you live, this advise may not work for you. I graduated LVN school in 2008 (RN 2010). I was working med-surg at a teaching hospital. I will be honest, it was busy and hectic and crowded. The precepting nurses would get frustrated if you were asking questions or helping do things that made them get behind. The RN's had 13-15 pt's each. it was a great learning experience, but a hard one. A few years later (no longer working med-surg) we moved back to my home town which is rural West Texas. And when I say rural, I mean....We live in the middle of a cotton field!. There is a small hospital about 35 miles from us. I worked there in med-surg. It was an awesome experience. There was a charge RN, 2 staff nurses (RN or LVN) and 2 CNA's. We would have 4-10 pts tops. You had plenty of time to ask questions and learn new things. If there was a wound that you had never seen on a pt that was not yours, you could just go do the wound care with the other nurse....no problem!

So, what I'm saying is, maybe look for something in a rural area with a small nurse/patient ratio that will allow you plenty of time to lean your job to the best of your ability.

Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

As a nurse relative of mine advised me - get in the mindset that the employer expect you to know what you are doing. Act as if you know what are doing (though, ask questions when necessary). Get the "I am a new nurse" notion out of your head. Employers do not give two sh#%s that you are a "new nurse." They want someone who can perform independently as soon as possible, no matter how much orientation time they promised you.

This is excellent advice and yet another area our schools are severely deficient in now, don't even get me started on the NP fiasco. It seems all the new nurses were taught ad nauseum how important nurses are with extra special alphabet soup after their names and the ability to immediately delegate the heck out of an extremely competent LPN who will always run circles around them clinically but they can't accurately draw up an injection?

Seriously nurses need to collectively ban together and demand adequate education from nursing schools. While no one expects a new grad to be an expert why is it unreasonable to expect a basic level of competence without a 3 month orientation? I'm sure this is similar to walking 5 miles to school with snow up to my knees but legit we got a few days and were cut loose.

Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

Libby- thank you, and you are right. I would love to write more of a response, but It was extremely difficult for me to read both responses from you and Jules. Thank you both for taking to bring this perspective to my attention. Definitely a bitter pill for me to swallow.

Please don't think of it as a bitter pill but just something that is worth considering and heck we could be totally wrong. If we are right better to hear it and internally address it now rather than continue with the same patterns. Seriously I constantly have to rein in my verbal tendencies which seem to be amplified when I'm nervous its just the way some of us are. The key here is self reflection, putting a lid on justifying things even if there is a positive spin to be had. In some ways its a maturity and experience thing which although in my case even when you are old as dirt like I am can still use some tweaking at times. Although the supportive cyber hugs are more palatable you are likely to learn as much if anything from them.

Specializes in Cardiology, School Nursing, General.

If it will make you feel better, I got fired after a week at a doctor's office after my I got fired my 1st job. But Instead of letting that get me down, I took a small break and then on my resume, instead of putting that in, I omit it because it's a week, and why would I have to explain myself? It doesn't look good and even though it's honesty, I rather get call backs than not get call backs.

So I only keep my 7 years of retail experience and my 1 year at my first CMA job and play if off as "My Office manager and I agreed that this wasn't the best match for me, so we decided to on a mutual separation."

You may ask why my 7 years of experience? One potential job asked me about other experience and I said I had 7 years of retail experience. She commented I should put that in my resume because while it's not medical, it does show I have experience with customer service and that's what we actual do. Since then I put it in and I comment on it a lot.

Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.
Maybe I need to wait longer for it, but in 53 years of life, I've only heard one question that was silly. Are you stating nursing is so harsh a field for new grads (of which I'm one) that we have to do homework on what's not a stupid question?

Only 1 in 53 years? Must've lived a charmed life and yeah homework on the topic might be helpful in this case, rofl.

I am in no way insinuating I want my preceptees to be afraid of seeking me out for assistance but I would hope their questions are succinct, thoughtful and that in a majority of cases, unless emergent, they have attempted to work through it before asking.

Specializes in Critical Care.

This has little to do with your future interviews, which I wish you the best of luck in finding a new job!

Zosyn and dilaudid are compatible, so you didn't need to stop the zosyn at all. One of my biggest asks of orientees is that they look at their resources BEFORE asking a question, and if there is clarificaiton needed, or even just an explanation or reiteration of policy, then ask.

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