Fired...for 3rd time

Nurses General Nursing

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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.

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Specializes in Tele, ICU, Staff Development.

There are always two perspectives to a story, and it would be easier to help you if we could hear the other side-hear what your bosses had to say.

Could it be that part of the problem is that you are not taking responsibility?

I believe it's within your power to stop the pattern, but only after you believe the same. Best wishes.

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That's what was said. I guess I don't have any more to add. With the first term, they said I shouldn't have started an assessment on someone I hadn't seen, which I had. It's the only one I ever opened early, and it's only because I knew this patient. They even said the assessment was accurate. I should also add that at the same time I was termed, the DON, the other nurse manager, a SW, and a chaplain (who fires a chaplain anyway!) were also fired.

The 2nd job, the patient lied, straight up. I have never, nor would I ever, speak to a patient that way. Or the supervisor lied, I don't know. I know she tried saying I wasn't on any of our weekly calls, but I recalled what was discussed during the calls, proving that I wasn't missing them. Our scores were based on if our pts improved and no longer required HH, which mine was at 94%. Pretty good if you ask me and according to the comparisons, top in the agency.

The 3rd, yeah, the care plan should've been done, agreed. But how can I be termed for something my boss showed me to do and the only reason I did it? Doesn't make sense to me. He purchased a 2nd facility, which goes into effect July 1st, and has a DON as well, so I truly think he plans to run both facilities with 1 nurse, they are both small (18 beds and 48 beds) and literally blocks from each other.

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Do not feel that you came to the right conclusion in the first example when you used your head and tried to save time. What if a regulatory agency had found the discrepancy instead of someone at the facility? The second example is typical of home health agency treatment of external employees. They probably enjoy employing the daughter of the complaining patient. After all, that insures that the case does not leave the agency. Every case that stays, means more money. And in the third example, the manager got rid of the person who knows that he commits fraud with the records. Can you explain away each of these instances in future interviews? Only with an interviewer that has an open mind. That is hardly likely. You just have to let time do its magic. Eventually you will find an employer that needs your services more than it needs to side with fellow employers when placing blame and using termination as an effective management tool. Hope that you can find a job soon and that you can make the next job pan out to a good reference.

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Specializes in Tele, ICU, Staff Development.
There are always two perspectives to a story, and it would be easier to help you if we could hear the other side-hear what your bosses had to say.

Could it be that part of the problem is that you are not taking responsibility?

I believe it's within your power to stop the pattern, but only after you believe the same. Best wishes.

Even if part of the pattern is working for disreputable organizations.

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The assessment was a bradens scale. I knew she was incontinent, not eating well, and pretty sedentary. It was the only one I started, but did not lock it in case it needed to be changed, which it didn't. My first RN job I worked at for over 6 years, never had any issues and have as a good reference. It's just the last 3 that have ruined me

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"It may be hard to believe, but I would like to present my side regarding the three recent terminations (or that particular termination)..." "I realize my mistake.....and have learned from it...." Unfortunately, if prospective employers toss your application before getting you to an interview, you are toast. And do not discount the employer that invites you to an interview to listen to a juicy story or that interviews all applicants so that no one can claim discrimination. Either of these instances also lead to rejection.

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Specializes in Tele, ICU, Staff Development.
The assessment was a bradens scale. I knew she was incontinent, not eating well, and pretty sedentary. It was the only one I started, but did not lock it in case it needed to be changed, which it didn't. My first RN job I worked at for over 6 years, never had any issues and have as a good reference. It's just the last 3 that have ruined me

You have a work history that may be not be as bad as you think, including a couple long tenures. Going forward, and in interviews, just say (if asked about short tenure) "it wasn't a good fit". Employers do understand leaving an organization that has sketchy practices.

Avoid taking short cuts in your nursing practice and know that every employer is concerned with passing surveys- so especially be conscientious about regulatory driven documentation. Best wishes.

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Good advice, thank you. The interviewer looking for a juicy story...been there, done that. I thought it was odd she didn't write down my responses, told me "you'd be perfect for this job, etc" and never heard back from her. Turns out she was on the board of directors of the placed that fired me. It's a small town unfortunately. I'm almost thinking I need to call and talk to people BEFORE I apply and see if that helps any. But thanks, I do appreciate it.

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It's also possible that you need to choose employment situations more carefully. Unfortunately it may be more difficult to do so at this point, but it's worth mentioning if it serves as a bit of a cautionary tale for others. Giving you the benefit of the doubt that you haven't left out critical details, there is an element of flakiness to all three of these reported situations.

There are at least 2 areas you need to deal with:

1) Introspection. You do need to see what your part is. Evaluate your practice, your style of personal-professional interaction, etc. Be thorough and be honest with yourself in this exercise. Have you become complacent in providing excellent care? Are you flippant or careless with words and/or non-verbals?

2) Evaluation of others/situations. I don't know how to word this really, but I suspect you may need to get better at reading people/social and behavioral cues, etc., and learning how to handle them calmly and without drama, with your own interests in mind. I hate to "Monday-morning-quarterback", but doing so will allow me to explain:

If I had a manager/supervisor, while showing me my role, say "oops...that was a bad example...." I would make mental note not to do that same thing, and I would make a precautionary mental note that the people in charge of this place don't do what they expect others to do, they don't follow their own rules, and they likely don't staff well enough to meet their own expectations/have unreasonable expectations. I would be extremely wary and on-guard, or else look for a different position right then at that juncture.

If I had received the home care complaint you received and if I knew it was without merit, one way or another I would not be going back in that home again. I would try to effect my decision very calmly and professionally, but I would not put myself back in a situation with someone who has slandered me just because they knew they would be listened to. I'm dead serious when I say I would resign if necessary.

Bottom line, you must aim for excellence, first and foremost. Directly after that, you must require respect. Earn it, then expect it.

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Again, good advice.

I took this last position with, I'll be honest, trepidation. I had worked with him prior at another facility many years ago, but thought maybe he had changed, and went for it. Now im paying the price. I should have resigned before hand. Especially when i realized he didnt hire men nor people of other race besides caucasian, he through the applications away as soon as they came in. Oddly enough, he had written up several employees multiple times, but kept giving them chances for reasons like excessive absences, poor care, and very bad attitudes. I did ask him why he couldn't just give me a disciplinary action in my record, let me correct my mistake (the first and only time he had written me up) but he said no, that he held me to a higher standard and therefore I was terminated. And he kept saying "I don't expect YOU to feel sorry for ME." As he was talking about the work of opening a 2nd facility.

I'm a brutally honest person, I've made mistakes, I know I have. I lost an inhaler once, overslept twice, medication errors, but I've always owned up to them, improved and moved on. My clinical skills have never been questioned or quality of care I give. But i always have room for improvement, this I most definitely know, and i agree, i should never have repeated his mistake. For some reason, and why I allowed it I don't know, he treated me differently than the others. For example, he paid for the licenses for the med aides, the CNAs, and kept them up to date. Mine was supposed to be too, but he let it lapse and I had to pay for not only my license, but double because it was a day late, and he never reimbursed me. My eval was 2 months late, but he never back paid me, yet he did everyone else. I wasn't allowed time off, in fact my vacation was paid out to me, because I was never allowed to take a day off.

I had an interview on Monday, the next day I was termed, so maybe they contacted him and he found out I was looking elsewhere. I was not offered the job fyi.

I would like to add, that prior to being a nurse I was a CNA/CMA and was nominated twice in the 9 years I worked there for employee of the month. 9 yrs I worked there without a single write up.

Sorry this is so long, I'm just so heartbroken. And to make things even worse, I'm getting married in less than 2 weeks. Jobless.

I have called my previous employer to ask for a letter of reference. If anyone has any other suggestions, I'm open to them :)

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I didn't look at your work timeline but employers don't need to know your full track record. You can leave a time period out (a specific job/company) and just state you took time off... Especially if you don't want to show multiple jobs or don't want a particular company called on for reference.

Go work union - I do = 2 thumbs up! Maybe it's a blessing in disguise. I went through a horrific 9months before I got my first nursing job and here I am 4.5yrs later happy it happened - otherwise I would be where I am ;)

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