Fired from first hospital job

Nurses General Nursing

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Young nurse recently fired from big name hospital for med errors. extra unit of insulin for a patient, gabapentin dose was changed for a patient but higher dose still active in computer and Pyxis but scanned, 25mg instead of 12.5mg of phenergan. All errors self reported. Doctor reassured me that these were learning experiences and that I was doing a good job otherwise.

I want to say my floor was super catty and cliquey. Mixture of very kind nurses and mixture of women who won't even acknowledge me (and several charge nurses not willing to help a newbie out). I expressed my concerns to my managers about a couple of charge nurses. Then suddenly was fired for phenergan error.

I understand med administration is serious business but these were all minor and I emailed my manager about all of them. People make tons of mistakes on my floor daily but are too dishonest to report them.

I have my most recent preceptor telling my manager I've improved and she's proud of me but it makes no difference. I feel like it has been a witch hunt from day 1 because I don't engage in friendships with these petty women. my reputation is tarnished now and I am deemed incompetent by those nurses I reported to my manager.

I am knowledgeable and I am safe. I've just had a few hiccups. I had a year LPN experience passing meds before this with no issue.

now I am ineligible for rehire in this hospital system that dominates the state and I feel hopeless. How can a new nurse learn from her mistakes and get back on her feet into a hospital again ?

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

In what time period were these three medication errors.

If you are a safe nurse, how did these errors occur? Are you doing your 5 rights? Are you using BCMA?

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.

"I am knowledgeable and I am safe. "

Apparently your history says otherwise. Taking from your post: you need to accept accountability for your mistakes. Quit blaming others and the floor cliques for YOUR mistakes.

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Specializes in Palliative, Onc, Med-Surg, Home Hospice.

You have a cavalier attitude about these med errors. What constitutes a "minor error" in your mind? The wrong dose of a high risk drug? Doubling the dose of a medication? Giving the wrong dose of another med because it wasn't changed in the pyxis? I'll give you credit for self reporting but based on the rest of your post, I suspect there was a lot more to your termination.

If you did report other nurses to your manager, you put a huge target on your back. You refer to your co-workers are petty, dishonest, catty and cliquey. Another way to make sure there is a target on your back.

If you truly want to learn from your mistakes, you need to take a step back and take a long hard look at what you did wrong (the med errors) and how you can correct them and assure they won't happen again. And avoid things that put a target on your back.

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My first reaction to this thread was "people who live in glass houses". It stands to reason that people who criticize the behavior of others to the boss had better insure that their own work is perfect. Most of the time the 'cats' scrutinize with a magnifying glass and a fine toothed comb to begin with. Point out their mistakes and you are asking for the knife to go deep more times than necessary. None of them need to change their behavior and they got the chance to engage in a good laugh over the OP's termination.

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Specializes in CEN.

I made a med error (no harm) and self reported it. I was written up for it but after a year, it was taken out of my chart. I was told that additional med errors over the course of the year would receive disciplinary action.

You see, it's not just the phenergen you got fired for, but also the insulin and gabapentin. If you are a new nurse that means that you have probably been employed for under a year. Three mistakes in a short amount of time is a reasonable excuse to fire you.

Take heart. You can learn from this experience and become a better nurse for it. Double and triple check all of your orders and dosages. Always use your five rights and three checks before giving a patient anything. You may never be able to work again within this hospital system but that doesn't mean that you can't work elsewhere.

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I think a charge nurse sitting on her phone (without patients)instead of helping not just me, but several new nurses on a busy night is inexcusable. I did not report to my manager that any "catty" behavior was going on. That is just my anonymous opinion after listening to nothing but gossip on my unit. Obviously I need to be more careful but I'm more looking for advice on how to move on.

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What is BCMA ?

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Will you put this experience on your resume or leave it off? Really, your best course of action is to find a new job, which may require relocation.

Do you know why you made these three mistakes? Was there a common denominator? I'm just asking to help guide your practice in the future. I agree with the previous posters that it was likely the combination of errors with "not a good fit for the unit" that resulted in the firing.

Take a week or two to mourn your loss of job and celebrate your growth as a nurse and then move on to the next job. His is a setback, but definitely not the end of your career. Best of luck

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Specializes in ED, psych.
I think a charge nurse sitting on her phone (without patients)instead of helping not just me, but several new nurses on a busy night is inexcusable. I did not report to my manager that any "catty" behavior was going on. That is just my anonymous opinion after listening to nothing but gossip on my unit. Obviously I need to be more careful but I'm more looking for advice on how to move on.

While a charge nurse "sitting on her phone" might not be helpful, she has nothing to do with the med errors made.

Nor do "catty" and "cliquey" coworkers.

Med errors happen, but you seem to have been fired after the 3rd one. Learn from this. Don't blame your coworkers and take ownership.

That's how you move on.

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I will put it on my resume, as I feel I need to account for the 5 months. As far as the unit of insulin, I put in the wrong blood sugar in the glucostabilizer. The phenergan was just me rushing in an emergent situation. I don't see a common denominator other than moving too fast, which I plan to work on. I appreciate your kind and encouraging post.

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You fail to realize that you made 3 med errors in a relatively short period of time it seems. Learn from the med errors and fix why they were being caused. Maybe you were going too fast, not double checking before administering..... I don't know, but you need evaluate and fix it.

No one should be fired over say one error. What your employer probably expected was after you reported the first one, you would evaluate and fix before the second and third occurred.

And while there wasn't any patient harm, you gave double the prescribed dosage of phenergran. What if that had been a different med that would have caused patient harm?

The other nurses on your unit were not responsible for your med errors. Only you are.

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