New grad just got fired

Nurses General Nursing

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I am still searching for the strength to move on. I was called in the office yesterday and given the pink slip. I am a new grad, just graduated in May and passed nclex a couple months later and got my first job on a med surg floor.. I started work the end of July and I was on orientation and had three preceptors. The educator dilligently came around and ask me questions about my pts. Basically this lady just hammered on things I told her I needed to look up. She nailed me on things I failed to answered correctly plus exaggerated . And guess what she had it all documented, :madface: correct me if i am wrong, am i suppose to answer all her questions correctly? DO all nurses truly and honestly know qthing about their pts? it was the completion of my orientation and they pulled me and said byebye!! Besides, My preceptor just told me how great I was doing the other day.

RN2day and Tiggertoo so sorry to hear what you went through. It would be nice if they had given you some warning or employee counseling before termination. Hope you're both doing well and find better places to work.

I have read several times that hospitals have to report the names and reasons they terminated a nurse to the State Board of Nursing? Have you heard this?

Thanks for the encouragement.

I don't think that hospitals or employers in general would open themselves up to lawsuits by reporting anything to anyone. Even when you use them as references they only report the standard worked from mm/yy to mm/yy.

I was told about two weeks out that they where “worried about me” but they could not give me any elucidation as to what I was doing wrong, just generic “how do you think you are doing” stuff. It’s a very passive aggressive place.

I didn’t think it was that bad relative to the horror stories I was hearing from my fellow new grads at other hospitals so I probably took the “worried about me” comment too lightly and was not aggressive enough about getting and exact prescription for success. I think I was hosed at that point anyway. My experience tells me if you start getting bad vibes especially with no support or anyone on your side you are done, leave before it gets worse.

Also, there is no such thing as an appeal during the probationary period, I doubt that appeals are heard of much in the nursing profession, especially after reading other posts on this site.

Also, an at will employment hospital, so they really don't have to give cause and certainly won’t volunteer it.

As far as agency nursing, no agency (I have come across anyway) will hire a new grad with less than 1 year experience. Even with 1 year of experiences, nurses I have talked to had trouble getting placements.

Specializes in healthcare12 years.

i have been struggling with a few nurses that just are mean, and let it go they keep writing me up for stupid sh@& give you an example i forgot to intial a med but they said they new i gave it (AB) because it was intialed and dated in the room butstill wrote me up. the nurses forget to intial i let it go, then we have blue books that we fill out after we look at the patient we have scd or compressors for your leg and i wrote yes instead of no I got written up I had enough!! so I wrote a nurse up that been riding me for not fiilling in her restraints documentation which is important and the manager told her who did it now I know she is going to be twice as bad so I am looking for a new job I dont need to come home stressing over stupid thing, so I know its not a good fid I am moving on so can everyone god bless

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
i have been struggling with a few nurses that just are mean, and let it go they keep writing me up for stupid sh@& give you an example i forgot to intial a med but they said they new i gave it (AB) because it was intialed and dated in the room butstill wrote me up. the nurses forget to intial i let it go, then we have blue books that we fill out after we look at the patient we have scd or compressors for your leg and i wrote yes instead of no I got written up I had enough!! so I wrote a nurse up that been riding me for not fiilling in her restraints documentation which is important and the manager told her who did it now I know she is going to be twice as bad so I am looking for a new job I dont need to come home stressing over stupid thing, so I know its not a good fid I am moving on so can everyone god bless

So did you get written up twice total?

It might have been better to ask the manager how to proceed (if it was only those two times), and ask what you can do to make things better. Theoretically it isn't meant to get someone fired, but to show them what they need to improve on. Unfortunately, it also feels LOUSY to be written up :(

It would also be good to ask what is a good approach when YOU see deficiencies, ie the restraint log ... I admit it isn't fair if you're being written up and someone else is not! But writing someone else up out of retaliation is ALWAYS gonna backfire ...

Hope things work out for you, God bless!

Same thing happened to me. After 3 months I was told I wasn't a good fit. I had had at least 20 preceptors during my orientation. Most of them gave conflicting information and couldn't explain any of their rational, e.g. you have to shake the purple top tube vigourously you know! Or, I know there is an order that you take the vials for a blood C&S but I don't know what it is. I was told by one preceptor that I used the wrong pencil when updating a Kardex! It was a pencil, not a colored pencil or anything. She just didn't want me taking a pencil from the supply cabinet, I was supposed to walk around the whole unit until I found one that was in use already.

There was a new grad class; this was a magnet hospital after all (whoopti), where the instructors were just going through the motions. For example, they would show up without their supplies to give demos! "You all know what a butterfly looks like right, well then you put this thingy into the vein push the button and voila". Complaints about the level of instruction where made on their evaluations and were responded to with "You don't have to be here you know". Real professionals!

Oh the part I liked best is how they loved to tell you how much money they spent on orienting each new grad, each quote went up a couple of thousand so I can't give you an exact number, anywhere between $40,000 - 45,000, I think they pulled the number out to their hat. Well, they didn't hesitate to throw that money any.

During my tenure there I can't tell you how many complaints I got from patients as I walked in the room at the beginning of my shift about the last nurse. Many of them were to be my preceptors. My last day I had comfort care patient, her iv had infiltrated about 2100 the night before (according to her husband). This was the one hand she could still use and more importantly write with. She had oral cancer and was not able to speak, but was still very much a0x4 and would communitcate with her family by writing, very clearly, now with a hand the size of a baseball mit she was unable to. The night shift had not done anything about her IV, her bed was soak with iv solution not to mention that she wasn't receiving the med for pain.

Unfortunately, for me I turned down about 5 other jobs and took this (the wrong) one. By the time I realized how horrible it truly was, all the other jobs where taken and now I am waiting till the hospitals start hiring new grads again. Usually, only twice a year here and then new grad jobs are pretty few and far between, which I didn't know before I moved here.

Live and learn.

This was a magnet hospital:o I thought magnet hospitals were supposed to be such great places to work.:uhoh21:

Specializes in Transitional ICU, Neuro/Trauma ICU.

I'm so sorry to hear that. Whatever happens...happens. You just have to move on. :icon_roll

Specializes in Tele, ICU, ER.

I knew a new grad once who was told he needed time to get floor experience before working ER. He'd done about 6 weeks of orientation I think. So up to the floor he went - doing fine up there near as I can tell. BUT... when we're short in the ER, who do they ask to cover a shift?

I found that amazingly unfair. If you're not good enough for the ER yet, so be it. It's not for everyone. But don't tell someone that and then use them when you're short. SHEESH!

Perhaps the best Nurse that I know and also a clinical instructor was fired from one of her first jobs. She said it was an agonizing experience. After a time to heal she went onto a better fit that gave her the confidence to earn her MSN.

Don't let this circumstance stop you. Many a great Nurse has been forged in the fire!

Good luck. I know you'll do well.

Specializes in Nurses who are mentally sicked.
I am still searching for the strength to move on. I was called in the office yesterday and given the pink slip. I am a new grad, just graduated in May and passed nclex a couple months later and got my first job on a med surg floor.. I started work the end of July and I was on orientation and had three preceptors. The educator dilligently came around and ask me questions about my pts. Basically this lady just hammered on things I told her I needed to look up. She nailed me on things I failed to answered correctly plus exaggerated . And guess what she had it all documented, :madface: correct me if i am wrong, am i suppose to answer all her questions correctly? DO all nurses truly and honestly know qthing about their pts? it was the completion of my orientation and they pulled me and said byebye!! Besides, My preceptor just told me how great I was doing the other day.

I have never been fired in the nursing field...but there are a lot of jobs out there....In New York, they spend $ and time to teach you, and it is easier to get a job right here.

Oh my...I know and feel your pain. Your post could have been written by me. I graduated nursing school in May (at 46 yrs. old), took and passed my NCLEX in July and began working as an RN in August. I was asked to resign in October.

The whole experience left my confidence shaken with doubts about being a nurse. I was treated very badly by my nurse manager and nursing education. During my interview, I asked what my patient load would be. The answer was 4. In reality, it was 6-8 patients on a cardiac monitored med/surg floor. My preceptor would tell me that I was doing great. Then, nursing ed would do my weekly evaluation and tell me things like my preceptor said I needed help with an IV pump twice in one day. This tells us that you aren't paying attention. Nursing ed was constantly checking up on which made me so nervous. So, my evaluation said "doesn't work well under pressure"

Nursing ed said I talked too much. So, the next day I kept my conversation to a minimum and then I was told that I was rude, unfriendly and had poor people skills. In my entire life, no one had ever said that to me, and remember, I am in my late 40's!!! I was told the other nurses in the unit didn't like me. If they didn't like me, why was I invited to eat lunch with them? The list goes on and on....

After I was "asked to resign" a/k/a fired, I went into a deep depression. I got out of bed only to take my kids to school. I doubted my abilities and my change of career choice. Thank goodness I have a wonderful husband and friends who helped me get through it. Somehow, I found the strength to go on a couple of job interviews and began working at another hospital the first week of January. I am grateful that this is a much better experience and I am much happier at my new hospital. I think it is interesting that the first hospital I worked at was a "Magnet" hospital and there was much nastiness and back-biting. The nurses on my unit did not work as a team and there were many disgruntled RNs. My new hospital is not a magnet hospital and the RNs work as a team and all seem to get along well.

I know that this post is long, but it helps me to get all of this down as there are not too many people who I can talk to about it. Reading the other posts has helped me because realize that I am not alone. I felt like such failure, but now I know that I am not the only nurse who was ever fired from her first job.

Oh my...I know and feel your pain. Your post could have been written by me. I graduated nursing school in May (at 46 yrs. old), took and passed my NCLEX in July and began working as an RN in August. I was asked to resign in October.

The whole experience left my confidence shaken with doubts about being a nurse. I was treated very badly by my nurse manager and nursing education. During my interview, I asked what my patient load would be. The answer was 4. In reality, it was 6-8 patients on a cardiac monitored med/surg floor. My preceptor would tell me that I was doing great. Then, nursing ed would do my weekly evaluation and tell me things like my preceptor said I needed help with an IV pump twice in one day. This tells us that you aren't paying attention. Nursing ed was constantly checking up on which made me so nervous. So, my evaluation said "doesn't work well under pressure"

Nursing ed said I talked too much. So, the next day I kept my conversation to a minimum and then I was told that I was rude, unfriendly and had poor people skills. In my entire life, no one had ever said that to me, and remember, I am in my late 40's!!! I was told the other nurses in the unit didn't like me. If they didn't like me, why was I invited to eat lunch with them? The list goes on and on....

After I was "asked to resign" a/k/a fired, I went into a deep depression. I got out of bed only to take my kids to school. I doubted my abilities and my change of career choice. Thank goodness I have a wonderful husband and friends who helped me get through it. Somehow, I found the strength to go on a couple of job interviews and began working at another hospital the first week of January. I am grateful that this is a much better experience and I am much happier at my new hospital. I think it is interesting that the first hospital I worked at was a "Magnet" hospital and there was much nastiness and back-biting. The nurses on my unit did not work as a team and there were many disgruntled RNs. My new hospital is not a magnet hospital and the RNs work as a team and all seem to get along well.

I know that this post is long, but it helps me to get all of this down as there are not too many people who I can talk to about it. Reading the other posts has helped me because realize that I am not alone. I felt like such failure, but now I know that I am not the only nurse who was ever fired from her first job.

Specializes in Med Surg, Hospice, Home Health.

It's not you. Trust me and the others here on this forum.

That is why we take report and write the information down. I've been a nurse

for 10 yrs, and I can't FUNCTION without my "cheat sheet."

I mean, my goodness, 4-7 patients...they all start looking the same, especially at the end of the day.

Especially if you are a new graduate, where everything is new.

Think of this as they did you a favor. I would rather work where I'm appreciated for my skills, not my recall ability.

linda

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