Got fire because manager said I need some critical thinking

[HNursing]

Hi everyone,

I came to work today and felt something was wrong already. Nurses were looking at me like they wonder why I was still there. My manager came in to work and then he told me we need to go to HR. I follow him and wonder what is going on. He did not told me that he is going to fired me. He told me that we are going to HR and talk to them about my orientation. He started telling the lady in HR that I did many mistake and they had been going over my mistake many times ever since last months. My mistake was miss pronouncing the name of the diagnosis and can not critically think. I defense myself that I tried to learn it and tried my best to pronounce those diagnosis especially the long words. I also told him that when I had a hard time. I spell for the nurses, but he said I can not do that. It just take too much of the time and people will complaint on you. Then he complaint about that I did not catch one of the doctor mistake for writing the same medication. In my mine in that time, I did not know should i argued with him or not because if someone wanted to fired you they do not need you to explain or if they willing to let you explain they won't fired now. I still go ahead and explain to him and HR lady about it because I was not the one who signed the order off and I was not one who saw that order. I saw it in the computer, but then we have many medication for people with HTN. How should I know that those two medications are the same medications where they have different names. I was upset by it because I was new and I am still learning. I learned from it and the second time I saw it. I told my preceptor and call the pharmacy. But my nurse preceptor did not tell my manager about it. She only told him what I done wrong. Then he told me that the doctor hang up the phone on me once and I had to asked doctor to spell medication order for me. I was felt so sad that my manager had done this to me because I asked doctor to spell the medication out for me because I am the one who going to write the order in behave of the doctor and I do not want to write the wrong order or wrong medication. I was just making sure I am given the right things to my patients. The doctor who hang up on me. It is not my fault that the doctor hang up on me because he was busy. I was so sad because he is against me with these things.

I am new in the floor with many nurses who have so many years of hospital experiences. They compared me with them. I felt so awful. Now I had to look for another job. He said fired me I can not look for job in their system anymore. I was so sad because I did not did a mistake that kill someone. I did not hurt anyone. I know I had limited experience because I did not have much of nursing experience. He told me to find a job in nursing home and get more experience before coming back to the hospital or take some classes about how to pronounce some of the terminology. I was so stock by it. I came home and told my family exactly what happen. They said they believe it because that how he can over his position.

I really do not feel it is fair for him to do that. I never have a patients who complaints on me. I did some mistake, but i learn from it. I had patients who buy me gift and things like that. Felt so unfair that my preceptor did not tell them things I done right and they have to wait for my preceptor not there to fired me. I had no one who can back me up or anything.

Now I got fire and can never apply for any job under that system as well as I don't know how to find another job with this economy and how to tell people that I got fired or I leave the job.

[DA314]

You should work on your communication skills

[redhead_NURSE98!, ADN, BSN]

I just finished my first semester of nursing school, and even I know enough to know that the level of communication you have displayed in this post would put patients in danger. I would be surprised if this is the first time you have heard that you need to work on your English. And if English is not your second language as you say, then you may need to see a physician yourself, because I cannot understand what is going on with your posts.

[steelcityrn, RN]

Yes, very sad this happened to you. I hope things work out for you.Take the good advice given here.

[Ms.RN]

i just finished my first semester of nursing school, and even i know enough to know that the level of communication you have displayed in this post would put patients in danger. i would be surprised if this is the first time you have heard that you need to work on your english. and if english is not your second language as you say, then you may need to see a physician yourself, because i cannot understand what is going on with your posts.

what??? how do you know for certain she would put patient in danger by just reading this post? from reading her post, she made a mistake of not knowing the name of medication and not calling a physician. i work with physicians with such a thick accent that they are hard to understand and i do have to ask them to spell the name of the medication or repeat what she said. and why do you think she need to see a physician because english is her second language and she have problem with communication? can you explain that?

[rn/writer, RN]

You said that English is not your second language. Could you please tell us a bit more about your background.

I don't say this to be hard on you, but you have made many mistakes in your posts.

He did not told me that he is going to fired me

Should be, "He did not tell me that he was going to fire me."

It just take too much of the time and people will complaint on you.

Should be, "It just takes too much time, and people will complain about you."

They said they believe it because that how he can over his position.

Not exactly sure what this means.

Again, I am not trying to make you feel bad, but if you are serious about doing whatever it takes to get a new job and keep it, you are probably going to have to improve your language skills.

This is not about you as a person. It is about learning to speak and write English well enough to keep patients safe.

If you can share a little of your background, we might be able to give you more concrete suggestions to help you make the progress you need.

I wish you well.

[redhead_NURSE98!, ADN, BSN]

what??? how do you know for certain she would put patient in danger by just reading this post? from reading her post, she made a mistake of not knowing the name of medication and not calling a physician. i work with physicians with such a thick accent that they are hard to understand and i do have to ask them to spell the name of the medication or repeat what she said. and why do you think she need to see a physician because english is her second language and she have problem with communication? can you explain that?

well, no, but i can explain what it is that i actually said, since you didn't seem to understand it.

1) if the op communicates like this on a daily basis, it is dangerous. no one here can even tell what it is that she's saying. it's lovely that you know physicians with thick accents. however, that's quite irrelevant to what i said. i bet those physicians can write english just fine, can't they? and probably speak it correctly too, just with an accent. what the op wrote is hardly even english, and i can't imagine she writes like that but speaks it just perfectly.

and 2) the op actually said, in her second post, that english is not her 2nd language. i certainly hope that is because it's her third language. because if she's claiming that she was brought up speaking english first and she is writing like that.....she has something organic going on that she doesn't even realize.

[rn/writer, RN]

how do you know for certain she would put patient in danger by just reading this post? from reading her post, she made a mistake of not knowing the name of medication and not calling a physician.

from reading the post, it is apparent that there are some serious language issues. many wrong words and much wrong usage. don't know if this person's spoken english is the same, but this could cause problems.

and why do you think she need to see a physician because english is her second language and she have problem with communication? can you explain that?

in post #19, the op said english is not a second language.

[cherrybreeze, ADN, RN]

How can I put this delicately.......

IMO it's pretty bad if anyone reading what you write doesn't think English is your first language. As someone said, there are countless errors in your wording in your posts, and to me, not minor errors. If this is how you are speaking (which I'd have a hard time believing, but one never knows), or more likely, if this is how you are charting and writing orders, I can see the problem.

Diagnoses and medication names can be tough, don't get me wrong (if nursing were easy, everybody would do it). But you still have to know them, that's why there are drug books all over the place, etc. It's our job to have a good knowledge base for these things, and you have to start out with it, in some ways. Of course you learn along the way, but if it's basic things that you were making errors on, something more drastic COULD result.

[HNursing]

Thanks to the people who are so nice to me...

English is my forth language..I speak Spanish, Italian, English and French...

I want to respond to some of the post. I did not make any medication error or miss spell the medication because I always double check my spelling. I did a calculation error because I was new to the computer system.

[RedhairedNurse, BSN, RN]

To the OP,

Did you go to nursing school in the United States? Where did you go?

I'm sorry this happened to you. Take some courses in English, because

I agree with the other's. Your charting is what may have got you fired.

Sad, but true.

It is very hard to understand what you write. It would maybe help

you to read this website to get better at your writing skills.

Wishing you the best. Take care.

[rn4ever?]

Hnursing, I am sorry to hear about what happened to you. The best you could do is learn from the experience, also polish on your communication skills in the English language. We are handling lives so precision and accuracy are very important.

Also, acknowledging that there is a problem or that you have to polish on something is the very first step towards solving a problem and improving oneself. You cannot move on to finding a solution if you believe that nothing is wrong. Good luck in your future endeavors.

[ssullyorthoRN]

I agree with the majority of the posts. How in the world did you pass English 101? That is a pretty general pre-req for anyone going into nursing school. Sometimes colleges offer English as a second language for little or no cost...it is considered an adult education course where I am from. Maybe it would help a little also if you heard or read correct english more often.