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.
Hello.. Im sorry this is happening to you. Im sending you happy thoughts.
Take this time to find another job, and brush up on your English language skills. Use this experience as motivation to do well, and I'm sure you will be very successful in your career.
And English is your 4th language! WOW! Im very impressed.. if I only knew a 2nd language as much as you know English, I would be very proud of myself. You must be very smart..
English is my forth language..I speak Spanish, Italian, English and French...
Taking that into consideration, you are actually doing quite well.
I admire you for learning many languages. I speak enough Spanish to be able to assist some of my patients with ADLs and basic things, but I wish I were more proficient.
Still, the reality is that, while you are obviously intelligent and you do speak English well enough to function in your own life, the pressure and responsibility of being a new nurse are tough even on those who have spoken English all their lives. Medical jargon and drug names are actually another language all by themselves.
I would strongly encourage you to find a way to work on your skills. Many community colleges and universities have language labs or other facilities to assist with this.
I don't mean to presume, but if Spanish is your first language, would it be possible to find a job that serves the Hispanic population? Bi-lingual nurses are in great demand in many parts of the country. Please, don't take offense. Just trying to suggest things that might work for you.
Sorry that you have had such a difficult time. I do greatly admire people who strive to broaden their education by learning to speak other tongues.
well, no, but i can explain what it is that i actually said, since you didn't seem to understand it.
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.
yes this is a problem because physicians dont always write orders, they give phone orders to nurses and if their pronounciation is not clear then nurses are more likely to make mistakes.
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.
in nursing you cannot assume anything unless you are cetain ( you will learn in psychiatric nursing). its like nurses are calling patient a drug addict when they are asking for pain medicine.
Thanks for your understanding. I had to take many phone orders from doctors and it is hard to understand them on the phone. They never had problem spelling out the medication for me. But my preceptor had problem with that.
in nursing you cannot assume anything unless you are cetain ( you will learn in psychiatric nursing). its like nurses are calling patient a drug addict when they are asking for pain medicine.
that is why i said "if." she has now said that english is her fourth language, so fortunately there is a reasonable explanation for the writing. i hope op can find something to help her skills - or as someone else suggested, capitalize on it! certain areas of the country would probably love to have her skill set with just a little improvement in written english.
HNursing, I really am truly sorry for what has happened, you do seem like a very intelligent, caring person, but I need to agree with other posters that have said you need to brush up on your english....
Go find a course that will help you with your english communication skills and jump back in with both feet
I see one other communication issue going on here....other than the obvious.
The OP came back and said "English is not my second language." Nothing else. The inference of that statement is that English is her first language. It's not until several posts later that she says, "English is my fourth language." This fact was obviously not communicated well at ALL. Took too long to get from point A to point B. That type of leaving out info may have been something that affected the job. Nothing was clear about the language situation for 4 pages of posts.
Am I making sense here? I'm not sure if I'm explaining it very well.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
i am sorry this happened. this is yet another way how managers and other nurses humiliate those with less experience. instead of taking you under their wings to allow growth, they stomp in your tracks. sure, it is noticeable that english is not your first language, but they could have done better. how long have you been an rn? it seems that you are new into the career as well. i wish you the very best.
i, too am sorry that this happened to the original poster. i'm not sure, however that it's an example of managers and other nurses humiliating those with less experience. nor is it evident from the post that "they" could have done better. perhaps they tried to do their best for this person. the poster admits to making several mistakes and offers as a defense that at least no one died from them.
as so many others before me, i'm going to advise you to work on your english. both oral and written communication skills -- in english -- are very important to working as a nurse in this country. good luck!
It is very important for a nurse to know their job. I understand that there are very difficult words, that is why nurses take medical terminology classes.
Wow, I didn't know there actually were medical terminology classes, I know I would probably have found it interesting had it been offered!
During my clinicals in nursing school, I have known many experienced nurses (and some physicians too when it is outside their area of expertise!) that have mispronounced names of drugs, procedures, and medical conditions. To make things worse, many medical words have a variety of different accepted ways of saying them. I am still thrown at times when I see all the different ways of describing a single surgery.
I personally try find out how things are pronounced but that is just because I find it easier to learn something if I can breakdown and analyze the root words. This was a skill I had to learn on my own however, and is sadly missing from many of the places I have worked at in nursing school.
I go to a very diverse university and there are many people who do not speak English as a first language, if you took their inability to pronounce a particularly heinous word as unprofessional you would be discounting their considerable knowledge and education. I, for one, have learned not to judge someone for mispronouncing something because everyone does it. Medical terminology class or not.
That said, I do agree when people say you may need to work on your *written* english. You certainly don't need to be able to write a novel, but when describing a patient's condition it needs to be clear and concise. It could mean all the difference in a patient's chart some day.
I can understand what your manager was trying to tell you. When you are a nurse, you must think fast, sound intelligent, and pay close attention to detail. Your best bet is to go to a doctor's office, or a nursing home where you can learn a lot of information in a slow pace. You need more practice. Apply for a hospital job in about 1 year from now. This will give you time to learn more things. GOOD LUCK!!!
I can understand what your manager was trying to tell you. When you are a nurse, you must think fast, sound intelligent, and pay close attention to detail. Your best bet is to go to a doctor's office, or a nursing home where you can learn a lot of information in a slow pace. You need more practice. Apply for a hospital job in about 1 year from now. This will give you time to learn more things. GOOD LUCK!!!
Nursing home work is extremely fast-paced and hectic.
Acosmo27
302 Posts
Hello.. Im sorry this is happening to you. Im sending you happy thoughts.
Take this time to find another job, and brush up on your English language skills. Use this experience as motivation to do well, and I'm sure you will be very successful in your career.
And English is your 4th language! WOW! Im very impressed.. if I only knew a 2nd language as much as you know English, I would be very proud of myself. You must be very smart..
Good Luck.
:redbeathe A.