*HELP* being accused of gross negligence

[heather7781]

I have worked at my outpatient surgery unit for 8 years and have never had any type of write up. Yesterday my manager called me in to give me 2 page write up with several incidents starting April 23rd! This document contained many outright lies and some creative twists on truth. I didn’t document at all on a cardiac post op. LIE. And I checked back and the documentation is there. She is Also blaming me for a circulating nurse taking my patient to surgery before the Doc had seen her, marked her and updated his history and physical. How is that my fault! She assigns us patient admissions sometimes 30 minutes apart. So I am doing my next admission when the circulator came and took the patient. I did the best I could to watch for her to give report but if I have to be around the corner and down the hall admitting a different patient I am not psychic. Not to mention there was a yellow note on the chart the said H&P wasn’t there. She also quoted practioners meaning other nurses on sure saying I said things that I know for absolute sure I have never and would never say. Like telling a anesthesiologist I didn’t know an answer to a question and telling him to look it up himself. NEVER HAPPENED. This write up accuses me of gross negligence! I’m heartbroken about it. Truly. I love being a nurse and I really do my very best to be the best nurse I can be. I can not tolerate this bunch of lies in my file. What do I do!

[DeeAngel]

That’s a hostile work environment, seek legal counsel and consider a lawsuit.

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

On 5/21/2020 at 9:00 AM, heather7781 said:

I did turn in a detailed documentation based rebuttal. Almost every thing she accused me of I found documentation to prove was false. The few things I couldn’t we merely “complaints from anonymous providers”. I am requesting a meeting with Human Resources, this manager and the director. I refuse to accept anonymous providers told her abc.. to be used as a reason for write up. She needs to name these people if it’s not her made up BS. Funny thing is I have her my rebuttal statement at 10am yesterday and she never said a word about it. Which is surprising considering what a hot head she is. I am wondering if she decided to throw her write up out, after realizing I could disprove the majority of it, since it was full of lies. I guess we will see. Side note, she decided she to use this timing because I start vacation today and won’t be back until the 3rd or June.

Did she tell you she chose the timing that she did? Do NOT ASSume. Even if it's true, you must control yourself and give only very controlled reactions/statements.

Talk to a couple of lawyers. You can probably get free consults at least the first time with each attorney.

I don't know if NSO or other insurers will cover this pre-existing situation but you should explore that.

Lay low, talk to no peers or other people at work. They are likely NOT on your side and will carry whatever you say right back to the enemy, which is what your boss is now.

Try to make copies, however illegal it might be to do that, of anything that supports your side of the story. Make your own decision as to whether you want to take this step. If you do, you could get in trouble big time for privacy issues, stealing something that belongs to your employer, or something else horrible. It's just that this type of proof of your innocence often tends to disappear and you or your lawyer won't be able to get it later.

Seriously think back about why this is happening.

Look for new work.

Good luck.

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

On 5/24/2020 at 3:30 AM, nursel56 said:

I'm so sorry this is happening to you. My one job where I was treated in a similar fashion led me to realize a lot of backstabbing was going on under the radar that I was not aware of and the meeting, "counseling", etc was the manifestation of it.

This was a job I was relatively new at, and the place where I had worked for 6 years had always been supportive, and pretty good at resolving issues before they escalated.

I despise two-faced behavior in my co-workers. Honestly, you're better off without them, but I would also fight like hell to defend myself! Best wishes.

That said, follow the rules for doing all of this defending. For instance: If you work for government, you actually probably do have some rights. But there are rules as to time limits on responding, to whom you must respond, who is the next level up, formats for responding, etc.

Believe that there is always backstabbing, always gossip, always someone either idly and innocently, however wrong it is to do that, or viciously attempting to undermine others so as to get ahead or feel important or whatever.

[heather7781, BSN, RN]

On 5/27/2020 at 4:45 AM, Kooky Korky said:

Did she tell you she chose the timing that she did? Do NOT ASSume. Even if it's true, you must control yourself and give only very controlled reactions/statements.

Talk to a couple of lawyers. You can probably get free consults at least the first time with each attorney.

I don't know if NSO or other insurers will cover this pre-existing situation but you should explore that.

Lay low, talk to no peers or other people at work. They are likely NOT on your side and will carry whatever you say right back to the enemy, which is what your boss is now.

Try to make copies, however illegal it might be to do that, of anything that supports your side of the story. Make your own decision as to whether you want to take this step. If you do, you could get in trouble big time for privacy issues, stealing something that belongs to your employer, or something else horrible. It's just that this type of proof of your innocence often tends to disappear and you or your lawyer won't be able to get it later.

Seriously think back about why this is happening.

Look for new work.

Good luck.

I’m pretty sure why it’s happening. When this manager started within 3 months all but 6 of nurses quit. How that went down without intervention from higher up I don’t understand. We were a tight unit, family like. So we all know that this manager was a contributing factor in these nurses leaving. Anyhow, she hired a whole bunch of new staff and they are all young newer nurses. She outright said she wanted to hire people that had little prior experience so that she could shape the type of nurses they would be. Well now the remaining six are constantly being called out by her for one thing or another. The most senior of us got called in several times and was told not to answer questions of the new nurses and direct them to her. She hired 2 new charge nurses and they are her very could friends from her last job. There is so much more I could say to demonstrate that she seems to really want us gone so she has complete control. The timing of the write up I don’t know for fact was chosen because of my vacation but she knew I was going on it. She does the schedule. Oh well.

[JKL33]

10 minutes ago, heather7781 said:

We were a tight unit, family like.

That is not desirable. This isn't about her personally having more control as much as it is about your employer's moves to control costs and especially to limit nursing power and facilitate changes that meet business desires at the expense of good patient care. Your manager no doubt has an understanding with her uplines that she is expected to make *exactly* the kind of changes you're seeing. I'm sure it seems outrageous if this is the first time you've seen it but in reality it's just another day. These are playbook moves. If it makes you feel any better I can almost promise you won't like what's coming down the pike after she's done changing the landscape anyway. This is not a war worth fighting other than to the extent needed to protect your professional reputation. Just GTFO, pardon my language.

[DeLana_RN, BSN, RN]

Agree with pp. Your manager has no integrity at all, and that may be why they hired her (neither do her managers I suspect). The goal is to save money, which means getting rid of more experienced staff (more seniority usually means more pay). Sadly, this is so very common in our fine profession (it's a shame). Few of us have to the opportunity to join a union so there is no recourse.

You submitted your response, good. But realize this will not end well and start looking now. If you can affort to resign for "personal reasons" (or whatever), do so before she can either fire you or force you to quit. Because this is what will happen. (Make sure you give the required notice, although they may tell you to quit immediately. If they accept the notice, try to take all your remaining vacation days. Maybe FMLA would help. The point: Don't let them fire you!).

You will find a better job and they'll be stuck in that toxic rathole (until they become the target).

All the best!

[Leader25, ASN, BSN, RN]

On 5/21/2020 at 10:00 AM, heather7781 said:

I guess we will see. Side note, she decided she to use this timing because I start vacation today and won’t be back until the 3rd or June.

Caution : be careful,they might surprise you on your return from vacation cause they use this time to plot more for whatever crazy reason,have some resources you can depend on for when you return ..IF they let you return.....the usual railroading scheme.

[heather7781, BSN, RN]

In the end I decided the stress of it wasn’t worth my health! My husband got stage 3 lymphoma, fought hard and went into remission since my last post, I got so sick from the stress of it and that woman that I decided to move on. Applied to 4 jobs on a Friday had 4 interviews over the next two week, was offered all 4! ☺️ picked one and I’m so happy! I love what I’m doing and where I’m at. She fired one and two more quite by the time I let. The whole team gone. Karma though, I do believe in Karma ?

[amoLucia]

Good for you & good luck.

[SmilingBluEyes]

OP if you are there, please update us on how you are doing today.