Hospital policy: no letters of recommendation?

[Stratiotes]

Has anyone encountered this? According to my director and verified by HR, it is hospital policy to not write letters of reference due to liability. It is nice to find this out after 18 months of employment.

[Boog179]

I have never heard of a hospital having this policy. I'm no attorney but I'm curious if there has ever even been a court case in which an individual or institution was held liable due to writing a letter of recommendation for someone who was later found guilty of some infraction.

[MrChicagoRN, RN]

No hospital I've ever worked at has ever generated a letter of recommendation at the corporate level, but has never prohibited a manager from doing so

[bebbercorn]

Can your reference write you a letter outside of work, or does it need to be on a letterhead?

[psu_213, BSN, RN]

As far as I know, there is nothing that prevents managers, supervisors, etc. at my hospital from writing a letter of rec. for a school (I'm a bit confused as to what the liability issue is here--kinda sad that I am even thinking about it). There is a hospital policy against managers from writing letters of rec. to jobs outside the system. You can make an argument about who the policy is meant to protect.

[Skip219, BSN, RN]

I received my letters from nurse managers and physicians who I worked with frequently. I believe this policy come from corporate level and stems from employers recommending questionable employees for other hospitals.

[Screen name]

I would jump ship. Doesn't sound right. How can anyone progress within, or out of, the hospital if they aren't "allowed" to write references? Imagine how restrictive they are on their CRNA's. I bet they want to use AA's as well...

You shouldn't stand for it. Go get experience and references elsewhere.

[CPhT2RNstudent]

Leave.

[icu2crna]

I never asked my hospital for letter of recommendation but will need one eventually. My problem is I have a contract for 2 yrs and if I ask them before the contract expires they may not even give me one. Did anyone had similar experience?

[CPhT2RNstudent]

You must have done an ICU internship. It depends on how much time you have left on your contract and your relationship with your manager.

[mn_nurse]

Sounds like my old employer. The program I am in now have had several students from this hospital and they were OK with references from coworkers and charge nurses.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Our hospital has a policy that there will be no letter of recommendation unless the employee has worked a minimum of two years once they have completed orientation. I think it's a great policy!