How strict are managers on the 12 months experience for jobs?

So I am no stranger to this forum and I've found a lot of helpful advice from people here.

In short I was fired from my first position at 9 months experience (I won't bore you with the details here, if you're truly interested check out some of my earlier posts check this out:

https://allnurses.com/nursing-career-advice/fired-before-the-1120436.html

Many of the positions I apply for have the 'minimum experience requirement' of one year. What I would very much like to know is how 'exact' that requirement is. I spent about 9 months on a neuro progressive care unit.

Is that three months really that important? If I'm sitting in a manager's office about a job opening that they need and want someone with experience can I still even apply?

What I'm trying to do is gauge if I'm really not getting these jobs I apply for because I don't have those 3 golden months or if it's another factor or if I'm mentally just keeping myself from applying without knowing any better.