I got fired while being on orientation at a hospital for just 1 week. Why did this happen?

Nurses General Nursing

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So I am seeking some advice as to why this occurred and am still pondering on what could have I done wrong for this to have such a bad ending. After searching and searching years and years for a hospital job (I've always worked in subacute rehab settings) and have been craving a hospital job for nearly 5 years as it will be 5 years this coming May that I graduated from nursing school. Long story short, I was hired by a local hospital and all was going well with the first week of orientation. I mean, c'mon it was only classroom work and I passed all the required exams such as the IV and medication administration. I had to take a personal call during the last 1/2 hour of our last day of class and when I returned the nurse educator was saying how I shouldn't give her a heart attack next time about not telling her where I was. I explained what had occurred and I didn't realize that 5 days later I was going to be reprimanded for that. I received a call from the unit manager I was supposed to work at stating that I was technically supposed to come this weekend for my first day of clinical orientation (I was hired as a per diem nurse) she told me that I don't need to come. Refusing to provide further information, when I asked her if the position was terminated she said "yeah kinda, you'll get a letter in the mail explaining everything." I'm really baffled about this? I seriously didn't do anything and am unsure why did this lead up to here?

Please take note, only constructive comments will be accepted otherwise demeaning, ridiculing words will be flagged. I just need to get some advice as to why this happened and if it is something usual?

I don't work for a hospital and am in the early stages of this process but to be fired for taking a call. I mean as an adult who will be trusted with sick patients recovery . We can't be trusted to know whether or not we can take a phone call. I'm so confused ..please educate me.

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I don't work for a hospital and am in the early stages of this process but to be fired for taking a call. I mean as an adult who will be trusted with sick patients recovery . We can't be trusted to know whether or not we can take a phone call. I'm so confused ..please educate me.

I'd say that there is a whole lot of ground between "taking a call" and disappearing for 30 minutes on the clock, whether it's talking on the phone or some other activity.

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Sorry that this happened to you, but that being said, orientation is the time period that both the employer and employee check each other out for a good fit. Its also the time to be on your best behavior. If either sees a potential problem during this time, that would be the time to stop the relationship and terminate, or leave. In this particular case, they probably saw a potential problem. You left without notifying the instructor, getting interrupted by phone calls during orientation (or work), personal affairs/problems that interfere while in class (or work) and you left for a long time (half an hour) All red flags. It tells them what can be anticipated when you work there.....

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Sorry that this happened to you, but that being said, orientation is the time period that both the employer and employee check each other out for a good fit. Its also the time to be on your best behavior. If either sees a potential problem during this time, that would be the time to stop the relationship and terminate, or leave. In this particular case, they probably saw a potential problem. You left without notifying the instructor, getting interrupted by phone calls during orientation (or work), personal affairs/problems that interfere while in class (or work) and you left for a long time (half an hour) All red flags. It tells them what can be anticipated when you work there.....

Okay, following along just fine, and wait...so okay, um, gosh...(runs to get reading glasses)

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I can only imagine being your charge nurse. All your call lights are going off, your pumps are going off, meds are late, your tech is searching for you, I am searching for you. You disappear for 30 minutes. Nobody wants a co-worker or employee like that.

Your taking that phone call in the middle of work is just indicative of how you will behave once you take patients. You gave them a glimpse into the future. No need to protest that you will never do that because yes, you will. You will be the co-worker who disappears for 45 minute lunches, whose bathroom trips take 20 minutes, who forgets to give a stat med because you couldn't wait to comment on some Facebook post and ducked into the bathroom to do so.

I repeat, nobody wants that.

Good luck with your job search and hopefully, you will learn from this.

Someone taking a phone call in a classroom setting and abandoning the floor for phone calls are two separate things entirely. If you want to say she was in the wrong for taking the call or was irresponsible/rude, you're right (even though the OP didn't intend for it to be). But to take this situation and imply that she would be an unsafe nurse is an unfair assumption; you simply cannot deduce that she's an unsafe nurse and coworker from the information we've been given.

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Hi, I would believe that employer generally has the right to fire you during orientation at any time without any issue to them.

Also, on the other hand, they do not do that if they do not have serious concerns.

Usually they would kinda notify you, but at the same time kinda discounted you. (look down on you, if they had to notify you about basic rules).

Some places are more understanding, some are less. Some places has certain dynamics and cultures, other have them more relaxed.

I probably would not even blink or breath loud if I was to finally after 5 years get job I crave for. But it seems to me bit odd, they would have done it for few minutes of personal phone call. The fact is, that you could have notified the speaker, you need to pick the urgent phone call and apologize, just a tip for next time. Could have, should have, does not matter now, you can try to ask that job back, you could probably try HR as someone here suggested, maybe you could try for another floor, but I personally do not think that anything would have chances to succeed if they already decided to terminate you. (But it is just my guess, I might be wrong)

Or you will have to just start all over and applying to hospital jobs.

Good luck.

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But it seems to me bit odd, they would have done it for few minutes of personal phone call.

Come on. A half hour on the phone is not the same thing as "a few minutes of personal phone call." Whether or not the employer could have been more forgiving is another point of discussion. But let's not pretend that disappearing for 30 minutes is the same thing as "a few minutes of personal phone call." It's not.

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At the grocery store?!? Getting her oil changed?!? Wth?

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I think you angered the wrong person at the hospital. The cell phone use might not have been a huge deal if only the teacher had been involved, but I'll bet someone higher up overheard you or incidentally became involved. Once that ball was rolling, you were done for.

I don't believe the cell phone use during company time was appropriate, but a terminable offense? Maybe some coaching and counseling would have been more appropriate, but we don't know every detail of the situation so it's impossible to say.

Best of luck and leave your phone off next time. Live and learn.

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I can't believe you were fired over this! It seems absolutely ridiculous. I guess you can never take a private phone call again!!! Nurses do this all the time (take important phone calls- but keep them very brief). But I guess we do it like you, we take them in the bathroom, or while on break,.... or after we are off orientation. Actually we just text all the time, and sometimes we are texting our manager and physicians because this is their preferred form of communication. However, it does appear to management we are playing on our phones! So watch out who is looking, and what their perception of the situation is.

I have heard of some really crazy reasons people are terminated, and it is so much harder to terminate someone once their an employee and off orientation. We have a few selfish, negative, lazy nurses that we would love to help move on... and off our unit- but we have to collect documentation over an extended period of time to show their patterns of behavior.

I would talk to HR, I would let someone hear my side of the story. Your perception was it was a free time, and their perception was they still had things to discuss with you in class. You are very sorry, it will not happen again, blah, blah blah.....

Next time, while on orientation, you will turn off your phone except during lunch. And you will be the perfect nurse that you are. Once off orientation you can turn your phone on vibrate and only accept the call when you are not in a pt's room nor talking to anyone except your friend! Or read your texts like me in the bathroom.

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After reading all of your posts, and I do apologize for not getting back as after the 30th comment or so, I did not receive any more notifications via email, I figured that the topic was no longer being addressed but lo and behold! I was kinda shocked to see the lengthy replies, some were extremely helpful and others were judgmental to say the least but hey, we're all human beings entitled to our own opinions. What can I say? I know you're all waiting on the edge of your seat for that letter and unfortunately I am waiting still as this is being typed. I have not received anything via snail mail and have been repeating the whole scenario in my head. Some of you rephrased what I had written as "just classroom work" on my previous post and began labeling me as a bored attendee of orientation. Just an FYI, totally not the case. To clarify that, I was not that student that was getting distracted or chit chatting with my peers while the presentations were being present. I did actively participate and ask plenty of questions as I knew the transition from a rehab facility to acute care would have a tremendous impact on myself and I really wanted to make sure I got all the ins and outs of what is to be expected. Some other posts were making remarks about the medication exam, just to make you all aware, the minimum passing requirement was an 80 and yes maybe some of us are not the greatest in math, obtaining a higher score was kinda impressive being that they provided me with the study materials only the day before. Another detail I want to address as well, is that there were absolutely no issues from my end during orientation. This occurred on the Friday which is the 5th day of orientation, at this time we were asked to complete the online web training for the intranet system that they use. It was the last half hour of class so technically the call arrived at 3:30pm and I did not expect it at all. Regardless, I admit to the mistake despite the weight of importance it really had. Despite all this, I received the phone call Tuesday morning from the unit manager that hired me informing me that I did not need to come in this past weekend for my first day of clinical orientation. I've never been let go from any of my previous positions so I'm really not so sure who would be giving a bad reference or if HR received some sort of information that would cause my position to be rescinded. My only other thought as I had mentioned in my previous post was the lack of knowledge me and one other nurse had for the EKGs. We were told on Friday that we would be oriented until May when the rhythm interpretation class will be offered at that hospital. I did see some hesitation at that time from the educators but they resolved the problem by informing us that we will remain on orientation until the class is held. Either way, I've taken this lesson as a blessing in disguise. I've received ample feedback from a variety of sources and one thing is for sure on the hospital's behalf: they should've never hired me per diem in the first place knowingly that I had no acute care experience especially on a telemetry med/surg unit. I've been to other interviews requesting per diem and they all responded with the same statement "you can't be hired per diem with no experience as the orientation period is very short; you can either be offered a part time or full time position as your exposure to the unit will be a lot more frequent than on a per diem basis." Bottom line for me: don't use your cellphone again until break time has been awarded and don't apply for a per diem position in an area out of my expertise.

Thank you all! :D

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