As a result of being fired today, I wonder if I want to continue with a position that has so much liability. I just started working for allergy doctor about three weeks ago. Today, a patient called up reporting itching and hives. He injects his own allergy serum that is made by our office. This was his first reaction ever after getting his allergy shots for a long period of time. This was the only patient that had any reaction from the serums that I have made. I had given other patients their shots in the office from the serum made on the same day. However, the doctor wanted all serums made that day recalled and made over.
He was given an epinephrine vial with his serum, but he could not find it. He called and told the nurse that he was coming in for the epinephrine shot. She contacted the dr. , and he told him to follow up with the ER after getting his epi shots. The ER called and reported that he had an anaphylactic reaction with seveer laryngeal edema. I told the other nurse that he should have been instructed to call 911. But, she said that she told him to go to ER, but he wanted to come to the office to get his injections.
The final result was that I was terminated, since I made the serum. This whole scenario has me re-thinking about even being a nurse. I have been one for 5 1/2 years, working in behavioral health. I had been on disability for over four years. I was happy to have a job that was not physcially demanding. The pay was only $10 an hr., but I was willing to take it, as it was not a physical job. But, now that it is over with $10 is not enough for the liability. I am questioning my ability to be a nurse, anymore.
Thanks for all replies. I have not applied for any new jobs, yet. I may be contacting my disability insurance company to see if they would assist me in taking some coding classes. My nursing positions are limited since I do have some physical limitations. I didn't listen to my drs. advice and tried my first job returning in a nursing home. I know that was a dumb move, as it was the most physical job that I have ever had, not to mention the most stressful. But, I thought that I would be able to handle it working just PT. After six weeks, I could no longer keep up. I was not getting a break, they were secheduling me for four days, instead of the three that I requested, and I would not get home until after 1 am. And, my family life was falling apart at the time. My adult daughter is an addict, and I was basically taking care of my 2 y.o. grandson when it was her week.(has joint custody with my grandson's dad) Now, she is set up to go to inpatient rehab.
Part of me would like to call up my former employer that I left years ago. I was thinking about calling him and asking if he had any per diem positions. Although, my family is not too crazy about that because I was always being called in to work. And, that is one of the reasons that he loved me so much. He had tears in his eyes when I left for medical reasons. He wanted to know what he could do to convince me to stay. But, I was wondering if I called him and explained to him that I could not put inthe hours that I used to. He gave me a glowing reference. However, this is just an option that I have on the table and probably not the best.
I accepted my last job because it was close to home and only three days a week. And no stress, until this last incident. I realize now, how my license was on the line working for that place. Funny, how my sister told me that this dr. was a quack, but I didn't listen. I guess this has been a blessing in disguise, but I would never ever want to jeopardize a patient. I guess all of these patients are in jeopardy. They only wait the first three times that they get their injections in the office. I got yelled at the one day that I had a pt. for 10 minutes after she was re-starting her injections. This was her third visit after re-starting. The nurse training me yelled that she had a long trip, and I should not make her wait anymore. I felt Because she had a long trip, all the more reason to make her wait. And, this lady liked to chat afterwards, anyways. It seemed like this nurse was looking for me to make mistakes. e.g. The one day she made a big deal that I forgot to turn on two lights when I opened up. She went around the whole office to look for anything that I may have done wrong. In the beginning she was singing my praises, but then it almost seemed like she changed her mind about leaving.
I will probably meet with vocational services through my disabiity insurance company to see what we come up with. Thanks for all of the replies. I will let you know if I find a job in the meantime.
i know. my sister told me last night that nurses now get the medications already calculated from the pharmacy. She thought that this could be one reason why giving medicaitons will no longer be the duty of the RN or LPN. So, they a med nurse position is being created.
She talked to her friend in CA, and her friend is being especially trained in administering medicaitons to peds patients. One of the college instructors told our class that RN positions are being broken down into many special trained positions, this was just before we had a lecture from an attorney/RN, she told us the same thing. This attorney said that this is already being a pilot program in CA, and we will see it here in the east soon, this is to address medication error. Another specialy area is diversity patient care, LPN's are also specializing in diversity care, culture consideration. So, a culturally competent nurse "CCN" will be trained to address a patient's needs according to their culture, and how the CCN gets assigned is the information obtained from the admission assessment that the RN gets, and then the CCN is consulted. In one of my nursing classes, we are told that when we have a client with a bed sore, to consult the wound team, now that is clearly taking over the duties of an RN, and the wound team creates the care plan, not the RN, instead, the RN has to follow the orders of the wound care team, like a nursing assistant taking orders from the RN.
In the CA hospital, they really like their Medical Nurse Aides, they train them in everything. A medical nurse aid "can" consult ancillary departments like physical therapy, and respiratory therapy. Once the medical nurse aid sees an order written for either, they can initiate taking off that order, and the RN's like this as well, the RN ultimatley signs off on the order, but then it is the medical nurse aid that does the overseeing that the treatments are given, and also does the charting. So, medical nurse aids are taking orders from doctors as well.
I think it seems as though everyone on the medical nurse team is getting new responsibilities, duties of a trained RN is losing some of those responsibility. I asked my sister what is the purpose of all this and she said, so the ratio of RN to patients is lessened, it is that there is so much to do for all those patients, and so the job of the RN is being broken down, and the patients is getting more specialized care from trained teams. My sisten-n-law said there are more trained teams in the hospitals in CA everyday, and they make their rounds, and patient care is the best it has every been, and the administrators are really happy. This is the new team nursing care.
Sounds like she is a person who is unhappy for some reason. Me, I would ask here what was bothering her, usually people like that are constant complainers, complain about everything. Just find your confortable place and spot, stay there, send you older daughter to counseling, don't watch the grandchildren so much, just make sure they have food and are clothed, let the parents raise them, you are to enjoy them, not get worn out over, I could think of so many nursing care plans for that situation,,,,know where I am coming from? HUH?
Ok, then. We are nurses to help others to benifit them, but we have to take of ourselves, we have to be that role model, sounds like you need to start a little boss position in your own life. Construct your life to your health benefit, you have to live a long time now, for you family. You are a nurse, take care of youself. I had clinicals at an assisted living facility, and my client was an 83 year old retired RN, she was is great shape, just the obvious aging signs and symptoms, constipation and arthritis etc..... HUH??? know what I mean. Get it together now, one day at a time, make time for yourself.......HUH? I keep a daily log, for classes, to be here and there, to do this and that, carry one with you, let others see that you have a schedule.
The woman you describe sounds as territorial as a feral cat and has an obsessive compulsion to complain, degrade, and spread negativity.
Every day at a job like that, you degrade yourself and lose self-esteem allowing and accepting such treatment. It is inappropriate and unprofessional on her part. I am sure she wishes she could run that entire office and there is not room for any other staff except her. She probably had a hand in getting you fired as well.
Well, you know what, you are probably better off!
I am a firm believer in having a two-way conversation when seeking employment. You have questions as well about the type of practice they are running and the amount of respect their employees are entitled to.
They should examine the vials and see what caused such a reaction; hopefully it wasn't tainted.
Women like that give me the creeps because they are emotionally unstable and should not be working in a medical office or with patients.
SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN
10,263 Posts
I certainly wouldn't be compounding medications for $10 an hour. Heck, even our hospital nurses only do that when pharmacy isn't vailable.
You're lucky. And no, don't put the job on your resume.