I am not proud of my track record.

[STARL]

Where do begin? I have been an LPN for 1 year in 2 months and unfortunately during this period I have had 5! nursing jobs. yes 5.

(1) I started off in a nursing home, just to find my niche I didn't like it but I needed a form of income and I needed some experience in the field. Two months in the DON called me and said, he thinks that its best that he let me go. He didn't give me a specific reason, but during my orientation the nurses that trained me had to evaluate how I was doing, so I assumed that did not do well during orientation. Like I said, I did not like the nursing home, I had 30-32 patients to care for and I just did not feel safe nor happy.

(2) My second job was in a pediatric home health, I was working for a family and one of the orders called for me to put cotton ball in the little boy's ears as he had surgery 2 days before. Well, I did put cotton ball in my patient ear but I had soaked and drained it with H.Peroxide. Well, the next day the family called the agency and said I put a wet cotton ball in the boys ears. The order stated for me to cleaned around the boy's ear with a cotton tip and H.peroxide and then placed a cotton ball in his ear. My mistake was I misunderstood what the outgoing nurse was telling me before she left about the patient new orders. My fault. It was a med error and the agency said I cannot work for them unless I complete a med error CEU. I never completed it, so never went back to work for them. Although, 6 months later they were still calling me to come work for them because they need nurses so bad. I didn't the patients they assign me usually live 45-50 minutes away and I just couldn't put myself through that again.

(3) My third job was a nursing home again. This lasted a month and a few weeks. I mentioned that I do not like the nursing home. I don't. But my mom work in this particular nursing home and she gave told the DON about me. Well, since my mom has been there for 5 years and a good worker they hired me. Well, I had so much patient work load that I did not do my treatments, although I charted that I did. This led to me having a meeting with the DON and 4 other people in administration. I was so nervous at that meeting that I told myself that I never want to be in such a position again. I felt humiliated, embarrassed, and just incompetent as a nurse. I was first suspended, but then let go. They informed me that they would report me to the BON. well it's been 8 months, have not gotten anything from the BON and I've checked my license online and it says I'm in good standing no complaints.

(4) My fourth job was at a pediatric clinic. i did not like it much as I felt I was losing many of my skills. I mostly gave immunizations to babies and worked on the doctor's schedule for the week. I worked there for 4 months but then i had to leave due to the fact that I started an RN program and the schedule would conflict with my work schedule. The manager loved me, got great reviews from them. I still felt bad though due to my recent firing. My self esteem just plummeted and Im still feeling like somethings wrong with me. Anyways, I did not get fired from this job, I left due to school.

(5) I am currently working for 2 agencies. one is a pediatric agency and the other is a pediatric and adult agency. Well, yesterday I got fired from the pediatric agency. The reason is I document that I left at my scheduled time when in reality I left 30 minutes early three time. Did I think they would find out? yeah. Did I think it was an issue. I did. I literally cannot figure out any reason as to why I charted that I left at 0700 when in reality I left at 0630. At the other agency I work for, one of the parents always let me leave early and she said I can still write down the time I left as the time I was scheduled. in my head, I started to think it was no longer a big deal so i did it with this agency. I know in nursing school they teach us not to do this, I hate that I'm not abiding by the things that I was taught in school and letting others influence my judgement. I knew it was a big deal and I did it anyway. I'm sure the other nurses that work with the pediatric/adult agency leave early but chart their scheduled time cause the guardian (mom) said its ok. Anyways, got called into the office today and I was let go. It is considered insurance fraud. in total I lied and said I worked 1 hour and 30 minutes. The DON were saying that the insurance company might not think its a big deal they might just say "oh, its only 1 hour and let it go. they do not think that I was trying to be malicious. but they have to report it to the BON. Two of the times I left, the patient had an appointment in the morning so he had to leave at 0530 but I charted that I left at 0600. the other time I left early is when I emailed the agency saying that I can now work 12 hours form 7pm-7am. well it wasn't suppose to start that particular week, but the following cause I have nursing clinical in the morning. Hence I left at 0630 but charted i left at 7. The DON was saying it all depends on how the BON choose to handle it.

I do not know what's wrong with me. I've never been fired before until I started nursing. I'm a few months from graduating an RN program and I still cannot get my act together. I want to treat this as a lesson learned. I'm feeling stupid cause I've been fired so many times. I'm still working for the pediatric/adult agency but I am going to chart the correct time that I leave, at the end of the day the I have to protect my license no one else. Does anyone know how long it will take for the BON to contact me? will they make a big deal over 1 hour and 30 minutes? My first year of nursing was rough. I take full responsibility. I am so embarrassed that I created another account to write this although my other account is not even lay real name. I need to remember all the handwork I put in into obtaining my license and not let it go so easily. What's wrong with me? I just do not think that I am learning from my mistakes as a normal human being would.

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

Starl

I am sorry for the multitude of negative responses you are receiving on the board here. I also have been blasted by them. I am new to nursing also, I also moved to different agencies, facilities looking for my right fit as well.

I do not think there is anything wrong with you. You were not careful, should have read the doctors orders and not relied on the out going nurse to tell you everything. Keep in mind as I have found, not many nurses will help you and I hope you can decipher this by the reactions you receive on the board here.

You need to be CAREFUL, with home care, you have the time to read those orders !!!

I agree, the facility is dangerous as it is bulked with too many patients and not enough time or staff. I don't care what anyone says on this board. Too bad the nurses do not stick together to report the dangerous conditions for the patients and the staff. However, everyone is so afraid to lose a job !!!

I remember meeting my trainer at the facility I oriented with, she was employed for 5 years there and it is still a mystery to me, why she would want to work the way she did. She guzzled a lunch in 5 minutes, no peeing or taking a sip of water the entire shift. I find it inhumane, to be subjected to this day after day.

I think you are smart to take that bridge to RN, there are more options for you. Just let your mistakes be a learning experience. The nurses here have made them as well, we are human and not perfect. However, you will encounter this mentality of being criticized. Remember !! be CAREFUL you have human lives in your hands !! there is nothing at all wrong with you, you are new !!

Nope. Nope. All aboard the train to Nopeville!

It is NOT okay to excuse this behavior under the banner of being new. That is an insult to earnest new nurses everywhere. This is not a problem with being new. Some of these issues will happen no matter what profession or job the OP winds up in. This is not a "new nurse" problem. This is a character problem. You don't figure out through trial and error that it is wrong to clock out early. You don't figure out through trial and error that it is wrong to say you changed a dressing or rotated an IV site or turned your patients or cleaned up their BM or did mouth care without actually having done so. That is NOT a new nurse "whoopsie-doodle, live and learn!" problem.

OMG, I am fuming. Nope. Nope. Nope. Heck to the nope. This is a problem with morals. With character. You don't grow those as a new nurse. If you don't have them in place before your first day of nursing school there is nothing to be done.

[SCFreeman]

Everyone makes mistakes, and a large proportion of new nurses make medication errors, however; The few errors I have made in my career I have been extremely hard on myself, and have never made the same mistake twice.

However, falsifying medication administration and stealing time on an agency assignment isn't just bad nursing, it's mostly being a bad employee/person. If you falsified documentation and stole time in any job even in a minimum wage fastfood joint, you'd be lucky to keep it.

And stop making excuses why you can't give every patient/resident their medication, or why you have gone through 5 jobs in one year, Nursing isn't easy.. And this is all in low acuity residential care, imagine yourself in a critical care setting when you cannot even do a med round in a nursing home and get everything done.

Sorry if I'm being hard, but please quit, find another career and don't waste anymore of your time and money.

[Wuzzie]

Just let your mistakes be a learning experience. The nurses here have made them as well, we are human and not perfect. However, you will encounter this mentality of being criticized. Remember !! be CAREFUL you have human lives in your hands !! there is nothing at all wrong with you, you are new !!

I am almost speechless...almost.

These are not mistakes! Let me repeat that. THESE ARE NOT MISTAKES! Yep, I'm yelling. I want to make sure you're clear on this. What the OP did were willful acts of fraud, deceit and omission of care to vulnerable patients. This is not because she is new! This is not because she was too busy! This is because somewhere in her psyche the part that's supposed to stop her from doing wrong things was switched off. I can only hope it's been switched on now. I am both mystified and horrified that you cannot see that.

[saskrn]

Your behavior seems impulsive/compulsive to some degree, and I would explore psychological and/or medical assessment and possible treatment, before providing future patient care.

[Wuzzie]

I guess I just didn't think nursing would be this strict about EVERYTHING! Literally have to follow rules to the T. and I'm not used to that unfortunately.

I think this is a cautionary tale for all of us who are currently parents or who will be in the future. Children NEED rules, boundaries and consequences. Without these we will raise generations of adults with no moral compass whatsoever and this a scary example of the results. And it's only going to get worse.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

If you cannot handle being an LPN, how in the darn hell will you handle the added responsibilities of being a nurse? This is the first time I have ever said this to someone.....perhaps you should rethink your profession to save yourself from jail, and save someone from dying.

An LPN *IS* a nurse.

[KatieMI, BSN, MSN, RN]

OP, your problem is not that you are "bad nurse". Your problem is that you are a bad worker in general. Only one difference is that in any other occupation you have much better chance to get away with it all.

I would understand "medical mistake" because we all once upon a time did something along this line, one way or another, although for me putting a lot of peroxide onto human skin brings a question what exactly this person ever did in chemistry class. But falsifying documents and work time is something you have to learn not to do around the time you graduated from elementary school at the latest, simply because lying is the wrong thing to do. Always so, always will be. I know that in some occupations people can routinely bend rules as they feel it fit, but nursing is different. Deep inside, we all are proud to be "the most trusted professionals in the USA". For that reason, we tolerate many things but not lying and dishonesty.

I do not think that any sort of counseling will help here. The problem looks like the lack of baseline division between things which are OK to do and those which are not, ever, and this is what people are supposed to learn from mom and dad somewhere between ages of 3 and 7. Either write it as a loss and find another career to follow, or wait for Boards to it for you. People who lie for small gains shouldn'tbe entrusted with others' lives, period.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

Starl

I am sorry for the multitude of negative responses you are receiving on the board here. I also have been blasted by them. I am new to nursing also, I also moved to different agencies, facilities looking for my right fit as well. I do not think there is anything wrong with you.

Then there is something wrong with YOU. You have conveniently neglected to address her admitted falsification of clinical documentation and time cards. Why is that, magslu?

Clinical shortcomings can be addressed (or they can be when you actually take the advice of the facility and do the work required to improve one's practice, i.e. the med error CEU requirement). Personal honesty, integrity, and character are pretty much firmly established by the time one is an adult, however. I think the evidence is pretty clear that there is something very wrong with the OP, and it's something that will follow her into any career she attempts unless she does some serious introspection and hard work with a professional to correct her ethical deficiencies.

Your entire post was one big FAIL.

[TriciaJ, RN]

This will be the first time, I will be reported to the board. I am not aware that the BON know about the previous things I've done so, how will I not be able to sit for my RN license? I understand falsification is a crime and for 1 hour and 30 minutes, I do not think my license should be taken away. MY DON at agency, said this might not be a career ender but to take it as a lesson. I won't do it again now that I know what I know now.

It's not for us to second-guess the BON. We're just giving you the benefit of our personal knowledge. It will be up to the Board to investigate any complaints. They do have the power to subpoena records, so they may choose to investigate your previous employment history. Lying to the Board, not cooperating with an investigation or falsifying the information you provide to them will not go well.

It will be their prerogative to decide whether you will be allowed to take the RN NCLEX. No matter how sympathetic anyone might be to your plight, they are the ones who determine their course of action.

[dirtyhippiegirl, BSN, RN]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned that some BONs move pretty slow -- you may still be hearing about the original fraud complaint in the next few months.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

T Helping people is why you wanted to be a nurse; you should think before any kind of decision like this what your patient's consequences will be. Signing out early may not seem like a "big deal" but if something happened because you were not there when you said you were it would be a horrible thing to have to live with. I don't want tomake you feel worse than you do but I agree that you need to find out why you're making these poor choices and until then there are other types of work in which you can be of service to help people without the possible consequences in nursing.

Only people in possession of an actual conscience have difficulty living with preventable consequences to other people that they might have/could have/should have prevented by not choosing to do the wrong thing. It appalls me to think of people lacking a conscience working as a nurse, but we've seen far too many of them on this forum to doubt that they exist.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

An LPN *IS* a nurse.

An LPN IS a nurse; but the OP ought not to be.