Just Got Fired, Need Interview Advice

[MelissaPhoographerRN]

Sorry if this is long, want to give the whole story. I'm a fairly new RN I graduated in the summer of '07, so I have a year and a half of experience. While in nursing school I worked for about a year as a CNA on a med/surge/rehab floor. After school I worked as an RN on a cardiac/tele floor sometimes being pulled to CCU/ICU. A lot of the time I was the charge nurse on the floor and in charge of the rest of the RNs, LPNs, CNAs and the rest of the staff. I was on the code/rapid response team and also trained new employees. I never had any issues at this job, never any verbal or written warnings.

My husband had a job transfer so I had to quit and got a new job as an ER nurse and have worked there for the past 6 months until I was fired yesterday. The ER I worked in was very busy and usually understaffed (where isn't?). The night of the "incident" I floated basicly taking care of a stroke patient one/one for the first four hours taking him to CT, MRI and working with the docs and he was only in his 20's and half of his brain was gone due to the stroke. Four hours into my shift I got pulled to take a group of 5 patients from a nurse who was getting off for the night. It was a very high accuity group and she was in a very bad mood and gave me a crapy report before leaving.

I had a homeless TB patient who would curse at me everytime I went in his room and he wouldn't let me touch him, let alone start the needed IV or take vital signs. He refused to stay in his room and would not wear a mask when he left his isolation room even after multiple call to security to come get him back in his room. My next patient was a quadrapalegic who could TALK and not let me out of the room and wanted IV pain/anxiety/nausea meds every 30 minutes. I had a patient who needed admitted to ICU and was on a drip for his blood pressure that required me to be in the room titrating it every 15 minutes, plus he was wanting to sign out AMA, so the Dr, my supervisor for the shift, and I were in his room multiple times trying to get him to stay as he was obviously at high risk for a brain bleed because his pressure was so high. I got a new patient from the waiting room right when i got there who had abdominal pain. We also had no tech, so I was doing the job of 2 people.

OK, here is the story of my 5th patient and the one with the incident that got me fired. She had already arrived by EMS before I took the group from the previous nurse. As I was getting report from her the charge nurse was in the room triaging her and getting her settled. When she finished she never came to give me report on the patient and put the entire chart over with the Dr, so I didn't even have anything to read about the patient. All I knew was she was having lady partsl bleeding. I left the floor to take one of my patients up stairs to their room and while I was gone she was seen by the Dr and her husband came out complaining that I had not come in after the Dr to strt the IV and such. So, the charge nurse (a new one as it was change of shifts) went in and started the IV and whatever other orders for me while I was upstairs. When I got back downstairs she told me that she had got her started for me and she should be settled for awhile. I asked her what was going on w/ the patient as I had not gotten any report on her. She said "She's pregnant, lady partsl bleeding, they brought in a container with what she had passed at home, but I didn't look in it, it's sitting in the room." When I went in there was a container inside of a grocery bag sitting on top of the linnen cart that I left there for the Dr to look at.

So, a few minutes later the husband came out and wanted me to check the patient as she felt like she was bleeding a lot. I went in and she had several disposable pads under her, they were relatively clean and I told them she wasn't bleeding to heavily and the pad was still clean. The family asked me a few questions that I answered for them. I had no problems with the family, they were friendly and never complained to me about anything. After getting an U/S and a couple of bags of fluids she was being discharged. I went in, unhooked her IV. The bag still had about 200cc in it, so I draped it over the edge of the sink to drain. She had her bloody panties and pants in the sink, but on the other side away from where the fluids were draining. I was planning to get her a bag to take them home in as soon as I finished up getting her discharge vital signs and taking out her IV. Well, her pulse was in the 130's, so I told them I would go discuss it with the Dr and be back. Well, to make it short she ended up staying and was waiting to be admitted because they were thinking she had an infection somewhere because her WBC were slightly high and all of the fluids hadn't brought her pulse down. I hooked her to the monitor where we watched her pulse at times hit 160's.

So, at 3AM it was time for me to go home and I gave report to the LPN who was taking over her care. As I was finishing report the husband came out and asked me if I would clean her up again. I told him sure and I would be right in to do it before I went home as soon as I finished up giving report. Well, I ended up getting a phone call abot my ICU patient and getting totally destracted with him and forgot to go back in there before I left. So, the husband wrote a letter saying I had no compassion or their loss (she did miscarry), which I feel is totally not true as I spent time in the room talking to them and answering questions about what to expect and such. AND said that the fetus was in the sink and that I placed trash on top of it and left it laying in the sink. If there was a fetus anywhere in that sink her clothes were piled on top of it. The family never said ANYTHING to me about them thinking the fetus was in the sink, neither did the prior charge nurses who had triaged her and provided her care. Nor did they bother to remove it from the sink if they new it was there.

So, I got fired for not properly disposing of a fetus that I knew nothing about. She was not very far along, so it's not like she gave birth to a full term baby that I didn't see. She was only a few weeks along. It just makes me so upset that they think I would leave a fetus in the sink if I knew that it was there. I never thought I would be fired over a patient who I had good rapore with complaining about me. I just figured it would be one of those patients from he** who you can't do anything right with. I consider myself a good nurse, I care deeply for my patients, sometimes crying along side them when they're scared and get bad news. I worked my butt off for that place, usually getting no break longer than to go pee a couple of times even though I'm pregnant. I've gone 15 hours with out eating while pregnant trying to take good care of my patients.

I have had one written warning for not having my charting quite up to par. That night I had a overdose/drunk patient who had already fallen once before EMS even left the bedside along with her drunk boyfriend. Another night that there was no tech or secretary. I called the charge nurse to please come help me, she told me there was nobody to help and hung up on me. But then proceeded to write me up when she had to come take over my patients and not everything was done. She would also be one of the charge nurses who took care of my miscarriage patient. So, I know she didn't speek up to cover my butt.

I'm just curious how I explain all of this in an interview??? I am going to send a grievance to HR to try to get the termination off of my record. I have no desire to go back there as I now see how stressed I was and that I havent' even been sleeping because I'm constantly waking myself up talking in my sleep because I'm dreaming I'm still at work! Any advice is appreciated.

[sxybuttrfly]

The grievance with HR is a great 1st step! In the meantime, just be honest with future employers and don't be too hard on yourself. I know 1st hand how difficult being terminated can be. It happens to the best of the best. You have no reason to be ashamed, you seem to be a good nurse that got caught up in a bad misunderstanding/situation. It will all work out! Good Luck!

[morte, LPN, LVN]

file for unemployment

[MelissaPhoographerRN]

I'm not eligible for unemployment since I got fired.

[morte, LPN, LVN]

apply anyway, they have to justify the firing, and it sounds like they may have a hard time of that

[survivor08]

Glad I found this post I am in the middle of a similar situation and was wondering what to do..Not fired yet, just sitting around suspended while they "investigate" it's been days, I can't sleep, If I do I wake up I was afraid I am the only one this has ever happened to. Never a write up or incident report that I know of, I have not even been told what I did or supposedly did yet the people on my floor are talking about it so I have heard. I have called HR and they are investigating it I am told...I am hanging in there. How do you go back after something like this?

[ghillbert, MSN, NP]

I can't believe people get fired over things like this. What happened to innocent until proven guilty? I know it's not a criminal thing, but you'd think there'd at least be an investigation where you get to give your side, or some mediation where you can speak to the family.

[survivor08]

You would think. As far as I know no family involved, patient either, just someone saying I said something I did not say. Crazy world we work in...Fortunately there are other nursing jobs available and i hope I will wind up in a better place. I wish the same for Melissa, sounds like she needs her insurance as I do, thats the bad part of all of this, her pregnant and I have a history of cancer, preexisting conditions if our insurance lapses so COBRA is the only answer for me $$$$$$$$ until new job and insurance kicks in.

[Guest343211]

Honestly, there is no such thing as "innocent til proven guilty" in nursing--and especially so where it involves at-will-employment. Unless you are under contract, an employer can fire you for reason or no reason at all. All you really have to do is have the right people dislike you or be irked by you for some reason, and then you are gone. I've seen unfair things in nursing for such a long time.

In nursing, one always has to have a way to keep oneself marketable. Always maintain and update your CV or resume. It's a very tough field. There's no easy way to say to the new nurses and new grads. Sadly, such things in nursing never cease to amaze me. They always leave me scratching my head.

But if anyone thinks it's about being fair--think again. Be fair anyway; but just know that you may well not be treated fairly. Stay on top of your career at all times. And if you find that you are in a non-supportive environment, seek transfer or start looking for a new position ASAP.

[2011NursingStudent]

Omg, what a horrible story. You are HUMAN. That is absolutely awful...if they want you to be 100% perfect and have enough time w/every patient, they should hire enough staff. You can't be with every patient at once, and you aren't psychic.

You will get unemployment though, so file for it. Your story clearly describes a mistake/misunderstanding. They do not deny unemployment for that, and I doubt the hospital would even protest your filing. If they do, once you tell the caseworker that story, you will be approved. They deny people for not showing up to work, stealing, intentional acts.

[tangldyarn]

You sound so sad. This is no reflection on you!!! This is reflection on poor management and HR. If you were fired the charge nurse also should have been. Where is the unit manager, house supervisor to call in more nurses on a night with high acuity. It is better you are gone from there, it appears to be a lawsuit in the making. Concentrate on your beautiful family in these really hard times we are all experiencing. You can look yourself in the mirror every morning with a smile and remember all the good you have done for your patients. Remember the little squeeze of the hand of an elderly person or child that you helped. Yeah this will not pay the bills but sometimes that is not what is important at that moment.

[Guest343211]

You know, this shows that utterly sad ridiculousness that is rampant throughout the field of nursing. Magnet tries to address high turnover. Magnet should also address lackof commitment from the institutions that lead to precipitous and basically truly unfounded terminations. Trying to deal with the games that go on all the time in these places. If more nursing students new and could feel the visceral inflammation from such nonsense that happens to nurses daily, honestly, they would run as fast as they could from the field. The thing is, people get sold on a particular career path, make the investment, and they tell themselves somehow they will rise above it. Well, some may. Sadly, what I fear is that a good number learn to play the nasty, ratonalized games along with the rest of the croud in order to keep a nursing job. To me, it's like in some ways, it's about asking you to surrender you souls when you walk in the door. No, not right away. You have to get through the honeymoom phase. Office politics is fine in an office. In places with so much bombarding you and life or death and quality of life and multiple patient and family needs and those seeking to ensure perfection on every little thing from the nurse--well, the office politics is what kills it for many nurses. It tips the scale. The nursing role is demanding enough. I say find a way to severely reduce the covert and overt "office politics" in nursing, and you will finally have a field that is worhty of being called profession--and that is beyond honorable and worthy the investment of time, money, stress, and all the rest. I say it again...the foul politics--not good politics--politics of positive influence--no the foul politics kills the field. It is because of this that at times I have a difficult time encouraging students to go into nursing. I mean I have encouraged students--but often I find there is a big knot in my gut and throat about it. Is it fair not to warn them? I don't know. I dont' want to seem discouraging to their goals and dreams. But any reality shock a nurse goes through can be dealt with WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE CUT THROAT--and often covert EVIL politics in nursing. Often you may not fully know it is on your trail after you until it jumps up to bite you in the throat. Other times, you feel it is coming, but you don't want to feel paranoid or unfair and not give the benefit of the doubt. Guess what. Follow you gut instincts about people and the politics and culture of a place. Get the hint and tender your resignation, before they get you first. Unless of course you really need the unemployment. But remember, in many states, you must be working in that particular state something like six months to be eligible. So then, is it worth letting them hand you the termination? No. Also, they can fight about it back and forth. That's a drain on you. Be very observant, and then get wise, and consider that you gut is telling you something for a reason. It may be your own insecurity. Fine. Sort that out. But if it really isn't, the place may not be a good place in terms of fairness, respect, beng upfront with nurse employees, etc. If that is so, give you resignation.