Lost CNA Hospital job

[altolover]

So just as a forewarning I am already feeling depressed and sad about this so if responses can be kept to constructive criticism that would be best and no swear words or tearing me down. Today I lost my job at Abbott Northwestern Hospital and I really loved my job the pay, benefits, and the people were really nice for the most part. If you want to get good patient care go there they strive for excellence like no other. I started may 4th and lost my job today because in the past 2 months I had 3 concerns against me one is being late three times to work but please listen here I was not late more than 5 min and two of the times I was only a min late. I guess I have just been used to my old jobs were they give you at least a 5 min grace period with no consequence to you. However at Abbott there is a point system and even 1 min late is half a point against you and you can only have 3 points against in 6 months. The second concern happened during a really slow holiday when nothing was going on the whole shift I was wearing headphones and a call light outside of my section came on but the person was still in my care. The voicera didn't notify me and neither did the box i was sitting in front of. Even when I took them out it was a faint sound that could have sounded like it was coming from another unit or section far away so unless I was walking the hallways I would have never known this cal light was going off. I understand I should not wear headphones because I could miss something serious going on like a code or a patient calling for help and I understand but I still think since nothing bad happened this concern was a small one. Lastly a patient complained about me to the worst degree saying I didn't know what I was doing, did not look happy, and was just standing there waiting for her to guide me and that I was trying to lift her arm that she had surgery on. This was overexsagerated and of course the manager never listens to anything I have to say I am always wrong so why bother defending myself to her. My side of the story which I believe that if your a manager please before deciding on a punishment please listen to both sides of the story like in my case the patient and the nursing assistant please I beg of you managers please listen to both sides of a story before making a decision. I know that I want a place where I know I will be listened to. Sorry had to rant a bit but my side of the story is I went into her room and she was a shoulder replacement with a perfect capability to walk but wanted the commode because she said she did not have her sea legs yet so I tried the arm with out the brace and she didn't want that so I asked her how would she like to be transferred and then she said I am not trained and do not know what I am doing and I said well you don't want me to lift you with your arm so how do you want to be transferred because everyone is different and so it is important to ask them I think but she took it as I don't know my job and then she asked if I liked my job and I said I did and then joked about not liking cleaning poop but she took that seriously and said there are other jobs where you can help people and not clean poop. I thought by the end of the shift we were fine because I re explained to her that it is just a fact of the job and most people don't like cleaning poop and she seemed to understand but I guess not because went and told my boss that I seemed unhappy incompetent and just waiting for her to tell me what to do. I am sorry I was just trying to figure out how you would like to be transferred. I feel I was unfairly fired and that these were nit pick reasons to fire me plus I was showing improvement on being on time by being 10 min early to my shifts. I just wish I was listened to and was noticed on the things I was improving. Also I was given a conditional re hire basically it means that if I apply to an Allina site they will be able to look at the comments about me when going through the hiring process and they said it will affect my future nursing job. So my question is am I screwed and will never get a nursing job at a allina site? Also are there places out there where they do listen to both sides of a story before taking action? Because honestly I do not want to work for a place where my side of the story is not heard before action is taken. Please be nice with your responses not looking to cry again today I am looking for some hope.

[cracklingkraken, ASN, RN]

It does not sound as if you were fired unfairly. As you stated, you were repeatedly late (it doesn't matter if it's 1 minute or 10 minutes late in the professional world), you had headphones on at work (you can't blame a faulty call light for this since you should not have had these on in the first place), and your comment could have been interpreted as offensive, depending on your tone. The first 2 situations were definitely grounds for a firable offense. I hope that this will serve as an encouragement and hard-learned lesson to do better in the future and will mold you into a better nurse. Good luck!

[mnw9412]

Grow from this! The actions of being late and wearing headphones during a shift are inexcusable, but they are nonetheless an experience to gain from. I'm not entirely sure how to guide you towards applying for another position honestly other than to try and see if you could apply somewhere out of the reach of your current site that won't already have notes about you -- good or bad. But again, all of this is something you can grow from. Punctuality raises eyebrows in the work field, and a good work ethic will always impress others even when you think they aren't watching. Good luck!

[jj224]

Pretty unlikely that you'll be hired at another Allina hospital. But luckily, there are plenty of other hospitals / nursing homes / LTACs. A tip to arrive on time - plan and leave your house as if your shift starts half an hour before it really does. The headphone issue is pretty cut and dry - can't do it! Keep interactions with patients neutral - no jokes, etc if they can be misinterpreted. Good luck

[Dancingqueen94]

I'm sorry to hear this dear. It's no fun being in that type of position, but just like another member has said, take this as a lesson and learn from it for your future endeavors. Always show up early to work. You never know when you will run into unexpected traffic on the way to work, construction, weather, etc. It won't hurt you to show up a few minutes early and wait in your car until it's time to clock in or to wait in the break room. As far as transferring the patient, remember that the patient always comes first! Maybe she was scared of transferring after surgery or she maybe felt weak. Don't be afraid to ask your coworkers to assist you in transferring a patient, even if in your own mind they might be "fine". If it puts the patient more at ease to have two people assisting them, then that's what you should do.

[altolover]

Ok I understand that I shouldn't have had headphones in and that I am in the wrong but I also showed improvement with being on time after my manager said something I was ten min early for every shift doesn't improvement matter at all and what about my other question are there places that actually listen to both sides of a disagreement before taking action cus I didn't even felt listened to

[enuf_already]

If your hospital network does an Internet search, you may not have to worry about whether you will be hired at another facility or whether they will be fair.

You have given the name of the hospital where you were fired, your position, the date you were fired, and the circumstances. You have made it known that you are displeased about the circumstances surrounding your firing and you feel you were treated unjustly. Do you think this should affect future employment with this hospital system?

For future reference, any time a patient or family asks if you like your job, the answer is, "I LOVE my job!" (Followed by the biggest, most sincere smile you can muster.)

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

You were terminated with cause. Whether 1 minute or 30 minutes late you were not on the floor ready to begin at shift start....on multiple occasions. If you were terminated for a single late arrival I'd say you were unfairly treated you were not.

Headphones in a work area is grounds for at minimum sent home from shift without pay and possibly suspended until meeting with administration. You have no excuse. It wasn't a faulty call light. It was you distracted by headphones. Can you imagine how it would look to a patient or concerned family member to see a CNA distracted with headphones?

Third your comment was inappropriate. Whether you think it was "smoothed over" at the end of your shift clearly you knew the patient was taken aback by your comment. Your poor attempt at a joke is not an excuse, you have no real defense so it doesn't matter if your manager listened to your excuse as it may have only pushed you from conditional rehire to ineligible for rehire.

Take a step back and look at where you can improve. Arriving to your job 10 minutes before shift start to put away your belongings and be ready to work at shift start is expected professional behavior. Keep that up moving forward but don't expect a pat on the back for simply meeting job expectations. Learn from this and move forward

[OrganizedChaos, LVN]

Paragraphs, please. That was really difficult to read. Also you shouldn't put the name of the hospital in your post. This is a public forum & your former boss could be on here for all you know.

You got your first taste of the nursing world. Nursing is very customer service oriented. No matter where you work as a CNA or a nurse the family will (most likely) always be right, especially in the hospital.

You had your three strikes & they were justifiable. You were late (strike one), you had your headphones on & didn't answer call bells (strike two) & then you seemed incompetent with that patient (strike three, you're out!). It didn't matter that you showed up early after you were late. You still had your three marks on you. Also, were you still on probation? That would be another big reason why they let you go.

I doubt they will hire you if you were fired from the hospital as a CNA. But if you become a nurse you can always apply & find out.

[mrsboots87]

This is not meant to hurt your feelings, but you need to be real. I know you are upset about being fired. That totally sucks and is a downer no matter the reason. But even without the patient complaint, they were completely justified in firing you.

Sure, not having a grace period at all is a bit rough because sometimes you just can't help being a minute or two late. However, someone probably abused whatever grace period they may have had. When you coworkers have just worked an entire shift, they are ready to go home. Not wait for you to clock in a couple minutes late, then get to the station to get a short report from them before they can then leave. They want to leave on time. I am usually at work about 15 minutes early. This gives me time to put my stuff away. See my patient list. Plan my day. Then get report of any changes from the offgoing CNA. Then I clock in and start my day. The offgoing CNA clocks out on time. I have been late one time and the CNA I was relieving was not pleased.

Second, you had me at wearing headphones. Call light on or not, you were wearing headphones. At work. While on the clock. In front of patients and their families. It look incredibly unprofessional and would make many people upset to see that you were on your headphones. If a family member was walking by and saw that they would likely complain. If a code was called you may not hear it. If a patient dropped their call light button and was calling out, you wouldnt hear it. If someone fell in the hall and was calling for help, you wouldnt hear it. The fact you couldnt hear the call light is only a small part of a much more major issue. You also had to have known it was against policy to wear headphones at work. You intentionally broke that rule. You got in trouble for that. Not hearing the call light was just eh icing on the cake for that incident.

Then the patient complaining. You NEVER complain about your job to a patient. Even jokingly. I joke with most of my residents. But not in that way. This patient may have once had to be wiped in bed and it may have hurt her feelings to hear a possibly embarassing experience for her be something you look down on. Sure, no one like wiping poop. It is definitely not the highlight of my shift. But its part of the job and the patients don't like to have to be cleaned any more than you like to do it. Most would much rather have the ability to wipe their own behinds. It can feel degrading to them. Then your attempt to smooth it over was worse. You should have simply apologized for offending the women and stated it was intended as a light hearted joke but you realize it wasnt taken that way. And then gone on to tell her how much you love your job and every part of helping people. Or you could have just not joked that way at all. Especially if the patient was already upset with you as it is.

You may feel you were improving based on being to work early, but you could have been failing everywhere else. Take this as a learnign experience and do better next time. You will likely not get hired at this hospital for an RN spot because of competition. Possibly, but unlikely. Everyone has to start somewhere and we all have to learn. You just learned the hard way this time. Better luck next time.

[mrsboots87]

And for the record, your side of the story likely didn't matter. There is nothing you can really say to explain why a patient thought you were incompetent and rude. I know some patients are just mean and complain about everyhing, but it doesnt make it ok. Maybe there were other complaints, or maybe they had observed you sounding unprofessional to other patients before. Who knows. You were there only 2 months and had already been late 3 times and broken policy with the headphones. The customer complaint was likely just one of many other reasons to tack on as a reason to fire you. If not that then probably something else. Those 3 things are a lot for just 2 months of employment.

PS. For future posts it helps to not have one huge paragrapg full of run on sentences and terrible grammar. I am definitely not an English major and do not write perfectly here. So I am not trying to be the grammar nazi in any way. However, your posts are very hard to decipher and read. A little editing would go a long way.

[canigraduate]

When you start a new job, you need to be on your best behavior for the first several months. Having 3 occurrences and a patient complaint a little over 60 days is a lot. A whole lot. Way more than most people. I haven't had that many in the past 3 years.

The tardies would be enough to get you fired in many places. Add in a patient complaint, and it was pretty much a no brainer that you would be let go. It is fair that you were fired because you were not meeting standards.

You mentioned that you were improving. Good! I am glad that you have already started learning from your mistakes. However, you have only reached the minimum standard of professionalism in your improvement, which is not enough to offset your previous behavior.

It is doubtful you will be able to get another job with the same company, at least not right away. You should look elsewhere. Once you have successfully been hired somewhere else, been a good employee with a clean record, and have left voluntarily, you could try again.

I agree with the other posters who say to use this as a learning experience. The next time you are hired, find out the attendance policy and follow it. Be at work at least ten minutes before you are supposed to clock in. Once you clock in, that is company time, so be ready to hit the floor. Be a professional on the floor. This means, do your job cheerfully or at least competently and do not let your personal distractions get in the way. Treat patients nicely and do not complain about your job. You should be vigilant about completing your job duties and not expect other people or technology to track you down and tell you that you are needed.

I am sorry that you are upset over this. I know it is hard being fired. But please face up to the fact that it is your own fault. It hurts knowing you have messed up, I know, but you can overcome this.