new grad 'picked on'

[hollyberry678]

Hi, this isnt about me, but about a co-worker. He was a new grad, he had switched his field entirely and went through an accelerated program, so he had little-no floor experience. He was hired, trained, and he had many questions, and was somewhat slow at times to process things, but I attributed that to this being a very new environment. He had a good attitude, and was very nice. He was very thorough, hence his being somewhat slow. Some people did not have patience for that, particularily some charge nurses, who I think reported his every mistake to the nurse mgr.

The nurse mgr pulled him into the office for some transgression. He got the union involved (maybe his big mistake). thereafter, his charting was examined every shift. He was followed, he said, sometimes when he worked days. There is a six month probabtion period, he was up for his 6 month review, and now he is off the schedule. I called him, and he said that he was asked about things like why did you wait 1.5 hours to give the potassium after it was ordered (he said he had to wait for pharm to verify it, that it is not an override med, which is true), but was told he should have givenit as an override (when you cant). things like that.

Makes me wonder. what is your take? thanks

[Scrubby]

It's hard for me to make a judgement on this. Perhaps there were other incidents that happened that he hasn't told you that are you are not aware of where he was in the wrong?, I'm not accusing anyone of lying here but there is always two sides to a story.

If he was fired simply because he followed the hospital policy on withholding a drug until it was verified, then yes I would say that this is not right and maybe he should follow up on this.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

people who get fired for a good reason seldom share that reason with their friends at work. either they honestly can't see where they're in the wrong, or they know it on some level but don't want to admit it. there may have been many other documented instances where he was clearly in the wrong that he's chosen not to share with you.

years ago, i worked with a nurse i'll call lulu. she was well liked among the night shift and, when she was awake, very knowlegeable and capable. the thing is, lulu did charge most of the time, and she tended to spend most of her shift at the charge seat, sitting bolt upright with her head cocked to one side, sleeping. she slept so soundly that a thin ribbon of drool would hang out of the side of her mouth, and we had nightly bets about how long it would get before she woke up. we'd get out the yardstick early in the shift, place our bets, measure the drool and keep records so we knew when there was a record breaker.

lulu carried the exact same cordovan coach bag that i carried, and one night i picked up hers instead of mine and carried it off to the bathroom, in urgent need of a tampon. when i opened the purse, it was full of prescription narcotics. some prescriptions had her name on them; others were unit dose narcs clearly stolen from work. i put her purse back without saying anything, and while i was still contemplating how exactly to handle my find, lulu got fired. i came to work the next night and she was gone. "falsification of patient records," i was told. (she charted having given pain meds but hadn't.) no one could believe it. lulu met the night shift staff for breakfast after work and told us all she'd been railroaded, she'd made a mistake with documentation one time and after that they were "out to get her." most of the staff fell for it. i knew better but didn't say anything.

for years, every time lulu's name came up in conversations at work, the discussion revolved around how unfairly she was treated. i knew better and kept silent. then she was fired again for the same thing and went to rehab. now, suddenly, folks are shaking their heads, referring to the drool measuring and saying they knew it all the time.

we rarely know the exact reasons someone else got fired, and they're not going to share anything that makes them look bad. so be freindly and even supportive if you like. but understand that there was probably more to the story.

[Trishalishus, PhD, CNS]

Mind your own business - don't start your career as a gossip - it will do you no good in the long run - practically or spiritually. Doesn't mean you can't feel compassion for another's woe; doesn't mean you can't learn something for yourself (perhaps not what you originally thought you might have learned, either). If you have time to gossip, I think you're wasting time.

Best wishes