new graduate RN -- terminated after 2 months

Nurses Men

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hi all, i was recently terminated from my rn job at a major teaching hospital. i was let go after working there for only 2 months. how do you move on after this? i was in denial for the first 2 weeks, now reality is setting in and i need to figure out what to do next. i loved being a nurse, but i am questioning whether hospital nursing is for me. i always felt like i had to try 10x harder to fit into a profession that is predominately female. i held my own in my interactions with my patients, they gave me wonderful testimonials, i've been told i will go on to become a doctor and that i have great bedside manners. i know medical school is not possible at this point in time because i don't have the funds to afford medical school and i know i can't handle working the grueling hours of a medical resident. i would like to connect with other nurses who have been in my situation. how long did it take you to find a job and how do you explain your termination on job applications?

Specializes in tele,med/surg.

Im in the same situation...I got let go after 1 month... I am a girl, doesn't matter, its a rough patch but keep your head up. I know how you feel :(

I will tell you this though, be honest to your next employer. Sometimes it works, other times its worthless to be honest. It is a hit or miss, but if you do lie about termination or not even mentioning your last employer it CAN come back to bite you.

Try to find out who they report employment history to. The cheap way HR does it is through those free credit check places like "Equifax, TransUnion etc. Or the other way is through some kind of 3rd agency party, for example "The Work Number" is VERY VERY VERY commonly used. I found out today that my last employer uses them and so does the current hospital I applied at. I blocked all access (its free) so know one can look up my past work history, NOBODY (employer or not) can see it. Here is the link and the customer service line to ask if a certain hospital uses it and to freeze your information.

Equifax Verification Services | Instant Online Verifications

The Work Number Client Service Center can change a setting to block all verification requests about you. Contact them Monday thru Friday, 7a.m. - 8p.m. at 1-800-996-7566

The Work Number is used to verify employment and check salary/wages etc etc. It is definitely an interesting thing to research and learn about, its basically legal identity theft in some ways, not going to get into it just read up about it if you are interested.

By calling and having your information freezed is kind of a way of 'covering your tracks'. So that they wont all of a sudden one day find out you lied about or didn't mention where you worked, which is automatic grounds for termination. I dont know if its full proof (but I have a good hunch it might be), but honestly if you know you wont get a good reference and that it might mess up your chances at a future job and you dont want to list them.... consider it. Just saying.

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Specializes in ICU, psych.

you are new grad? if the job was only two months, dont put it on the resume. pretend it never happened, as far as employment is concerned.

Personally, You have to figure out what and why

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Specializes in ICU/Ortho/Med surg.

I know this is an old thread but I just had to respond.

I hope that you managed to bounce back and land on your feet?

It is very sad this happened to you friend but like some have said on here, keep a positive attitude and try to remember to "humble" yourself.

Others will dance around the issue and some have referred to these guys as "kiss asses",( not saying I call them that) but there is a fine art to working with women and I am certainly no expert but I have seen guy co-workers who just never encountered any flack for any reason and it was usually because they did their job, asked questions when they didn't know the answer, and helped out when their co=workers were getting behind.

Being a team player can really make up for all the "faults" some may see in you, and yes, there is a lot of misandry in nursing and there always will be. Just deal with it and know it's there. As some have stated on here as well, the deck gets even more stacked against you as you age so when you hit 40 all those job offers start to dwindle away and it's doubly worse when you have a spotty job history to go with it....keep that in mind

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I just want to follow up... I am on the same situation right now and I want to hear how you cope up and bring yourself back. It's very frustrating and depressing how this things happen

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Specializes in Adult Critical Care, Med-Surg, Obs.

+1, You can always learn from every event, it didn't kill you, now get stronger from it!

Just keep looking man, even if it's not as prestigious as your prior job. Accept and evaluate what had happened, gather your emotions, and then move on. As a new grad, in my opinion beggars can't be choosers: start off applying for everything and if you get accepted to the "lowly" medsurg or some other floor, take it. Because the most important thing you can gain from that is the actual experience, whether it be communicating with the docs and staff, to time management and planning your care, or just getting comfortable with procedures... all this experience will add up and benefit you and your patients as well as make you that much more marketable in the future as well as boost your confidence. Remember, no one ever go to the top of the totem pole overnight. Keep your head up and work SMART!
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Specializes in Emergency, Occupational, Primary.

Hello Miss Laura...

Wow, 52 identical posts across this forum all requesting people to email you. Do you need friends that badly?

I think not. Your profile has been reported as a spam queen. Have a nice day.

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First of all, why were you terminated? Without knowing this there's nothing we can advise you on. You can't really be fired for something as subjective as "lacking empathy" unless there is some hard evidence that it negatively impacted your work performance.

This is as much for you as it us for us in helping you. Going forward, you will without a doubt be asked why you left your last job/were terminated and what you did to remedy the problem, unless you choose to leave it off your application and lie about previous work experience to your future employer, which is a dangerous gamble.

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