How good are nurse refresher courses?

Nurses Job Hunt

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To make a long story short 18 months ago I got fired over an 'ethics' violation (pt's Mom wrote me a recommendation letter after I gave a hope necklace to her deeply depressed son; HR called it a bribe).

I fell into a deep depression, lost all my money, had to move back home, went to inpatient psych for two weeks, found out I have bipolar depression and got a gastric sleeve leaving me 130 lbs lighter.

Yeah, aside from the weight loss life hasn't been too good.

Clearly I need a refresher course but I'm not sure if even that would be enough. I'm at the point where I don't know what to do and am actually kinda scared to be the only thing I know how to do.

How good are these refresher courses? I mean how much do they actually teach you? I'm beginning to think I'm too far gone.

How long were you nursing before you lost your job? Is your license current? People take equally long periods of time off for various reasons. The bigger challenges may be explaining why you lost your last job and keeping your mental health in the clear with the BON.

I was in nursing for 9 months. My license is current. My state requires me to disclose my bipolar diagnosis but my doctor isn't entirely sure I have it. I do have Asperger's and depression but I don't have to declare those.

I had a patient who was a pre-med student with cystic fibrosis. He was very lonely and deeply depressed. He thought his hospitalization would distract him from his classes and that he'd never get into med school.

I gave a patient a $3 caduceus necklace from Amazon and told him to 'Never give up hope'.

His mother was in the room and was in tears. She thanked me for "taking the time to really know and care about [her] son".

She asked me if there was anything she could do to repay my kindness. I told her no, that it was just part of my job. She insisted and I directed her towards a stack of DAISY award pamphlets and said if she truly felt that way she could fill one out.

Rumors swelled on my unit. A few days later I was called into my manager's office and a woman from HR was there. They questioned my motive and my integrity, saying what I did was "a bribe". I said it was all just rumors and a complete misunderstanding.

I also have Asperger's Syndrome and see the world differently than others, which my manager knew.

Nonetheless I was let go on the spot, with no chance to defend myself.

That was my very first nursing job; I was fired and without a reference.

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