Placed on Performance Improvement Plan - What should I do?

Dear Nurse Beth Advice Column - The following letter submitted anonymously in search for answers. Join the conversation!

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When you speak of hidden files, do you make the assumption that the manager office files only contain bad things? Yes, I have individual employee files. I keep copies of patient "thank you" cards, other cards that we use to recognize employees in our hospital, notes on mentoring they may have done, extra shifts worked to help out, certificates of courses, etc. I also keep copies of BRN reports for nurses on probation in case the BRN suddenly thinks I didn't turn in the reports in a timely manner. If I have a repeated conversation about an issue with an employee, I keep a note of the date and general contents. On the off chance the employee makes no change, and I have to resort to official written counseling, that note of the date and content is referenced as a reminder of "previous conversations" although it usually takes more than one conversation before I resort to written and usually involves something about medication or similar patient safety issue. Previous verbal conversations/verbal are required before we move to written. With a large number of employees, I would never remember those conversations accurately. Those "hidden files" are more helpful during evaluation time to remember all the stuff they do well. The good stuff far outweighs the "bad stuff".

I assume there are managers and supervisors out in the world that probably only do keep bad things and that seems to have been a common experience in this thread. Please don't judge the world by a bad experience and paint us all as evil just because we are managers and keep files as we should do to coach and mentor and recognize staff appropriately. My experience is that the office files are well balanced if not downright positive things as the majority.

It saddens me to think that leadership is becoming more negative in employee relationships and wonder (again) what leadership education/mentoring THEY have had. Or is there a culture shift that is pitting staff against leadership and staff nurses are not interested in self-improvement or change and blames leadership when efforts are made to grow them or teach them? I truly don't know.

It is not that staff are not interested in positive change or learning. They are not interested when the techniques used by management consist of badgering, bullying, and blindsiding them. And, unfortunately, that happens all too often. Not all managers are pure and fair minded as you are. Some are on some significant power and ego trips. It is unfortunate that this blame game exists. So if a manager bullies or blindsides an employee, the manager can turn it around and blame the employee saying they are only trying to help them and they are resistant to the help being offered. Interesting perspective. Why can't we work together as a team? It seems those days are long gone.
The same thing happened to me recently. I was an ICU nurse for over 20 years, spent my last 7 years in one unit then transferred to another hospital, same job. All of sudden I was getting written up over crazy things. Should have seen the writing on the wall. I was fired for a very minor med error which I reported and no harm came to the patient, doctor was not upset. I was upset because making med errors is not at all typical for me. But, they were just waiting for me to do something wrong. It was horrible. I think some hospitals are just viper pits full of nasty people. I don't know if its possible to get over it.

I have seen this happen over and over to so many people. Yet others make significant errors and there are no consequences. I just don't understand why this is happening to good nurses. All I can say is the degree of negativity and just plain nastiness in the profession has escalated in recent years. When I first started nursing, we worked as a team, our managers supported us, we actually had fun at times and I don't mean we had fun by hurting or being cruel to others. That is not funny. Had I known it would turn into a profession of Mean Girls one day, I would never have chosen the profession. What appealed to me about it was the caring, the camaraderie, the teamwork, the pulling together for a greater purpose outside of our own little worlds. I wish I knew the answers as to why this is happening. In the meantime, I feel for you. You have my support. Know that you are not alone.

The same thing happened to me recently. I was an ICU nurse for over 20 years, spent my last 7 years in one unit then transferred to another hospital, same job. All of sudden I was getting written up over crazy things. Should have seen the writing on the wall. I was fired for a very minor med error which I reported and no harm came to the patient, doctor was not upset. I was upset because making med errors is not at all typical for me. But, they were just waiting for me to do something wrong. It was horrible. I think some hospitals are just viper pits full of nasty people. I don't know if its possible to get over it.

The other thing is that you were honest and accountable and showed integrity in reporting your error. I think the lesson learned here is that it does not pay to be honest, accountable, ethical. This behaviour is punished not rewarded. Maybe that is why the profession has been blindsided by nurses with the diametrically opposite qualities. The last 2 places I worked were viper pits, totally.

You can get copies of everything, but if you live in an at will state, the hospital can fire you for any little thing. All nurses do something wrong eventually and then they'll just use that little thing to get rid of you. They can even lie and you have no recourse. I know a nurse who was fired for being a minute late. She had worked for the hospital for years. Her new manager kept track of her tardiness - only a minute or two a few times over the previous months. On her 4th time, she was fired on the spot. The housesupervisor had to be a witness when she was fired. The house supervisor was in tears afterwards over how the fired nurse was treated.

Specializes in Orthopedics, Med-Surg.
You can get copies of everything, but if you live in an at will state, the hospital can fire you for any little thing. All nurses do something wrong eventually and then they'll just use that little thing to get rid of you. They can even lie and you have no recourse. I know a nurse who was fired for being a minute late. She had worked for the hospital for years. Her new manager kept track of her tardiness - only a minute or two a few times over the previous months. On her 4th time, she was fired on the spot. The housesupervisor had to be a witness when she was fired. The house supervisor was in tears afterwards over how the fired nurse was treated.

If you take the long view on such things, that manager did her a favor. Now she's out of that snakepit while the manager is left behind. I got fired from such a place early in my career and although it hurt to be fired, I had the last laugh when I heard my manager was forced to leave the facility accompanied by security. So sad; too bad.

Yes it is so true. What goes around comes around. So all we have to do is wait and, as you said, be grateful we got out of the snake pit before it destroyed us. Keep smiling and keep laughing.

If you go to IOM's Keeping Patients Safe: Transforming The Workplace of Nurses the chapter on patient safety culture has a description of the adversarial relationship between staff and management. The National Patient Safety Foundation's study From The Eyes of The Workforce also discusses it. Sounds like you are an exception. Maybe you should publish on your successes. I assume your unit would have good staff satisfaction and patient safety culture scores. Maybe this nurse should come work for you.

Learn from your mistakes. I was fired from my dream job not for performance but for something I said. I learned to keep my mouth shut and trust NO ONE with your opinions. Learn everyones personalities 1st. Good luck.

So true! I learned this the hard way. everyone complained about one person and I spoke to the Director about him( non nursing). It backfired on me! NO one not any of the ones who said they had my back not ANY one of them backed me up. They let me take the fall. I am so disgusted by all of them. It mad me look crazy. And the Director lets this person do whatever he pleases. Whatever. And do not talk to him about his behavior So staff complain and says they support me and will stand by me and I approach management and nothing is done, Then management does not want me back and the SAME staff that agreed I talk to management about this person, that same person then texts me a say I am not a good fit!! Wha the heck? And management said she will take me back and all is well, but then says she does not want my services and good luck out there! Whatever. Their day will come - that managers and that co -workers. i have learned to shut up and to trust ANYONE. I was bitten.

So true! I learned this the hard way. everyone complained about one person and I spoke to the Director about him( non nursing). It backfired on me! NO one not any of the ones who said they had my back not ANY one of them backed me up. They let me take the fall. I am so disgusted by all of them. It mad me look crazy. And the Director lets this person do whatever he pleases. Whatever. And do not talk to him about his behavior So staff complain and says they support me and will stand by me and I approach management and nothing is done, Then management does not want me back and the SAME staff that agreed I talk to management about this person, that same person then texts me a say I am not a good fit!! Wha the heck? And management said she will take me back and all is well, but then says she does not want my services and good luck out there! Whatever. Their day will come - that managers and that co -workers. i have learned to shut up and to trust ANYONE. I was bitten.

Meant to trust NO ONE!

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