BrendaMD4

I graduated from WNC in 2007, and I can tell you that I really enjoyed my instructors, and I feel I was well-prepared for the NCLEX. Our class started with 45 people, and only 2 did not go on to complete the 2nd year. All but one person passed the NCLEX on the first try. I also has people I knew taking classes at TMCC and at UNR, and from what I heard, our instructors were far more gracious about making arrangements for personal issues. I was also told by a student at UNR that the community college nursing students received far more hands-on clinical training before doing clinicals in the hospital. I highly reccommend WNC's nursing program. I wish they would offer an ADN to BSN. I'd jump right in and do it if they did.

Thanks again for all your feedback. I just got a call this morning from the director of the facility. He said that he spoke with HR about the letter he told me he would send me, and that he "is not able" to send me the letter stating that the termination was mutual and due to scheduling. I guess I'm not suprised. I think it's ridiculous that the director of the facility makes promises without knowing what he can and cannot provide. I guess I am just wondering if I should make a thorough statement and ask them to add it to my file? The incident report only had a small space for me to write up my description of the incident. I feel I should also have on file in written form that the DON refused to train me for nocs, and then a week later begged me to work a night shift. I'm certain from talking to the director of the facility, that if an inquiry ever comes up that they will simply state that they terminated me due to the use of the wrong glucometer kit. They won't go into detail about how their facility was negligent. I just don't want a black mark on my record over this. Any advice would be appreciated. I do have a friend who is a lawyer, and I am wondering if I should contact him about this. Thanks for your help everyone!

Thank you all for your replies! I really appreciate the feedback. I feel like I am the scapegoat that the corporate office is using to alleviate their own culpability. While the corporate risk management department is evaluating the facility and requiring them to make extensive changes in their procedures, that doesn't change the fact that they fired me for being put in a situation and set of circumstances that they were responsible for. This group home treatment facility just began accepting diabetic patients about 2 months ago, and I can tell that they were not prepared to do so. I guess I should have quit when I realized that, but I was assuming that things would improve with time and experience. To think that I was actually spending time and energy trying to teach the staff how to care for diabetic patients safely! I had never worked in a group home facility, so this was an eye-opener. If I had been more experienced with these types of clinical settings, I probably would have reported them for unsafe practice. Live and learn I guess. . .

I have a full-time position as a school nurse, so I'm not going to be scrambling for a job. I am mostly upset that I am being fired. I am the first tp admit that I used the wrong kit on the wrong patient, but I feel that more was involved her than just my error. The facility manager told me that terminating me was just one of many things that the corporate office is requiring the facility to do. They will be making changes in how nurses are oriented to the facility, how patients are identified, how nurses are scheduled, how glucometers and lancets are used, etc. The patients at this facility do not wear arm bands, as the facility is trying to create a "home-like" atmosphere. I do not have union coverage at the per diem job, unfortunately. . .

I took a per diem job about 2 months ago in a residential eating disorder facility. I have been an RN for two years. I spent the first year in L&D, and did well there, but when I was told they would be moving me to nights I had to resign. I was also scheduled to have a hysterectomy, and had not been on the job long enough to qualify for FMLA. I then took a job as a school nurse working with medically fragile children, and have been doing well with that. At both of those jobs I have received excellent reviews, and have been told that I am a good nurse. The per diem job I mentioned above sounded fine, but I began having doubts on the first day. I was so informally trained that I began doing research on my own to supplement my training. After 2 partial days of job shadowing, I was told that I was "trained", and that I was on the schedule as the RN. Since it was a per diem job I was only scheduled for 2 Saturdays per month. Everything was going well, and I was starting to feel comfortable that I could meet the demands of the job. I was on break from the school nursing job, so I asked the DON if I could work a partial night shift in order to learn the routine in the event that I was ever called to work nights. She refused, saying that as I was only scheduled for Saturdays, that it would be unnecessary for me to learn the night routine. Sure enough, last Saturday, the DON called me up frantically asking me to cover a partial night shift for that night as the agency nurse had called in. I reminded her that I had not been on a night shift before, but she assured me there wouldn't be anything I wasn't familiar with involved, and that the day nurse would be there at change of shift to answer any questions. I reluctantly said yes (wanting to be a team player), and showed up to work midnight to 6am. The day nurse informed me that of the 3 patients in the house at that time, the 2 diabetics were in the same bedroom. She told me which bed each one was in, and that they needed fingersticks at midnight and 4am. I was told not to turn on the bedroom lights, but instead to use a flashlight so as not to interrupt their sleep more than necessary. Furthermore, they each have their own glucometers, which we keep locked up in the med room, and they are identical. They each have a piece of masking tape on the outside with their names on them. So here is the incident that took place: I took both kits into the room at 12:15am. I had the flashlight on and went to the bed where I was told patient A was sleeping. I called her by patient A's name and she woke up and sort of sat up and I told her it was time to check her blood sugar. She took the kit from me and did the fingerstick herself (which is company policy). When she handed me the kit back she looked at the kit and told me it was not hers. This shocked me, as I had been told that Patient A was in that bed, and I had called her by patient A's name and she responded. The problem is that the facility does not have a policy for making sure the patient's who do their own fingersticks change the lancet each time. No one knew whether the lancet was new or not. The rest of the shift was uneventful. When the day nurse came back at 6am, I told her what had happened, and she said she was unsure if the lancet was new or not. I filled out an incident report, discussed it with the day nurse, discussed it with the safety director (who just happened to be filling in for someone else), and then called the DON that day to report it. They all assured me I had done what was possible to be be safe in the circumstances. The DON told me she didn't think she would have done anything different given the situation. The doctor was notified, and the two patients had bloodwork done. The bloodwork came back clear. I had suggested to the DON that there should be some sort of label to show the name of each patient on their beds, and she agreed with me. She told me to chalk up this experience as a "learning curve". I just got a phone call from the facility manager today, informing me that risk management directed the facility to fire me due to the incident. I was very frustrated! I feel like I did all I could to deliver safe patient care, and that the incident was due more to the facility's lack of organization than my negligence. I am still within my 90 day probation period there, so they will not show it on my record as an involuntary termination, but I am still upset. The facility manager said he would send me a letter stating that the decision for me to leave the job was a mutual decision based on a scheduling conflict. I just don't know how to react to all of this. Any input would be welcomed. Thank you!