anonymurse

Right! Support H.R. 4580! We need your help!

RIGHT! Well get behind HR 4580 and give us a hand here! We gotta ditch this 2-year probation!

Apply to the VA. They don't seem to care about how long you've been looking.

There ARE unions for nurses in LA--at the VAMCs in Shreveport, Alexandria, and NO.

Quick reply to OP. Look at it this way. Death is the natural and inevitable end of every life. We can deny that or not. How is being in denial of reality ever good?

And really, it's all about what you can afford.

Sometimes LPN is a great pick. In this locale, high school students can graduate high school as LPNs. Now suppose they need a job just as soon as they graduate, say they're expecting, or they have youunger sibs to feed. They can hire on at the VA and get good health and retirement plans in the bargain.

They say nurses eat their young. Well they don't. Sociopaths do. That's 4 to 5% of the general population. I seem to attract attacks by them. Virginia is what I like to re-label a Right to Get Fired state. That's what happened. How it happened was because I didn't understand how they work. Two outright lying witnesses against one. Then after over a year out of work, I finally got on with the VA. The Federal government carries its unions with it, so I was automatically represented, whether I paid dues or not (I chose to pay, probably more than usual because paying is totally optional, $17 per biweekly pay period). I was attacked again, brought to a meeting and not told the agenda, same method, two outright lying witnesses. Then I remembered my union training. It was a simple single Powerpoint slide about my right to union representation in any meeting where I felt it might lead to disciplinary action or a change in my work conditions. I claimed my rights. They denied them. Now it is they who are sweating. See, what it all boils down to is simple math. As a RN who can't afford even one lawyer, working for a corporation with a giant permanent legal staff that can take a little time to focus on little old me, plus no union representation, I'm going to lose any dispute. But with a union behind me with its own legal staff and a contract that spells out the responsibilities of both parties, things even out enough that the truth can prevail. That's all I ask for. If I do wrong, yeah, fire me, I deserve it. But if a group of people gratuitously attacks me in my workplace when I'm doing a great job and tries to take my livelihood from me for giggles, let 'em burn. Yeah, I did have a chance eyewitness, but I did the other time, too. Same locality. Same situation. Same kinds of people. The union was the only difference. I'm a working stiff with three schoolkids to feed, so I need the little bit of parity my union brings to the table. Beggin' your pardon, my compatriots who favor the theory of a pure free market, but I'm a living example of why theory should reflect the impurity of the real world. Are you not free to select an agent in other areas of life? I recommend you exercise that freedom where it counts most, in your work life.

Not today, nope.

[skipping prodrome clues, defenses, and pre-firing strategies--irrelevant to your situation; maybe I'll add them later.]

Aha, I can't go back to add stuff because 60 minutes has gone by without an edit. OK. Emotional Prep So after all this sinks in, you look over your FB friend list, and like anyone else, you have roughly 400 friends. Ermagerd, you mean to say 16 to 20 of these are just waiting for me to turn my back so they can select the ribs between which to slide the blade? At this point, you're going to want to go heavy denial, but remember--paranoia is an UNreasonable fear. That means there is such a thing as a reasonable fear. And because you've been juked, you have ample reason. It seems the hardest thing to deal with is the feeling of betrayal. You trusted all these people (you may never figure out who did it, but you trusted them all), and now THIS. You want to beat yourself up for not having figured it out. Hey man, in the middle of divorce agonies, I learned my wife had led a double life our whole marriage, a decade and a half. All of a sudden, I had peace. I couldn't very well get 'back' someone I had never known. She was a stranger, and our marriage, a fiction, like a movie. Like any good movie, it had its good times, it had its bad times, but when the movie's over, you don't sit crying in your seat, hoping there's more. You go to the parking lot to find your car and move on. So you may be missing that job, the patients, your good co-workers, but it wasn't as good as you thought it was, and it's gone. I don't know if you can use my way of thinking. Everybody's different. But there is a way for you to achieve closure and heal, and if you want it, you will find it. You have to do it before your head is clear enough to make a plan.

Disclaimer: What follows is my story. Like all stories, it's anecdotal and specific. I'm not an attorney. Nothing I type or have typed is to be construed as legal advice. If you need a lawyer, see one. When you pay a good attorney for your case, you'll get back a whole lot more money than you put in. MY STORY (your mileage WILL vary!) Introduction I'm going to tell my story on the installment plan, adding to this post as I have time. All stories have a beginning. Ours, the victims', always begin the same way. After that, it gets way more specific, but for now, it's easy--for me. I tell you to read two things. That'll give me time to write the rest. Nurses often say "nurses eat their young." This is untrue. The conscienceless, generically termed 'psychopaths' or 'sociopaths,' are 4 to 5% of the general population. It is THEY who eat anyone they can get away with eating, with the tacit, unwitting assistance of the rest. They get their jollies from lying, stealing, cheating, and destroying the careers of those whom they feel have encroached on their natural entitlement--the slightest word of praise from anyone for anything. All you have to do is be smarter, better looking, richer, or--most hated of all--respected for being a truly good and moral being. They have NO empathy, no ability to know how others feel. They are amoral. They consider themselves superior, because while others tie themselves in knots agonizing over matters of conscience, these can strike as quick as thought. If you haven't read the two sources I linked to, do so. The conscienceless are unimaginably different from 'normal,' so much so that it took Martha Stout an entire book to pound this into my head. Check out this fMRI study. Robert Hare's original paper based on EEGs was rejected because the editor thought the evidence MUST have been faked. No, it wasn't. Nursing school didn't teach me this stuff, and I didn't learn until it was too late. Same for you, bro. With advance warning, maybe others will fare better than we.

Too, not to. Hate autocorrect.

Spikey9001, PM me and I'll pick up on it when I get home. Can't figure out how to PM off this phone, and anyway there's to much info to Swype at you. I just have a few Qs to see how closely your situation lines up with mine, looks super close, and yes, you can totally recover from the blow. Things have never been so good for me.

I think the AHA rhythm strip class is like $50. At that price, it's worth a shot. However, I think it's way more important to work as a NA if you've never done it. Your NAs can make or break you, and working as one will teach you to be a considerate co-worker.