we often see threads with the title "fired for no reason," or "new grad harassed and fired" or something to that effect. and i always feel at least a little sympathy for the individual involved, if only because i can clearly see by reading between the lines of their self-justifying post that there was a reason for their termination, even if they just don't get it. (there are always a few posts every year from a new grad who is convinced that the reason she's not getting along with her co-workers is that she's just so beautiful they're all jealous, that crowds of mean people are following her around, that she's so wonderful she's going to rock the er or icu or nicu or or and no one sees her wonderfulness clearly, or that some mean, tired, old nurse who ought to retire and get out of the way is targeting her for no good reason.)
i worked with a new grad who was recently terminated for, as she puts it, totally bogus reasons. evidently seeing mine as a sympathetic ear, she went on and on and on about how unfair it was that management expected her to get her act together and actually understand what was going on with her patients. "i've got the time management thing down pat," she said. "i don't know what else they want. they're just picking on me for no good reason." i liked sal, i really did. she was interesting and entertaining and really, really nice. she was also smart, hard-working (when she was at work) and well-educated. but she didn't study outside of work, and really didn't understand what was going on with her patients. i participated in several meetings with her in which it was pointed out that it's not enough to do the tasks, you have to understand why you're doing them. it's not enough to draw the labs. you have to understand what the results mean and then address them. for instance, if the inr is 9, it might explain the nosebleed, the cherry red urine and the fact that the hemoglobin is now 6. giving the coumadin at 6pm as scheduled is not a good thing, even if you gave it right on time and were able to explain to the patient that "it's a blood thinner." i could go on and on.
i got a call from sal today, complaining that she knows she's blackballed for no good reason because she just can't get another job. she wanted me to give her a reference. did she just not get it?
all you new grads out there who are convinced that you're being picked on for no reason, that your more experienced colleagues are just out to get you, and that you're being unfairly targeting, harassed, or picked on, hear this: it may be something you're doing (or not doing) and all those "mean people" are trying to explain it to you so you catch on, learn your job and succeed. we all tried over and over with sal, and she still doesn't get it. are you guilty of the same thing? if your preceptor says you lack critical thinking skills, do you take it to heart, think about it and learn from it? or are you convinced that the entire issue is that she's jealous of your extreme good looks? if your charge nurse charges you with a deficit in your time management skills do you spend time figuring out where you could speed things up a bit? or do you dismiss her as a tired old dog who can't learn a new trick and ought to retire anyway? are you taking to heart and benefitting from any negative feedback you're getting, however poorly given it is? or are you obsessing about how "mean" that nurse was to you and totally overlooking the message?
i wish sal would have "gotten it." she would have been delightful to work with if she had. but right now she's focused on badmouthing her preceptors and the charge nurse, and she still doesn't understand what she did wrong. don't make the same mistakes.
Remember this.....There is no one who is harder on the self than the self. Sometimes people are looking for someone to help them sort through all the self doubt and find guidance as experienced nurses do we look the other way or help our babies?
I do agree that we should help the less-experienced nurses but to what end when you constantly are reeducating and reeducating and they make the same mistakes over and over. It gets frustrating after a while. I do like helping the newer nurses I work with but sometimes it's draining.
I would like to know who makes the rules in regards to what is the Right way to handle something and what is the wrong way to handle it. I have read alot of posts at direct ends of the spectrum. What makes one right amd the other one wrong? So many times a single bit of information can change the whole story. How many people have missed that one unseemingly important piece of info in their story telling?
Well, what do you mean? Are you saying you know more to the story? Yes there usually is more than one side of the story. That's why I wondered about the nurse's orientation and the department's and employer's commitment to it? But certainly a lot of the information that was shared screams of gross incompetence--and the safety and effectiveness of care to the patients MUST come first.
Bravo. "The mark of a well educated person is not necessarily in knowing all the answers, but in knowing where to find them" ~Douglas Everett. This is my favorite quote related to education. Knowing that you can look it up, that you know where to look, this gives you power and independence. Whenever a staff mem ber asks me a question I try to either tell them where to look, or show them where it is and we look it up together. I think your preceptor was wise.
Again, there is a way to do this--and in must be integrated with a mixed approached taking in consideration the style of learning and particular needs of the orientee. There is enormous added stress with making an orientee look every thing up and find eveything on their own--in light of the fact that they are under time constraints--for most things in clinical nursing are time sensitive. The bigger picture is lost with certain mentalities.
Until nursing departments and nursing education deparments and "preceptors" get this, the sad, sick, costly, and unproductive cycles will continue.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
remember this.....there is no one who is harder on the self than the self. sometimes people are looking for someone to help them sort through all the self doubt and find guidance as experienced nurses do we look the other way or help our babies?
i'll agree that this is true in some cases. and then there are the nurses for whom nothing that goes wrong or bad is ever their fault. they are never hard enough on themselves.
fail three ecg tests -- it's because they went and changed the order of the rhythm strips on the third test -- and after you went through all the trouble to memorize the answers in order. that's just not fair! now how are you supposed to label sinus rhythm and vt correctly if they're no longer the first and second rhythms on the test?
make the same med error three days running? it's because these stupid mars need to be changed. they don't make any sense!
hang mrs. roberts' blood on mrs. richards? why did they put those two women with first names for last names in the same room?
One day I went to change a syringe on syringe pump, and I had the Heparin syringe (Keep Line open nearby) in hand. I was nervous and I picked up the Milrinone syringe rather than the Heparin. Precepter-orientation nurse came in (God bless her.) said "What are you doing?" I looked and saw that I had the wrong 60cc syringe in my hand--it was the Milrinone. Thank God for two RN checks!!!!! I was feeling so rushed I didn't look at it closely as I should have--the thing is, I ususally do look, look, look again, and then get another RN to check. This is pretty much a peds things, but I appreciate the practice in general. Safety FIRST.
I stated to her "Woe. I would not have wanted to continue with that mistake. Thank you. I am going to slow down and be more careful." Again, I am usually very careful. I was feeling the "heat" that day with the need in being ahead of everything and trying to be perfect. Again, thank God for the two-RN check system. I bow down and praise it.
So as far as the blood is concerned, what the heck happened there???? Peds or not, Blood is always a two RN or RN and physician check w/ multiple patient identifiers!!!! She missed the mark on that, but so did someone else. That's why we have standard safety protocols.
Any of us can make mistakes. We have to be able to admit and learn and be even more vigilant than before. We have to learn to let others look at what we are doing and check it. This is a good thing!!!!! Check my stuff I say. If it keeps the patients safe--more power to it. And heck I am a very experienced nurse. I can make mistakes like anyone else--especially when things start moving quickly and you may be feeling a bit nervous.
There is nothing more horrible than being let go. The scars sometimes never go away. It is like post-traumatic stress disorder, you become so afraid that you become dysfunctional. I think it should be an absolute last resort, and employers should give people a chance to resign first. Why can't they have an evaluation and say " You are not fitting in here, perhaps you should look for another job". But no, they would rather spring it on you on Friday afternoon- "BTW, don't come back next week".
So much of it is political, who likes you, who does not. I agree there should be an objective system of evaluation. Unfortunately you find this same thing in other fields besides nursing. This is why unions can be a good thing. People need protection from "at-will" employment laws.
Yes and cx, it's harder to take when it comes so often to so many in this so called caring profession. Don't get me wrong. I do think a lot nurses care about their patients. It's the weirdest thing however, b/c too many times with certain nurses--and with administrations--the caring stops with the patients and is not extended to nurses--save those they decide to like. I shrug my shoulders. SAy a prayer, and then I look to move on. I know I am a good and caring nurse, and I KNOW I am not at all dillusional about that. No one has ever said otherwise. It's the silly politics--and using such notions as Lack of integration--for God's sake. Integration takes time. Just a basic understanding of the word tells you that.
Nursing: Too often it is a "profession" that cuts off its nose to spite its face.
I totally see what you are saying here--absolutely. But trust me. You have to know by now that there are a significant number of nurses that are very safe and intelligent and caring practitioners that get weeded out b/c of the ridiculously subjective mentalities of others nurses and nurse managers based PRIMARILY ON PERSONALITY. I been a nurse for more than one decade. I have seen it over and over and over and over ad nauseaum.
You are talking about someone who needs complete remediation and very close mentoring to get her to be safe--and even then, who knows. This person needed a more controlled and regularly measured precepting/orientation. Sounds like someone let her off of it WAY TOO SOON. And I might guess that regular measures and meetings for progress were not gone over every week. Apparently this person was smart enough to quit before she was fired.
OTOH, there are very intelligent and competent practitioners as myself and a number of others mind you that have been let go for simply being a tad bit outspoken. And by that, I don't mean not willing to accept constructive direction as to how said particular unit does thus and such--or being disrespectful or insubordinate--even I agree or not, unless it is unsafe,unethical, or immoral, I follow direction, period. I stated to the preceptor, while adjusting to nights again and coming down with the most horrendous flu symptoms over something so ridiculously simple, "Fine, we'll do it you way." I said it again with regard to paperwork, which was secondary to the higher priorities needs of a patient with a thrombus that could not be anticoaguated for a couple of reasons. When he was upset that the paper work, which was required for a send-out and was not critical for that moment or even two hours thereafter (which by the way I had started), I responded, "Fine, we'll do it your way." There are a few other instances very, very similar and relatively benign in interactions, and for that, admiting that clinically I was on the ball, they let me go. Said, lol, I wouldn't fit with the team. Hmmm, well, I have busted my butt to help any team I've been on. Something just wasn't right about the whole thing, and I kept ignoring the little voice in my head and the feeling in my gut. I believe in a team that truly commits to being collegial with each other--not covert games that are rationalized as "good team formation." That's not the way to get a team of excellence anyway. I am beginning to think that they found someone that they could bring in for $15,000 less per year--and in this economic nightmare that hospitals are even having to contend with, that's what they did. I suspect something like that may indeed be part of it.
At this point, I will learn what Ican about myself and how to be Oh so very careful with every miniscule thing I say or show on my face. And I will learn to be more observant about the dynamics and listen to that voice in my head and the feeling in my gut--and if it's telling me to move on, I am going to move on.
This is the problem when you get let go. People assume it is for the kinds of incompetencies that you have described mama. The next potential employer or others in the field do not necessarily know that you are let go for reasons that have to do with personalities and games that have nothing to do with you being a very effective, competent clinician or have nothing to do with you being a collegial, cooperative, loyal employee.
They have to start developing objective systems of evaluation with regular and full documentation. Why should a good nurse's reputation be put on the line for nonsense? And it happens a lot more than you may think.
I do totally hear where you're coming from with your points. We've been getting in trouble at work recently if we're not "positive enough" about all the cut-backs and down staffing we're suffering b/c "it doesn't show you're living our mission". Living the mission is not going to get my bills or my school paid for, now that you've cut our OT, bonus pay (extra $$ for signing up for extra shifts ahead of time), and tuition reimbursement. I'm one of those people who has a hard time keeping their mouth shut, and am struggling to maintain a lower profile in front of management at least.
My biggest problem is that if I'm asked my opinion, I'm gonna give an honest answer, not the politically correct one. My manager asked me in a staff meeting if there was anything she could do for me, and I told her "No, you don't have any power to make things better...you can't control the monetary situation we're in here, and the cuts they're making, so unless you want to hear a bunch of disgruntled employees sounding off, you should probably avoid that question." Obviously not the proper thing to say. So far they haven't gotten rid of any of their seasoned staff for such reasons, but I can easily envision a day where they do, just to bring in lower paid newbies.
Thank you for the further clarification. Maybe ICU was a bit too much for, she should have been started on a med-surg floor.
Ah, no I don't think so. Giving Coumadin to someone with an INR of 9 or administering Novolog to someone who cannot eat is just as dangerous on a Med-Surg floor as in the unit. Med-surg is not a practice floor where new nurses get to try out and refine their skills before moving on to the "big times". (All you new grads, be warned)
why do we have to have a term for it? serious answer. why not just look at it on a case-by-case basis.
agree. i know nurses who are mean and hateful to everybody regardless of how long you've been working and it has nothing to do with you being "young" or new, it's a personality issue. "nursing eats its young: is tired and i'm sick of it too. this is a difficult profession for everyone.
Well, it's not necessarily about them being mean and hateful, though some are.
It's about them being sneaky, cut-throat, playing games, distorting truth in order to acheive whatever agenda/s they have in mind. It's very sad and makes for an unnecessarily stressful and non-supportive environment.
It's not that nurses simply eat their young--whether that phrase is warn out or not.
It's that nurses eat each other, period!!!!
B/c of these games and mentalities, nursing has a tough time building itself up to be a true professions. There's too much of the ole "Every man/woman for himself/herself" going on in the field.
The sad thing is that more and more nurses are just giving up hope that there will ever be significant change in this regard.
I do know one thing, and I sware I've lived to see it over again many times.
Be very careful b/c what you give out WILL COME BACK TO YOU. It might take some time, but you can take it to the bank. NO ONE is EXEMPT from this--though they may seem like they are Teflon and nothing sticks. Sure as the sun rising, it will return to them.
Whenever I am screwed over, I don't hope for this for those that are unfair and screw others or me over. But I take a breath and just absolutely KNOW they just marked themselves for the return hit.
So don't say or do the right thing or "act" like you will do the right thing b/c of what it looks like to certain others.
Do it because it is right AND built into the universe are all kinds of laws and checks and balances. Sure as there is gravity, whatever you do and how you do it, you WILL reap. And no excuse or rationalization will change it's return to you.
Maybe she just was not cut out to be a nurse , some people just DON'T get it all people have an issue with this at some point in there life. Unfortunately it was too late for her to realize that about herself. Maybe it took her to be fired for her to get awake up call if she even did but it sounds like she still doesn't understand.
RN1982
3,362 Posts
I do agree that we should help the less-experienced nurses but to what end when you constantly are reeducating and reeducating and they make the same mistakes over and over. It gets frustrating after a while. I do like helping the newer nurses I work with but sometimes it's draining.