Reasons nurses get fired

Nurses General Nursing

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What are some reasons you've known nurses to be fired? I worked for a small company and was fired. I'm not going into why, but I did not cause any harm or do anything illegal. To me, those are the reasons nurses get fired.

Specializes in ED, ICU, Prehospital.

Aaaaaaand........this is why unions are necessary.

People can keep complaining but no one is going to take your complaints seriously if you continue to vote against your own best interests.

I will never, ever go back to working in a non union shop. Unions have their problems but the sort of nonsense that is being listed here is....egregious. i dont know why nurses, some of the most intelligent people on the planet....allow this sort of thing to continue.

Unionize, folks. Power to protect yourselves from this nonsense feels amazing.)

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
17 hours ago, Apple-Core said:

Wait......what??????????????? This actually happened?

It happens, and not just to George Clooney on "ER". I've seen it happen a few times.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

Things I've seen people get fired for:

  • Kicking in the screen of the Pyxis because it was being recalcitrant about dispensing narcotics.
  • Bring a handgun to work and then leaving work early to stand on a the entrance ramp to the freeway, pretending to take pot shots and employees leaving work.
  • Not taking any vital signs all night long (ICU) and in the morning, just "clicking down" hourly vital signs from the charting system, signing them, and not mentioning (or, in all likelihood, noting) blood pressures in the 70s systolic.
  • Having sex with a married colleague on an exam table on the transplant floor. (The female half of this pair.)

Things I've seen that people DIDN't get fired for:

  • Having sex with a married colleague on an exam table on the transplant floor. (The male.)
  • Getting pulled over for a DUI on your way home from work and going to jail because it was your fifth. Charge nurse needed to call the jail an hour before each scheduled shift so employee could be processed out on work release, and call either employees wife or girlfriend to bring him to work.
  • Having sex with the wife of a patient prior to getting pulled over for that DUI on the way home from work.
  • Aborting yourself with a coat hanger in the employee bathroom during your lunch break, and then leaving work without saying anything to anyone because you were bleeding heavily. Charge nurse followed the blood trail to the ER. All documented sixty ways for Sunday. Manager wanted to give her "another chance."
  • Turning the morphine drip up on a comatose patient because "the family is tired and wants it over with."
  • Calling in sick from a bar thirty minutes after your shift started. Documented up the ying/yang. Employee got away with it 4 times in two weeks. Then the manager's boss happened to wander by and answer the phone . . . employee terminated the next day.
  • Getting arrested for shooting at your wife . . . even though the state revokes licenses for DV. Don't know if he's still employed there or not, but he's had a few more DV arrests.
  • Raping your wife and going to jail . . . manager wanted to give him another chance. Different manager.
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Nurses are treated like crap. There are a lot of brown nosers.. If one of them takes a dislike to you and kisses the wrong bottom, you are just screwed.. I got screwed several times. Finally went to my doctor and he put me on disability.

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Also, I had director, tell my supervisor to find ways to write me up so they could fire me. I didn't find this out until years later after the person that was told to get me fired also was booted.. She finally told me a couple years after.

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People got fired for:

having oral sex with another employee in their car, in the large parking lot. After hours, not on company time.

an RN on a psych ward was found to be reading a novel in the nurse's station on the weekend. All the work was caught up.

another RN on a psych unit was writing up PRN orders herself, and getting providers to sign them after the fact.

a single narcotic pill was unaccounted for. A long term RN had the keys, and he was not under the influence.

People did not get fired for:

An NP having oral sex with a security staff member during the work day. Both married.

An RN coming to work high for several years. She is now dead.

An employee was breaking into people's cars in the parking lot to steal electronics and anything else of value. He was clearly visible on camera. He was out for awhile, but not fired.

A morbidly obese RN who would come to work for years with 2 extra large subs, a huge bag of chips, and a 12 pack of ho-ho's, in case he got hungry during a shift. Then he would essentially nap in the office and refuse to do basic nursing duties. Finally, he falsified FMLA paperwork and he did get canned.

A security staff person has shamelessly done 93% of his career from the comfort of his couch, all with the blessings of Workman's Comp. Every time he is forced to come back, the next thing you know, his thumb is sprained again, and he is out another year. Not an exaggeration.

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18 hours ago, Izzycat said:

This is why there are job shootings.

Really? Care to elaborate on this?

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4 hours ago, Ruby Vee said:

Things I've seen that people DIDN't get fired for:

  • Having sex with a married colleague on an exam table on the transplant floor. (The male.)
  • Getting pulled over for a DUI on your way home from work and going to jail because it was your fifth. Charge nurse needed to call the jail an hour before each scheduled shift so employee could be processed out on work release, and call either employees wife or girlfriend to bring him to work.
  • Having sex with the wife of a patient prior to getting pulled over for that DUI on the way home from work.
  • Aborting yourself with a coat hanger in the employee bathroom during your lunch break, and then leaving work without saying anything to anyone because you were bleeding heavily. Charge nurse followed the blood trail to the ER. All documented sixty ways for Sunday. Manager wanted to give her "another chance."
  • Turning the morphine drip up on a comatose patient because "the family is tired and wants it over with."
  • Calling in sick from a bar thirty minutes after your shift started. Documented up the ying/yang. Employee got away with it 4 times in two weeks. Then the manager's boss happened to wander by and answer the phone . . . employee terminated the next day.
  • Getting arrested for shooting at your wife . . . even though the state revokes licenses for DV. Don't know if he's still employed there or not, but he's had a few more DV arrests.
  • Raping your wife and going to jail . . . manager wanted to give him another chance. Different manager.

Omg these stories are crazy. You have a book on your hands!

Also, based on your stories alone, the males seem to get away with berthing.

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Specializes in Psych, Substance Abuse.

When I was an LPN my first job was to pass meds at an ALF four hours a night, 7 nights a week. I was told I would have to find coverage if I wanted a night off. The job market was brutal, so I accepted the position. I lasted about 10 days before I got fired. When I was passing meds one night, a patient had a seizure. The DON told me to continue with meds and she would handle everything. The next day she asked me to come in early. When I came in, she told me I wasn’t a good fit because I wasn’t a team player. I was shocked. In hindsight, I think the firing might have had something to do with me telling her pet, the medical assistant, that was I was still searching for a job that was more convenient than four hours a day 365 days a year.

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35 years of bedside nursing.. Outside of previously mentioned diversion, abuse, and incompetence.. Politics (it's gotten me). Change agents run a risk. Whether it is union or non union. They will find a way. Many union negotiaters are in bed w/ hospitals (ie under table pay outs for avoiding arbitration). Have courage and faith in your skills. Many times, losing a job has nothing to do w/ competence or skills. I have seen exceptional RN's lose their jobs for inconsequential things. The HIPPA and harassment issues are exceptionally tricky.

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Specializes in Practice educator.

Kinda reading the ease at which you can lose your job in the US frightening.

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On 5/6/2019 at 9:33 PM, buttercup9 said:

They fired you for reporting a med error? Isn't that what admin keeps telling us they WANT us to do??? I thought that was the whole thing with trying ti minimize "systems errors"

Butter cup... The med error line " to improve care" has been a long standing farce. In a sentinel event someone is thrown to the wolves. Usually an RN. There is a horrific case involving versed/vercronium at Vanderbilt.

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