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 ER.

Regarding doctors, I've known several that got fired. One for verbal abuse and ranting and raving, one for having a temper tantrum in a patient room and throwing something, one for being a repeated no show, one for crappy attitudes towards the the underclass frequent flying patients, leading to under treatment resulting in the inevitable bad outcome.

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Specializes in ICU; Telephone Triage Nurse.
7 hours ago, Emergent said:

Regarding doctors, I've known several that got fired. One for verbal abuse and ranting and raving, one for having a temper tantrum in a patient room and throwing something, one for being a repeated no show, one for crappy attitudes towards the the underclass frequent flying patients, leading to under treatment resulting in the inevitable bad outcome.

Boy do I know a few that fit neatly into all of those categories and never got what they deserved back in the day. Glad to know many are now being held accountable for letting their ego monsters out of the closet to maul the general populous. Not sure why bad behavior was ever tolerated to begin with when all of us learned manners in preschool.

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Specializes in Perioperative / RN Circulator.

Here’s one: nurse’s best friend as a patient. Nurse posts on Facebook about friend’s successful treatment, with friend’spermission. Hospital fires nurse for HIPAA violation.

I work in a facility in the same network and can definitely see that happening. It sucks but while it’s not legally a HIPAA violation if you have permission from the patient, it is a facility policy violation to share protected Health information without going through Compliance.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
3 hours ago, Silver_Rik said:

Here’s one: nurse’s best friend as a patient. Nurse posts on Facebook about friend’s successful treatment, with friend’spermission. Hospital fires nurse for HIPAA violation.

I work in a facility in the same network and can definitely see that happening. It sucks but while it’s not legally a HIPAA violation if you have permission from the patient, it is a facility policy violation to share protected Health information without going through Compliance.

One could argue that the best friend had no business posting such a thing on social media, even with the patient's permission because either way, it LOOKS like a HIPAA violation.

A friend of mine had her father (Alzheimer's) living with her. When he was discharged from the hospital after a major surgery, my friend's daughter picked him up and took him home. Discharge instructions were given to the patient, even though the Alzheimer's was noted on the chart. When my friend got home from work, she had no idea what meds her father was supposed to be getting -- the same ones as pre-op? Had they changed them? Dad had misplaced his written instructions and could not remember having been in the hospital in the first place. My friend called the doctor, but he didn't call back . . . is she accessed Dad's chart. And got fired. Even though Dad, before the Alzheimer's was so advanced that he couldn't make decisions, had appointed my friend as POA. There's a procedure for a POA to see the chart, and it doesn't include accessing the chart from home. My friend DID know better; she just didn't know they would actually fire her. Could be because she was at the top of the pay scale. . . .

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Specializes in oncology, MS/tele/stepdown.

I knew a traveler who got fired for not updating her whiteboards. It's different for travel nurses than staff nurses obviously, but it was still a stupid reason to get rid of a good nurse; there were a few really bad travelers there that they could have gotten rid of if they cared about actual patient care. The management wasn't exactly the greatest, as you can imagine.

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Specializes in Varied.
2 hours ago, Swellz said:

I knew a traveler who got fired for not updating her whiteboards. It's different for travel nurses than staff nurses obviously, but it was still a stupid reason to get rid of a good nurse; there were a few really bad travelers there that they could have gotten rid of if they cared about actual patient care. The management wasn't exactly the greatest, as you can imagine.

-_-' Wow.

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On 5/7/2019 at 6:01 PM, Ruby Vee said:

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.

They need a wow, jaw on the floor reaction button?

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On 5/5/2019 at 7:47 PM, Nursing On The Run said:

Error in posting, see my next post regarding new employers. sorry.

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As far as what to tell new employers. Tell them that you were terminated after self reporting a med error. Tell them that you deeply regret making the error, that the patient was not adversely effected but even though you were terminated you believe in honesty and integrity and would not change the fact that you self reported even though it ended up with your termination. Most nurses will understand. You can even tell them you learned something from it, like to triple check the mar or whatever would have helped you not to make the error. Best of luck, let go, move on!

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Because management sucks and always blames nursing ???

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Geriatrics, Wound Care.

I think there needs to be a "Reasons nurses DON'T get fired" thread. :D

Ruby Vee is on a roll.

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Just now, CalicoKitty said:

I think there needs to be a "Reasons nurses DON'T get fired" thread. :D

Ruby Vee is on a roll.

There is always the pathway of the "dark side." The nurses with the brown stain around their oral mucosa.

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