I am looking for some insight into retaliation acts by employers.I am a RN in a ICU setting at a major teaching hospital.I have been a resource to my entire unit.I received a promotion only weeks ago.I received a email from my unit manager only hours before she fired me "thanking me" for my dedication to the new nursing staff. I have never been written up, never a verbal warning.My evaluations have been excellent in all my years at this hospital. Until this past month....
I voiced my concerns over some incompetency acts performed by a coworker-nurse. These were acts that were not merely mistakes...they were acts that could have resulted in patient death. I tried to set a meeting with my nurse manager to discuss this nurses incompetent level of function...and I was met with a date to come in for a termination meeting...mine!
This nurse was the nurse managers best friend and recently was her assistant manager.She had done office work for years and had not taken care of any actual patient in years. When she opted to go back into staffing she "refused " to "accept" any orientation....and so she was left to learn by trial and error.In a ICU setting...thats just wrong!Othernurses had complained to the nurse manager to no avail...but I am a lil different.I have a history of being a strong patient advocate and I had told the nurse who was functioning incompetently that I was left with no choice but to go to our risk management dept re: her unsafe pratices.Hours later....I was "fired" for an alledged documentation error. This same kind of documentation error has resulted in no disciplinary action for other employees.Secondly ...my chart had been altered after I left...so I actually never had a documentation error.I dont know what to do. I have been a model employee for years.I have asked for dispute resolution....but they keep postphoning the dispute resolution hearing. What actually happens in a dispute resolution hearing? Are they a sham?Do you have any advice? I feel like I have been incredibly niave.Like I should have seenit coming...but didnt.
i feel bad knowing that you will face another cruel lie tomorrow; the "investigation" is pretty much guaranteed to be just another sham. these futile "going through the motions" exercises accomplish only one goal, delay! the fancy titles "risk management," "compliance line" and other so called "patient safety" hotlines are just what so many hospitals have laughingly created to con the public into believing they are capable of self-policing. the fox takes care of the fox and all that's left of the hens is a few pitiful feathers! the sum result of my former hospital's supposedly thorough "compliance line investigation" into the issues that i raised was nothing in writing, no well documented report or outlined strategy for correcting the problems i raised. i was just told casually over the phone: "there does seem to be some truth to what you have reported, but we have decided to just keep an eye on things."
they only very reluctantly agreed to bother investigating after insisting on deferring all possibility of reviewing the retaliation issue until after i had pursued all other options first. only by isolating the negligence charges for separate more urgent action was i able to insist on any investigation at all! and this is compliance? what action did they take? none, it was just a stalling tactic to placate the idiot employee while they put some serious distance between the complaint and the now further removed, discredited terminated employee. the rules of engagement are dictated by them, for their benefit and to help remove and silence dissenters like you. expect them to dredge up the "nursing shortage" as part of their lame excuse to make what you reported seem totally plausible and acceptable, they rarely fail to use this piece of bs. the old nursing shortage excuse is very elastic, expansive and all inclusive; it can be used to cover up the most heinous of negligence crimes. surely patient abandonment is only committed by the poor nurse who dares to request a humane break in her overburdened schedule? tnnurse thanks for that abc news piece i have included this as one of the links on my petition. we need america to wake up to who the real culprits of negligent abandonment are. i will be so glad when we can stop resuscitating the "nursing shortage" excuse and call "time of death" on this sleazy deception.
i am getting set to blow the lid of this scam once and for all. i may never have access to a day in court, they cheated me out of that, but that might well prove to be their downfall. no pending legal case means i have nothing to hold back, nothing to loose, and i will expose everything now, all the dirty little secrets, no holes barred. i have a strategy that includes a real "shame on you" exposure of not just any old compliance line, but the compliance line of the "best hospital in america;" the same hospital that uses their sham compliance line and prestigious nationally acclaimed programs to hide negligence and deny accountability. their public visibility on these issues with pious proclamations of honesty, integrity and transparency will lay them open to justifiable accusations of hypocrisy.
all of the stall tactics that i fell for, the legal recourse i was cheated out of, will come back to haunt my former hospital as it clearly demonstrates that, in good faith, i sought all other recourses first. i was even featured several times by the press without ever once taking the opportunity to reveal the details of my dispute with the hospital over wrongful termination. i developed a well established reputation with several journalists, prompting one to do a big cover story. i diplomatically skated around any details of my working situation by saying that i was "on a sabbatical from my job in the or at hxxxxxx." with no more expansive mention of my tragic personal battle for reinstatement after wrongful termination or the reasons behind my removal, they remained free of scrutiny: this took incredible restraint on my part. so much for taking the moral high ground; my former hospital crawled in through the moral sewer! as difficult as it is to make this so much more public now, i am convinced it is in the public good. your stories here have been a driving force in helping me to reach this point of firm conviction and i thank you all for it.
because of the stature of the institution and the programs that they have initiated, supposedly to deal with patient safety, the sheer hypocrisy of their response to my case is truly disgraceful. i hope the public will see that and it will prompt calls for more stringent controls and independent scrutiny over these types of so called "self policing." it will be very hard for them to keep preaching their own virtues without finally dealing with their corrupt handling of my case. to add more weight to the call for accountability there is already one petition on the petition site from a patient who, after suffering a medical error, received the same devious cover-up and harassing tactics that i did. there is even a potential third petitioner interested in joining the demand for accountability which will give us a whole lot more clout. his wife was another former patient who was treated with deception and lies after serious errors were made; their story is already posted elsewhere on the internet. this meets an ethical journalistic requirement of reporting not the isolated experience of one individual, but exposing a pattern of behavior, documented by three credible witnesses, that should rightfully be brought to the public's attention.
my biggest worry is that the petition will be ignored, that few will see it, let alone sign it. this will be especially crucial in the first two weeks while it remains on the entry page for the petition site where it is most visible. it will only stay on page one if it gains popular support with a high volume of signatures. i will need a lot of help getting the support and signatures i necessary for my petition to remain in that high visibility spot. this is perhaps a valid way for nurses to campaign for change and others might consider creating a petition too. the reward of signing my petition is two fold. one: it contains over 200 useful links making it more of a research document than a petition. two if we can shock the people i am targeting into taking notice then i believe they will feel compelled to investigate and make significant changes to compliance policies to save face. another important part of buffing their tarnished image will be to use a tactic they have employed to their advantage before. they may well try to usher in industry wide changes as a means of riding out the pr storm, which was how they responded to the tragic death of a pediatric patient who fell victim to negligent oversight at their hospital a few years ago. the program they set up in response to that incident and various other efforts they made were truly admirable. however, these bold initiatives are futile as they will remain inadequate and ineffective unless reliable safeguards to stringently protect whistleblowers from retaliation are put in place. i hope to create a media storm that will prompt a similar shock response, as that has the potential for providing beneficial reform across the country that will affect all medical professionals and our patients..
although the events that bought me to this point remain a personal battle for vindication, the above motivation could benefit us all and finally provide the healthy, genuine safety protections for patients we are all seeking. the importance of your posts regarding other similar experiences of retaliation against nurses attempting to protect patients from harm is that the individuals i have targeted must realize that this is not just one battle about one incident and their help is needed to effect change. when i say "targeted" i refer to their ability to correct the current situation not any particular past involvement with corrupt practices. i try to think the best of people and prefer to imagine that they have no idea of the gapping holes that exist within their own compliance program. i like to think that both men would have taken action if they had not been duped into thinking that i was just a "disgruntled former employee seeking revenge;" i hope my persistence and this petition will convince them otherwise. if they ignore this very public call for an appropriate investigation that they were obligated to conduct several years ago, but fraudulently reneged on, they will be under suspicion too.
i will want to post the names and contact information for both of these influential doctors on this site so that nurses can call them and request that they take action. their names will be on the petition and their contact details are readily available on the internet, but it would be helpful to post them here. it will be similar to posting an appeal to call your senator and providing the number. i am confused and do not want to break any rules here: is this permissible within the rules of this site to post their names and phone numbers? the tenure of any calls must focus on polite calls for change. it is important to convince these two influential individuals that there is a great need throughout the us healthcare system for "risk management" and "compliance lines" to come under stricter scrutiny, for managers to show just cause before firing someone and for hr to do more than rubber stamp the corrupt removal of outspoken employees. your personal stories of victimization and retaliation must convince them that the problem is far greater than just what has happened at their hospital.
although i felt deeply betrayed by everyone at my former hospital and, so far, totally ignored by these two doctors both of whom i have written to several times, i realize that they generally excel at "noble causes" and i must enlist their help not insult, annoy or antagonize them. in calls to them i would ask that you do the same thing; by focusing on what they are capable of doing to improve patient safety nationwide we can possible enlist their help in accomplishing something tangible at last. a strong showing of support in petition signatures and a few strong reminders of their duty to the public may convince them to take my warnings seriously at last and take a more critical look at their compliance line, hr and a few out of control managers. they should be encouraged to understand that there are tangible benefits for hospitals too, as focusing on the real dangers will help prevent further harm to patients and future expensive settlements.
please moderators let me know if posting these two names and contacts is ok in this context? i am fast approaching my posting deadline and i need all the help i can get, thank you all for your support,
fair winds & following seas, tsunami kim.
ps: tsunami kim is calling for your help. the picture shows me with two "sheep" medical volunteers, calling home from the pactec internet tent at the un compound in meulaboh. i want to go back out, but vindication clearing away the false allegations against me stands in the way of gaining the credibility i need to obtain an ngo backer to support my ambitious program in aceh.
wow tsunamikim.....it sounds like you are doing some incredible work!!!!!!way to go......this brings it home folks.......events that happened to me and others like tsunamikim aare not happening to "problem " nurses.......they are happening to some of the best nurses out there who are very vocal patient safety advocates.who look around at work and note all the things going "right" and all the potential problems that should be addressed before something goes :" tragically wrong".
in situations like mine....when we do contact attorneys...we get told to allow the hcf one last chance for an investigation into their administrative personells ( aka my old manager) possible wrongdoing.this is commonly called a sham investigation.as of tomorrow i am suppost to receive the results of their "sham" investigation.in the begining i still had alot of faith in my old hcf and felt that just as soon as they realized what had happened....that they would correct it.that is how incredibly niave i was.
this problem is rampant...it is wrong...it undermines everything that medicine and nursing stands for in the publics eyes.
i was a valued employee who had promotion after promotion....letters of "what a great leader you are"...emails thanking me for all my dedication from the nm.i was dedicated...loved my job...loved my coworkers. then i stepped on the wrong political toes by complaining of their clinical "lack of competency".poof...after years of spotless service i was fired...it was done so quick i didnt even know what hit me.
if.....if....i had not tape recorded several things ie:the nm voicing lie after lie.....inconsistency after inconsistency.....re: my termination events....do you even remotely think that id have had a legal leg to stand on? well...i wouldnt....but....i do have that nm among others on tape backing up what happened.i lost my job....something that meant alot to me. my family...lost their health ins....kids dental ins--gone .....life ins --gone... lt disability -- gone ....short term disability ins---gone.....educational benefits for me and my kids--gone.i didnt "ask" for what happened to me....so...after i finally hear the results of their investigation tomorrow( that only took 4 months-speedy wasnt it?)...if they think i will be silent if they dont offer a acceptable resolution.......they need to think again.... ...bc i am not going away.if forced to...you better believe i will take this in front of a jury....and thats just the way it is.i really think the public would benefit from having it on record what they do to nurses who take the nurse pratice act seriously and report unsafe practitioners.
while i agree with you 110%, i believe that most labor laws require you to go through internal grievance procedures before going out side the company (hospital) to try to fix the problem, or get judicial relief. this is especially when you are represented by a labor union, you are required to do this. i receive the findlaw updates on labor law, and read the holdings (opinions/findings), of the court in labor cases/lawsuits. you cannot believe how many of them give summary judgements- find in favor of the defendants (employers/hospitals), because plaintiffs (individuals- employees), did not complete either their union grievances, (usually four), or the internal grievance procedures outlined in personnel manuals.
again, i agree, it is a kangaroo court, favors the employer,and designed to wear out the individual who is filing the complaint, or grievance. they hope that you will just give up out of frustration, or you will somehow screw up before you win the grievance/internal complaint procedures, and then they can legitimately fire you for "just cause". it is designed completely against the employee.
the worst part of it, if you have an incompetant union, and many of us do, you have to jump through all of these "grievances", before you can retain an attorney, and this cna take a year.that is why the attorneys will turn you down, and tell you to go through all of the grievances. it really limits your ability to get your problem solved, and from what i have seen, there are few internal grievances, or union actions, that provide the relief to an employee, that a lawsuit will.
i took employment law when i was in the legal nurse certificate program here at spokane community college. i also have learned how to do legal research while i was in the program. while i was taking employment law, i came across some washington state law dealing with a lawsuit from some employees at a company. the court held that if the union did not provide the employees with settling a grievance, within four months, the employees could take their grievance to an outside lawyer after 4 months to settle their case. it was considered "futile",if the union could not settle it within that time frame.the employees were then able to make the union pay all of its attorney/legal fees that they incurred because they had to take the grievance to an outside attorney to get it setteled. the longer it goes on, the less chance that you will win. again, this case was washington state case law, and i would have to check to see if it was overturned. in other words, don't quote me on this, i am not giving anyone legal advice. but i wish that i had known this when i still worked in a hospital. i would have used this, for sure.
while i agree with you 110%, i believe that most labor laws require you to go through internal grievance procedures before going out side the company (hospital) to try to fix the problem, or get judicial relief. this is especially when you are represented by a labor union, you are required to do this. i receive the findlaw updates on labor law, and read the holdings (opinions/findings), of the court in labor cases/lawsuits. you cannot believe how many of them give summary judgements- find in favor of the defendants (employers/hospitals), because plaintiffs (individuals- employees), did not complete either their union grievances, (usually four), or the internal grievance procedures outlined in personnel manuals.
again, i agree, it is a kangaroo court, favors the employer,and designed to wear out the individual who is filing the complaint, or grievance. they hope that you will just give up out of frustration, or you will somehow screw up before you win the grievance/internal complaint procedures, and then they can legitimately fire you for "just cause". it is designed completely against the employee.
the worst part of it, if you have an incompetant union, and many of us do, you have to jump through all of these "grievances", before you can retain an attorney, and this cna take a year.that is why the attorneys will turn you down, and tell you to go through all of the grievances. it really limits your ability to get your problem solved, and from what i have seen, there are few internal grievances, or union actions, that provide the relief to an employee, that a lawsuit will.
i took employment law when i was in the legal nurse certificate program here at spokane community college. i also have learned how to do legal research while i was in the program. while i was taking employment law, i came across some washington state law dealing with a lawsuit from some employees at a company. the court held that if the union did not provide the employees with settling a grievance, within four months, the employees could take their grievance to an outside lawyer after 4 months to settle their case. it was considered "futile",if the union could not settle it within that time frame.the employees were then able to make the union pay all of its attorney/legal fees that they incurred because they had to take the grievance to an outside attorney to get it setteled. the longer it goes on, the less chance that you will win. again, this case was washington state case law, and i would have to check to see if it was overturned. in other words, don't quote me on this, i am not giving anyone legal advice. but i wish that i had known this when i still worked in a hospital. i would have used this, for sure.
lindarn, rn, bsn, ccrn
spokane, washington
lindarn...i do not have a union involved..so in that aspect i probably am better off. i still have not gotten an "answer" from this hcf re: their nurse manager being caught in lie after lie after lie .i can not believe that this hcf wants that type of person representing their hospital.but.....if thats what they want then i feel the public has a right to know . i am legally protected under numerous statutes and of course the nurse pratice act...so i am not worried ( and i have a great attorney).i tried to do the correct ethical and legal thing and reported this unsafe pratice of my nurse managers friend. i was fired in retaliation. that....is just wrong. legally wrong,ethically wrong, morally wrong...but again legally wrong. i am still "waiting" for their results of their investigation...suprised? i have the nm on tape admitting she knew her friend altered a medical record, then slipped it in the chart, then fired me bc it was.......in the chart her friend had just ...??? placed it in? before this happened to me i was incredibly niave.i loved my job and ...my coworkers,...and the unit i worked on. it isnt ethically right what happened to me...and it isnt legally right either. i lost my job, my family lost their health ins, dental ins, retirement, educational benefits, long term disability, short term disability,....i lost that....we lost that....bc i complained about this nurses unsafe pratices. that is just wrong.....and i was so stupid. i "thought" as soon as they realize what happened to me this hcf would "correct" their mistake. that was 5 months ago. every patient in a hospital bed is "someone" to "somebody".....and when nurses ,like me, are effectively silenced when they complain of a nurse /physician who is not functioning safely what happens to the patients? i saw a problem that could cause harm to a patient...and i spoke up.....and even after every thing i have been through.i dont regret it. so...i guess its time for a jury to hear this hcf's nurse manager on audiotape telling lie after lie, contradiction everywhere bc she cant keep her lies straight. am i glad about that? no....no i am not....really it still breaks my heart to think that this hcf is going to have to defend a nm who truly does not represent what the "core" of that hospital is.i guess....i am still niave and stupid.i started this...in the spirit of protecting patients and making sure this nurse got more orientation....what it turned into is something that has shocked and broken my heart.
i had promised to give routine updates to the ones who have folowed my thread here. i am still awaiting " the results " -ahem...of their ( aka my old hcf's) "sham" investigation.my old coworkers...were not interviewed for months after my termination ( if at all).they have had "months" now to see that it doesnt pay to be a vocal patient safety advocate. if....this hcf had really been attempting to evaluate/investigate what occurred regarding my retaliatory termination then....they would have done initial interviews immediately after my retaliatory discharge.so....on that note their inactions have spoke volumes to both myself and my old coworkers.they are obviously still attempting to work out how they are going to get past all the lies told by the nm and her cohort surrounding my termination ( only bc they know i have the nm on audiotape telling lie after lie after crazy habitual lie).it will be very very difficult for them to get past the very real facts of the nm on tape telling lie after lie .i was a patient safety advocate and i was fired in an attempt to silence me and discredit my complaints. it didnt work. i will post routinely until i have the "results" of their sham investigation for everyone.in all my years at this hospital...i never had a "write up"...nor a verbal reprimand. my employee file is filled with tons of emails describing my "leadership/skills/excellent performance, and excellent yearly evals, raise after raise ( went from 18 to 30 $ an hr in only 4 years bc i was an excellent ccrn ). i loved my job.....spoke up about my nm's best friend who was functioning in an unsafe manner....then after years of being a high performer i was fired for a lie told by my nm.sad thing is.....i had to tape record that nm telling lie after lie to even "qualify" for the sham investigation by the hcf. months later ......they are still unwilling to go on the record backing that nm re: my termination...and i am the one who has suffered the losses.i lost my job to begin with etc etc etc.
every state has to have tougher , clearly defined whistleblower laws...bc ...if this can happen to me......it can happen to you!if i hadn't tape recorded that nm voicing her habitual lies.....then i would have been the victim of this hcf. you guys were right.....i was naive to think that corporate hcf's really care about functioning with any sense of ethics.......and that breaks my heart.
again....i promised to keep everyone posted on what has/has not occurred re : my thread....and thats what i will do as i progress thru the saga. bc.....i.....am not going away. i'll keep you guys posted! and get involved with your state's nsg association!give the gift of your presence and participation to your state's nsg associations legislative efforts!!!!!!!!!
keep up the good work tnnurse! i'm on your side and will be praying for you!
thanks....i may be needing your prayers! when i was fired for bringing forth the taboo topic of a coworker who was functioning in a unsafe manner....i thought to myself " this has to be an isolated incident in todays healthcare" .....that "...was how "naive" i was.i was deeply shocked and saddened to see how widespread this practice is.when hcf's attempt to silence employees who are speaking up to ensure that a patient's safety is not jepordized...it has to be stopped. these antiretaliation/whistleblower laws/statutes are there for a reason....and yes ....they do apply to corporate hcf's in spite of what they may/may not think!!!! every patient in every hospital bed is a person...with thoughts , memories,...personalities ..they have families, friends, neighbors...lives to live.....so we can not be threatened/terminated into silence.folks...that is just morally wrong...ethically wrong. i was excellent at my job. my nm sent me yet another email only hours before i was fired..."thanking me" for all my dedication to the nurses.she had just requested i be granted a promotion- which i of course got for my service as an excellent nurse /pt safety advocate.but then....... i did the taboo thing and reported her best friend's unsafe practices ,...after she(nm) had turned a deaf ear to numerous other nurses concerns over this nurses obvious need for orientation to protect our patient population. then poof.....after years of raise after raise,...recent promotions at the nm's request....tons of emails thanking me constatntly for my skills/service/and dedication to the patients and staff........i was fired in an attempt to discredit me and silence me.while she was busy telling me that she had her friend alter a medical record and fire me for the alterations....i was audiotaping it.she gloated while i sat there in "shock" telling me over and over "what a disappointment i was to her".she fired me in an attempt to silence me.it...........didnt work folks. people like barry adams......the nurse at norton healthcare.......all the others who have contacted me that have been the victim of retaliation for voicing concerns/exercising their legal responsibilities......the problem is huge! it has to stop.....hcf's have to realize they cant manipulate people into silence when patients are involved.that ...is ethically and morally and legally wrong!so...if this hcf does nothing they are sanctioning this nm's conduct.i was a great employee for this hospital...loved my job...and my coworkers...and my patients that i served. so....with no hx of write ups...no verbal reprimands.....nothing but glowing emails thanking me for being such a great nurses( up to hours before i was fired)...raise after raise for my strong work ethic and not to mention........the nm on audiotape telling exactly how she and her friend coerced and lied to get me fired.....ladies and gentlemen.......i am ready for a jury ! i did my job......and was fired bc i practiced by the nurses practice act.i have given this hcf's risk management and compliance office alot of info on what occurred...so lets see what they do. it will be a good case hx for other nurses perhaps.so......i will post updates as they occur! bc.....maybe it will help guide another nurse going thru the same thing....bc this has to stop folks! we have to be able to speak up as patient safety advocates without loosing our jobs!!!!!!!!!the "core/root cause analysis" of my situation is basically that i was effectively gagged from functioning as my nurse practice act demands by terminating me.it was deceitful, unethical, slanderous, and just plainly against the law folks.stronger whistleblower laws....we have to have them folks in every single state.!!!!!!!i am still just really sad that this can occur in todays society...and in a hcf like the one i worked at. it was really filled with some incredible nurses and docs....and this nm and her cohort friend was not the norm there...so it still kinda breaks my heart.but i will continue to post updates as they occur.....and yes....prayers i can use......thanks!!!
You are in Texas. It has a law passed that gives nurses recourse when wrongfully terminated. You can be compinsated for losses. It is particularly good that you seem to have a good record otherwise. So your character can't be impeached. You will have to find a lawyer and have him send a letter to the institution within 60 days of the incident. Contact Stephany Tabone at the TNA for more info. I also think you should contact the state board about the incompetent nurse and the nurse manager for retaliating and protecting her. Its time bad nurse managers are held accountable. This could be the test case we all have been waiting for. We need a legal defense fund for such cases.
one reason hospitals act so quickly when they sense the slightest whiff of trouble, (as in honest reporting of negligence), is that they are aware of these statutes of limitations while the wronged nurse is all too often unaware. management will strike almost preemptively before you realize the danger, and then behave as if they are following normal guidelines while they deliberately stall for time. when you have a good track record you are even more vulnerable as you simply cannot believe they will get away with their dishonesty. management tends to go for the “nut case” accusation with really dedicated nurses so they can say your behavior was due to “stress” and it all sounds plausibly. the more you protest, the more obsessed and deranged they can portray you to inquiring external agencies. time and distance equals zero accountability.
even the recourses like a compliance line and risk management, supposedly built into the system that defends our right to report negligence, are frequently designed to sabotage those efforts. they expect you to go up the chain of command first, then once that has resulted in a wrongful termination you are supposed to adhere to the hr disciplinary process next. if you follow this course of action to its logical conclusion they fire you for reporting a problem, then they take months or even years to finalize the process before you are eligible for “protection.’ then, cruel joke, you have no right to any recourse as you are no longer an employee! this was the policy of the compliance line at my former hospital.
the statute of limitations has run out, you have sabotaged your legal options by agreeing to a corrupt arbitration hearing without being informed that it was binding and now the press are not interested because “it has been too long.” political representatives are also compelled to back off until hr has completed their dirty work and an employee discredited by dismissal is not trusted to inform public agencies of problems in an unbiased way. you are now considered a “disgruntled former employee seeking revenge!” it gets worse. approaching accreditation agencies, government agencies, nursing boards is an uphill battle that requires you to do the impossible: prove that you did nothing wrong. for some bizarre reason your hospital is able to show fabricated documents behind your back that you are bared access to; this makes it even more difficult to defend yourself as you are never quite sure what you were charged with doing. i am british and this level of corruption and injustice boggles my mind.
when i was preparing for my arbitration hearing, my own union lawyer prohibited me from mentioning any of the numerous acts of retaliation perpetrated by my managers as he said it would prove that i was just out to get revenge! this lawyer dictated how the case would be handled; telling the arbitrator about two weeks of forced time off without pay was one of may things i couldn’t bring up. i told the union lawyer that i felt that i was going into my arbitration hearing “bound and gagged” and i only went ahead with it because the compliance line demanded that i must pursue all other recourse before they would investigate my case. guess what, they lied: the compliance line never had any intention of investigating my case.
as if my union lawyer had not done enough damage by barring my evidence he then put an unauthorized admission of my guilt in writing no less than three times in his summation to the arbitrator which he then kept from me for over a year. i nearly bought a complaint against that lawyer with the bar association, but i was about to loose my home and everything i owned so i retreated to the uk for a well deserved nervous breakdown. it would have taken an act of god to win my arbitration case under those conditions and, in case you are wondering, no i will never trust a union or a lawyer ever again.
the very existence of a compliance line allows a hospital to handle problems internally and keep regulatory agencies out; great for the hospital, devastating for employee protections and safe patient care. we cannot allow compliance lines to continue advertising “protection from retaliation for whistleblowers” when in reality they insist on letting management and hr chew on you and spit you out first; then they honor the corrupt self-serving decision to remove you, no questions asked! the entire hr process must be carefully monitored for fairness to insure that employees who are fired are being fired for a legitimate reason, especially when they have reported retaliatory managerial misconduct prior to being fired.
whistleblower protections for healthcare workers need to be uniform national policies with enforceable legislation to back them up. i only hope that by forcing an investigation of how the johns hopkins compliance line covered for the hospital to secure my wrongful termination i can guilt them into making major regulatory changes. this is highly unlikely to help me with my case, but it may put pressure on hopkins to make far reaching changes through the organizations they have been so influential in creating. tangible safeguards for the future, worthwhile changes in policy; that will give me the personal achievement i long for, probably the very most i can look forward to after five years of abject misery. there are many useful links in the petition i created and i am encouraging nurses to not only sign, but leave comment about the wretched situation we are facing in us hospitals.
employment is suspended or terminated in violation of this section is entitled
to:
(1) reinstatement in the employee's former position or severance pay in an
amount equal to three months of the employee's most recent salary; and
(2) compensation for wages lost during the period of suspension or
termination.
(e) a person who brings an action under this section has the burden of proof.
it is a rebuttable presumption that the person's employment was suspended or
terminated for reporting under this subchapter if:
(1) the person was suspended or terminated within 60 days after the date the
report was made; and
(2) the board or a court determines that the report that is the subject of the
cause of action was:
(a) authorized or required under section 301.402, 301.403, 301.405, 301.406,
301.407, 301.408, 301.409, or 301.410; and
(b) made without malice.
(f) an action under this section may be brought in a district court of the
county in which:
(1) the plaintiff resides;
(2) the plaintiff was employed by the defendant; or
(3) the defendant conducts business.
i have a completly clean record at this hospital, never had a verbal warning, never been written up etc etc. i was an excellent nurse at this hospital...with a deep committment to my job.i was promised a "quick"-1 month response to my dispute resolution...well that was in october 2005.i did as they asked and met with their compliance officer...their risk management dept to give a full account of this nurses actions.i was promised a quick response to my c/o retaliatory discharge.that was months ago....my attorney has now filed the begining of the many legal actions that they have forced me into.my great hope....was that this hospital would realize what had occurred after i gave them the information.i played the audiotapes of the nurse manager tripping over her lies, and making just outright easily proved lies.......i have had no response whatsoever.it is like they think i will just go away.but......i didnt just go away. my family and i have paid the huge price of this hcf's choices to attempt to silence me when i c/o a unsafe practitioner.i still.....just.....want them to do what is ethically right...legally right.so...they forced me into legal action....now they must appear before the court ( more than once) and defend the nm...who is telling lie after lie after lie that is soooo easily proved.i still hate that though...bc that nm....that unsafe practitioner is "not" what the core of that hospital represents.i feel bad that their atty will have to stand in front of a judge...and say "yes sir....well....all right...we admit that this nm lied about this....and that...and yes this too.......but cant you believe her now?"i ...just wanted to do the right thing for my patients...and my coworkers.i then followed all the steps afterward i was asked by this hcf in an attempt to rectify this unjust wrong.i will keep you guys informed.
:w00t:
Keysnurse2008
554 Posts
wow tsunamikim.....it sounds like you are doing some incredible work!!!!!!way to go......this brings it home folks.......events that happened to me and others like tsunamikim aare not happening to "problem " nurses.......they are happening to some of the best nurses out there who are very vocal patient safety advocates.who look around at work and note all the things going "right" and all the potential problems that should be addressed before something goes :" tragically wrong".