School giving me bad reputation...

Nurses New Nurse

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I recently found out that someone at the school I graduated from is telling recruiters/employers who call them after I interview NOT to hire me. Is this legal? How can they take my money, pass me, but then not stand behind me when I'm trying to get a job? :confused: I'm infuriated!

I'm a new graduate nurse. I don't understand why the school would say not to hire me; I haven't "worked" yet. I've already called my attorney - and they said it's ridiculous and will be contacting them. They were not on my reference list, so I have no idea why they were contacted.

I'm a little insulted by the posts questioning what I'm saying. You're either on here to be a support for fellow nurses, or not. What would I have to gain by getting on here and fabricating this story. I'm a grown woman with a family and a life; not sure about you but I don't waste my time doing things like that. The ones that are doing that need to mind your own business, and thank you to the ones that are giving me real feedback.

well, i'm not sure what you consider *real* feedback but I can share with you that I know in my area the hospitals will be contacting my school about clinical experiences and you have references written by clinical instructors/preceptors they will be contacted via the school - my school keeps records of clinical performance evaluation. If you have not worked yet, then that is all the employer has to go off of.

I don't know if that is *real* feedback but it's always good to have a fresh mind weigh in on something I'm sure you've been thinking a lot about. I hope it works out for you.

Yes, Monkeyduty, that's what I'm looking for. Real perspective on this industry because unfortunately I have not been able to get real experience IN it. I passed all my tests, had good experiences with my clinical rotations, and passed NCLEX on the first time with the minimum number of questions. I had no problems with any of my instructors. It's a complete mystery to me, but I do know that the person that told me did not seem insincere. I'm now waiting to hear from my attorney but what I'm afraid of is that whomever said this has created a problem that cannot be undone and I really need to be hired to do what I was trained to.

Now I'm not questioning what you're saying, just trying to get all the info here. You say you have no idea who said these things about you right? But you also say you know they aren't on your reference list. Suppose that they are, you have no idea what people on your reference list may say about you. Just because you list someone as a contact, does NOT mean they will necessarily say what you think. They may have not said anything "insulting, mean, offensive, slanderish, etc" about you. They may have been asked straight up by the employer, "is this person a good candidate for X unit". And even if you have good evaluations from instructors, they may not see you as a good fit in certain units. And as a reference they have a right to say "no I do not think this person would be a good fit on that floor for this or that reason". And it may be because your skills were satisfactory, but not excellent...or it may be for ANY number of reasons, none of which are an insulting or bad reason. And how do you know that this is not just an isolated incident? What leads you to believe that they have gone to multiple hospitals or managers?

I NEVER put anyone from my school as a reference down as a contact.

Blacklisting in nursing is not even very subtle. I am sorry to hear that this is happening to you so soon in your career. Hope you are able to put a stop to it, if not to undo the harm that has already been done.

Thanks....I'm seeing that unfortunately right off the bat. Hoping to get my career started soon.

If you have the name of the person who told you that they were told by the school not to hire you then

Subpoena her and the schools representative to a small claims court room and file charges for slander and defamation of character. This has cost you damages that they should pay for. You should never have to go through not getting a job after all your hard work due to someone not speaking the truth about your character. small claims court only cost around 80 dollars to file at your local court house. This happen to me with an old employer, I filed they received the subpoena and then the employer called me to settle out of court. I am sure that they stopped releasing informatiion about employees after they payed me 23,000 dollars in damages. Small claims enables you to file for under 25,000. It is worth the 80 dollars just to get them to stop thier damaging statements.

Specializes in Forensic/Psych/Surgical nurse.
I'm a new graduate nurse. I don't understand why the school would say not to hire me; I haven't "worked" yet. I've already called my attorney - and they said it's ridiculous and will be contacting them. They were not on my reference list, so I have no idea why they were contacted.

I'm a little insulted by the posts questioning what I'm saying. You're either on here to be a support for fellow nurses, or not. What would I have to gain by getting on here and fabricating this story. I'm a grown woman with a family and a life; not sure about you but I don't waste my time doing things like that. The ones that are doing that need to mind your own business, and thank you to the ones that are giving me real feedback.

I certainly hope you didn't get that vibe from me! I don't think you're making this up and I think you did the right thing by contacting your attorney - especially because they are not on your reference list! That is ridiculous! Good luck to you!

Specializes in Step-Down.

I can't believe anyone would ever do that! Especially someone from your school! To have the opportunity to give a good reference and help someone in their career and life is a good thing. For a person to give a negative reference is really distasteful. I'm from Long Island so if I was you I would stomp into my school's nursing office (with big hair and high heels) give them a piece of my mind, file a complaint with the dean of nursing, and then for future applications I would put down specific names of teacher/facility that you know will give you a positive review, and maybe letters of recommendations from your teachers? Good luck and remember what goes around comes around!!

No - I didn't get that vibe from you. ;)

Thanks LongislandLPN! Unfortunately the Dean has the audacity NOT to care - so that's when I called my attorney. Hoping I can get a resolution to this after she speaks with them.

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