Skill level not high enough for acute care

[hope3456]

A RN on a M/S unit was recently 'asked to resign' .....I heard thru the grapevine that 'her skill level wasn't high enough' was the reason the manager gave. However I know it had to do with something else - however that is besides the point. This RN had been there over 1 year. I think it is a loaded statement IMHO but it got me thinking....and btw there are LPN's employed on this unit.

I guess it has to do with the whole education vs. experience issue.....what ensures a 'skill level high enough for acute care?'

Any thoughts?

[mama_d, BSN, RN]

Hope...re:above...

That's how it is on my floor...I take my own team and am the one responsible for them, just as the RNs do. (We have a more liberal scope than in other states.) Still can't do IV pushes, but the trade-off is that the other LPN and I are the go-to nurses for hard sticks, so it evens out. The charges won't even stick people if one of us is there. So we generally end up doing at least three or four hard sticks a night, compared to the one or two pushes we have. It's all about the teamwork and swapping tasks. As far as blood goes, you need two nurses to verify anyway, so no biggie. (I can independently monitor once it's spiked.) Sounds like, if the LPNs on your unit had a "sweet gig" b/c of the difference in scope, they need a talking to from management about how to be better team players. Unfortunately some people will use any excuse to make their job cushier by pushing stuff off on others without helping out in return. I'm sorry that you're experiencing that and have to deal with it.

[LouisVRN, RN]

I wish my hospital would let go some people with a "skill level not high enough for acute care". These are the people you dread giving report to because you wonder if they will harm your patients in the 12 hours you will be gone, and you know you will have at least a couple incident reports to fill out because policies go by the wayside and they don't ask questions if they don't know how something should be done.