I would like some advice regarding something that happened to me recently. I have a little over 1 year experience as a new grad nurse on a med/surg unit in a medium sized hospital. I was terminated last week, and I haven't received a response back from any of my supervisors or clinical coordinators after I emailed them regarding if they would give a reference for a new job.
There's a long story here, and without going into extreme details, I believe that the nursing superiors did not like me personally for some reason and were looking to get me fired, possibly as early as 6 months ago. I know this because there were a few situations where I was treated unfairly (e.g. I was written up by the night shift supervisor and given the 10th degree for putting my chin on my hand and resting my eyes for literally one or two minutes one night, where another nurse was caught legitimately sleeping at the desk for over 30 minutes and she received kind words and a back rub from the same supervisor who wrote me up); not only that, one of my good friends and coworkers told me that our unit director actually asked her to spy on me and report anything, even though there is no real cause for anything like that as I'm an excellent nurse clinically for my experience level and I provide very good patient care and customer satisfaction. I've never received a complaint from a patient and I did not ever have to write an incident report for anything.
So now I'm unemployed and looking for jobs and I might not be able to get a reference from any of my previous superiors due to the circumstances behind my termination and the fact that I believe they had it out for me in the first place.
Where do I go from here? I basically can't get a job without references, and while I could use one co-worker as a reference, I know hiring managers want references from your supervisors or superiors. I feel confident enough explaining the reason behind my termination in an interview, but I need references for a potential employer to consider me in the first place.
I really don't know what to do here. Please give me some advise.
I agree with many posters here; I have been "let go" and ended up in a better position; use your reference as a supervisor, dust yourself off and pound the pavement. You can and will get another position.
LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN
8,429 Posts
I agree with many posters here; I have been "let go" and ended up in a better position; use your reference as a supervisor, dust yourself off and pound the pavement. You can and will get another position.