Hi, the hospital I work for in Texas has instituted a new policy of forcing all non-clinical nurses to go back to bedside nursing and take care of COVID patients. Nurses are told that they don't have a choice but resignation.
I haven't done bedside nursing in over 7 years (been doing quality and informatics) and feel that I don't have it in me (skillwise and desire) to go back to bedside nursing. What should I do?
- Can hospitals really force people to resign or is this just a tactic so that they don't have to pay unemployment?
Specializes in Pedi; Geriatrics; office; Pedi home care..
It is because of the present pandemic I am glad that I am retired. I worked for 45 years.
I live in Texas; and, Yes it is bad here. I can pretty much guess what city & what hospital system you work for. The hospital SHOULD have a mentor/preceptor system set up for nurses who haven't done bedside nursing in 1 1/2 to 2 years bedside nursing. AND, it SHOULD be longer than 2 weeks (has already happened to other nurses).
I agree that you should contact the Texas BON for guidance.
If you are fired; for refusing; you won't be eligible for unemployment (been there, done that).
We'll you guys are certainly working hard to be #1 in Covid-19. Texas and NJ will graciously concede and let you guys have the title of Corona Capital of the US ?
On 7/15/2020 at 10:33 AM, A Hit With The Ladies said:
No one asked you to come to Texas. Also, New Jersey has more than twice as many Coronavirus cases per 1000 people compared to Texas. Some great accomplishment.
Finding rare common ground with AHWTL. NJ is a confirmed dump of people and covid.
Texas as almost twice as many cases of Covid as Texas today. Granted, NJ is smaller but Texans were hit much later and had time to take precautions....which they didn't. So they should have had LESS cases.
Well seeing as Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio alone have the population of all of New Jersey we are not doing to bad on our infection rate.
Well, yes, you are. You have the advantage of time and probably not a lot of flights to China or Europe. You were warned not to re-open so quickly but ya went ahead and did it anyway. You had the data on how to not make this happen but went ahead with a cowboy mentality that doesn't work when group cohesion is a survival technique. There was no need to stress the hospital systems, the people who work in them and cost your state an amount of money I can't imagine. We can live with a partial re-opening a lot easier than having to re-close. Your governor is an ignorant wing nut who caused your state a great deal of pain. It's like he was actually a Putin puppet trying to create as much disease as possible. Texas's contribution to humanity is now being a beacon of stupidity and a warning to others.
Uh, folks. You do realize that in the beginning, NJ's infection was primarily located in NORTH NJ, where the geographical proximity to New Your is only a river tunnel crossing away. It was often discussed on TV that NY's infection overflow was spilling into NJ, hence NJ's elevated rate due to the high rate of workforce commuters. Soooooo many NJ people commute to NY for work and personal reasons.
In fact, way back in the beginning, SOUTH Jersey's infection rate was low as I followed along. Just FYI, there is also a population of eastern PA residents and Delaware residents who also commute thru NJ to NY. New York is just a limo ride up the NJ Turnpike or Garden State Parkway or Interstate 95. But there is also the train system thru NJ.
So NJ was prime for transmission from its neighbor commuters.
And while we're talking numbers - NJ is the fifth smallest state in the country. We are also the most populous with more people per sq mile. So statistics & numbers have to be looked at with close scrutiny.
And for the record, there are some of us who reeeeallly LIKE living here in NJ and dislike seeing it trashed!
Kryshamarks - I guess you're a Jersey girl (guy) too?!?
Specializes in Pedi; Geriatrics; office; Pedi home care..
Not all Texans have a "cowboy mentality"; and, I find this offensive; and, nasty/ugly tempered.
I said right along that states were opening up to soon. I had people who agreed; and, people call me ignorant; crazy; and, just plain stupid.
HA HA to them. I wasn't ignorant; crazy; nor stupid. Govenor Abbott wasn't the only govenor to open up to soon. Other states governors need to speak up and admit they were also wrong.
Not all Texans have a "cowboy mentality"; and, I find this offensive; and, nasty/ugly tempered.
I said right along that states were opening up to soon. I had people who agreed; and, people call me ignorant; crazy; and, just plain stupid.
HA HA to them. I wasn't ignorant; crazy; nor stupid. Govenor Abbott wasn't the only govenor to open up to soon. Other states governors need to speak up and admit they were also wrong.
I've been to Austin and am a fan of Kinky Friedman:) I know that all Texans aren't fans of Abbot and so what if other governors had the graciousness to admit their errors? All of that doesn't change the fact that a long swath of Southern states didn't have to suffer what they are going through now if they had held their horses for another month AND adopted behaviors that were known to work. I know the mentality of most southerners - I grew up in the deep south.
Specializes in Pediatrics, Pediatric Float, PICU, NICU.
20 hours ago, Allgood2016 said:
Not all Texans have a "cowboy mentality"; and, I find this offensive; and, nasty/ugly tempered.
I said right along that states were opening up to soon. I had people who agreed; and, people call me ignorant; crazy; and, just plain stupid.
HA HA to them. I wasn't ignorant; crazy; nor stupid. Govenor Abbott wasn't the only govenor to open up to soon. Other states governors need to speak up and admit they were also wrong.
Of course not every single Texan has the same mentality, I don't believe that's what the poster was saying. But Texas is known, especially to outsiders not originally from Texas, for having that Texan cowboy my rights above anything else mentality for a reason, and Gov. Abbott just fed into it when he made the poor decision to open the state up way too early.
My employers can do whatever they want and if I am fired, I have no recourse to do anything about it and will not qualify for unemployment.
No.
If they ask you to take an assignment in a unit you're not trained for (ICU, peds, L&D) and you refuse and they fire you, you can likely collect UI. In that case they would be firing you without appropriate cause.
If you refuse to take a bedside position (say, med/surg or COVID unit without vented patients) simply because you don't want to, and you get fired for it, it's unlikely you can collect UI. See the difference?
And yes. Without union protections and/or unless you are a member of a protected class and are fired for being a member of said class, you can be fired for pretty much anything.
Allgood2016, LPN, LVN
51 Posts
It is because of the present pandemic I am glad that I am retired. I worked for 45 years.
I live in Texas; and, Yes it is bad here. I can pretty much guess what city & what hospital system you work for. The hospital SHOULD have a mentor/preceptor system set up for nurses who haven't done bedside nursing in 1 1/2 to 2 years bedside nursing. AND, it SHOULD be longer than 2 weeks (has already happened to other nurses).
I agree that you should contact the Texas BON for guidance.
If you are fired; for refusing; you won't be eligible for unemployment (been there, done that).