To All the Nursing Managers

Published

Hey guys, got a little scenario to run by you guys, so here goes:

I was hired on to a relatively fun nursing unit earlier this year. During my initial interview my interviewer (hiring manager) made the following statement, "I don't normally like hiring new grads from your school because I've had bad experiences in the past but I'm gonna offer you the job". Almost 3 months go by for orientation until a week before my final day of orientation was scheduled I was called into a meeting with the manager. The manager brought up a lot of things I don't remember happening, made accusations that I corrected but didn't seem to care and then brought up things I was never told about by any of my preceptors (I had probably 8 or so by the end of it all) which I believe was used to justify the decision (she said I had two patients (out of all 3 months) that requested I not be their nurse and she followed up that statement by saying I was great with my patients...make any sense?) in telling me to resign or attempt to finish out my last week of orientation where I'd "most likely be terminated" so I asked what all was needed for my resignation and I provided them. I called another potential employer within the same system and she told me that my previous employer had me down as having been terminated and the reason being that I just stopped showing up to work and never contacted them with my decision (which is a lie). So my questions to you guys are 1)what are your thoughts on this situation and 2)is it acceptable for an interviewer to make such a statement about an applicant's school? I also spoke to a friend of mine who intereviewed for the same position before me and he told me in his interview, the manager asked him a question then back tracked and said legally that question couldn't be asked. Sound off!

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Your educational background is extremely pertinent to employment eligibility. I would not say that her statement was necessarily professional, but it was at least honest which has a quality of it's own.

I hope that you supplied a signed resignation letter that stated your intent to your manager and human resources. Hopefully you kept a copy of this letter for your records. Nearly all of my resignations from all of my previous employment, nursing and non, included an exit survey with HR. I would be surprised if I was not asked to sign some sort of termination paper.

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I did leave a signed resignation letter. I had asked her what all she needed from me for my resignation and I gave her what she asked for. I do still have a copy of the letter too. All I was told by her was "Well, I hope everything works out for you. I think they will." Then just the other day I was talking to a potential employer within the same system and she informed me that when she spoke to the other hospital, they had me down as terminated because I "never called her back and just stopped showing up to work" which is not true. She told me she "was taking me off the schedule and didn't want me coming to work" that weekend (Fri-Sun) so I could "think about what I'm gonna do". So I did call. And for the comment about school, she hired 3 other classmates of mine on that same unit. 1 of them did have a long history of working as a RT, 1 of them recently just quit after I did and another guy. She never made that statement to any of them in their interviews.

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I did leave a signed resignation letter. I had asked her what all she needed from me for my resignation and I gave her what she asked for. I do still have a copy of the letter too. All I was told by her was "Well, I hope everything works out for you. I think they will." Then just the other day I was talking to a potential employer within the same system and she informed me that when she spoke to the other hospital, they had me down as terminated because I "never called her back and just stopped showing up to work" which is not true. She told me she "was taking me off the schedule and didn't want me coming to work" that weekend (Fri-Sun) so I could "think about what I'm gonna do". So I did call. And for the comment about school, she hired 3 other classmates of mine on that same unit. 1 of them did have a long history of working as a RT, 1 of them recently just quit after I did and another guy. She never made that statement to any of them in their interviews.

The simplest resolution to this problem is to call the offending manager and ask her what happened. Remind her that she requested you to not come into work, hopefully this will remind her of her request. Let her know that your current status keeps you from obtaining further employment, many mangers will be at least be professional enough to correct their actions.

Did you give a 2 week notice prior to your termination of employment? If a manager does not want a 2 week notice then it is important that you obtain an "acceptance of immediate resignation without prejudice" letter from the manager.

Regardless if she inquired about the other candidates education, it is still a pertinent and important condition of employment. If she did not inquire about your education, you should have offered it.

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I did not give a 2 weeks notice because she called me into the meeting one week before my orientation was to be over and she straight out said to me "your choices are to resign or attempt to finish out your orientation where I'll most likely terminate you as an employee" so being given such an ultimatum with one week of orientation left (and her cancelling out 3 of those days) a 2 weeks notice was not given. I had called her the following week asking her what was needed for my resignation and she said "I need a letter of resignation or something in writing stating your resignation and your badge" and I said ok then she said "Well, I hope everything works out for you. I think they will". That statement implies, to me at least, that future attendance was not expected and I handed in my letter/badge and that was that. After that I had spoken to someone else at another facility who was going to hire me but by the time I'd spoken to her I had other interviews already lined up. When I called her back she said they had me as terminated and that she no longer had a position available *click*. My whole thing at this point is that I was given the choice, I called her about my choice which she accepted, gave her what she said she needed and still put me as terminated regardless.

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I still would have given a formal notice of at least 2 weeks. If she did not want me to continue employment I would have had her write a letter of acceptance of immediate resignation without prejudice. Otherwise I would have still come in as scheduled unless terminated. There is nothing worse than termination for no show, well perhaps termination for an ethical offense.

Call your former manager and see what she says.

Most likely, your interviewing manager called your former manager and was told that you were a terrible nurse. Still, get the terms of your termination clarified.

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Specializes in Trauma, ER, ICU, CCU, PACU, GI, Cardiology, OR.

first of all, i'm so sorry that this happened to you however, i strongly believe that when we are presented with with lemons in life you must proceed adequately. therefore, i would have given her a proper 2 weeks notice just to let her know that you're above the level that she decided to bestowed upon you. in addition, i strongly believe in leaving open doors wherever i go, i understand that in this case you might want dish her some of her own medicine however, at times is not worth it, learn from the experience and move on...as i send you a hugs from across the miles :hug:and wish you the very best in all of your future endeavors...aloha~

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Specializes in Neuro ICU, SICU.

Dont you work in Shreveport? Do you mind me asking what hospital this happened at?

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It happened at WK

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Specializes in Trauma, ER, ICU, CCU, PACU, GI, Cardiology, OR.

honestly, it doesn't matter where this took place, is just an unfortunate event which you need to make sure that your reputation as a nurse is cleared. once again wishing you the very best in all of your future endeavors...aloha~

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Specializes in Neuro ICU, SICU.

i hope everything works out for u goob... i hope u can get this fixed

btw, i start work there next month

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Cool. I don't have anything against the system itself, just the situation and those involved with it. Can be a nice place to work but I've heard all kinds of "horror stories" from various people but also just as many "they've been really good to me" stories. I've even thought about leaving them off the resume considering I've spent such little time there and I've seen so many people state that less than 6 months spent a job, usually, is something not worth putting on a resume for a variety of reasons (unless it was intended to be short term) any thoughts?

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