I work on a Surgical Oncology floor. It should technically be qualified as a step down, we’ve been fighting for years to be qualified as a step down. Travel nurses and float pool alike run screaming when they have to come to our unit. Our ratios are 5:1 with fresh trach and lary patients thrown in the mix. Not to mention all of the other highly involved post operative patients.
Earlier this year, our management mentioned they would like us all to get the OCN certification. It’s a highly involved cert, mainly dealing with chemo, which we NEVER do on my floor. Now, they are calling people at home and the conversation is as follows: “are you planning to get your OCN by February?” If you answer no, the response is, “then are you planning to tender your resignation by February?”
At first this certification was just a recommendation, a “we’d like you to.” Now it’s become mandatory. Many of the staff nurses have worked there for years without it and everyone is fearful of losing their jobs after the holidays. Myself included.
Not a month ago, we had a staff meeting and my manager said she couldn’t “pay people enough” to come work on our unit, now they’re going to fire those who will?
I guess my question is, what is the legality of this? It was not a requirement when we signed on. They’re calling people at home on off days to use bullying tactics about getting it and scaring them into quitting (probably to avoid paying unemployment). Most of the nurses have said they won’t do it at this point.
We’ve all expressed we will get certified in something that has to do with our actual jobs. But this certification is a lot of time (and money) spent for something we will not use, simply for the letters behind the name. What do you guys think? Is is time to move to greener pastures? Can they actually fire an entire floor? Thanks for your help.
