Well.. I guess I am going to be canned

Nurses Safety

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Hi all

I am a new nurse 4 mos off orientation working on a med/surge nuero floor 6 patient ratio. Its a brutal floor and yet.. I manage to survive albeit exhausted and oft times just disillusioned with the Candy Land notion of nursing I had in school.

So, what did I do? I let someone work outside of their scope of practice under my watch. Yes and now I have to go to Human Resources to have an interview b/c said patient has a PTSD issue (pysch) and it could potentially turn into a law suit. A housekeeper applied tape to a bandage, that was the practice outside of scope and told me and I didn't report it to my manager, who later found out.

I apologized to the patient, management and see the error in my ways and am now feeling like a dang fool. So, pray that I can salvage my job, but I think I will get the boot.

I signed a contract with these people also. Now I have to repay the money back that they put into my training. That really stings too. I am hoping it will be something reasonable. Most of these hospitals here are having NG nurses sign a contract. Sucks tho.

You might want to see a lawyer about that. You didn't terminate the contract willingly. I'd put up a fight before I gave them any money for training. Obviously they didn't train you very well since you can't tell parking lots apart and you let housekeepers use tape, so the training can't be worth THAT much. :)

Good luck!

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.
I signed a contract with these people also. Now I have to repay the money back that they put into my training. That really stings too. I am hoping it will be something reasonable. Most of these hospitals here are having NG nurses sign a contract. Sucks tho.

Before you pay any money, I would suggest having a lawyer look at that contract to see if you can get out of it d/t being terminated.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
I signed a contract with these people also. Now I have to repay the money back that they put into my training. That really stings too. I am hoping it will be something reasonable. Most of these hospitals here are having NG nurses sign a contract. Sucks tho.
You need to contact a lawyer.....ASAP.

Have someone look at that contract before you give them any money.

Is it in your contract that if they fire you you have to pay out the contract??? Something isn't right. I've heard if you leave for another job you "owe" them.....but you "owe" them if they fired you???

See someone who knows how to look at these things....it's worth a consult fee. If you have they will help you for free. There are also pro-bono services in every state. I have not heard of nursing paying a facility if they get fired as an untapped revenue source.

Proceed with caution!

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Specializes in LTC/LTAC.

Does anyone know a pro bono lawyer, or legal service that could look at repayment of a Nursing contract after being terminated? That would give me some relief. This may be a topic for another thread, but if someone knows, I would appreciate. I am in North Central Florida.

Tks

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Specializes in Consultation Liaison Psychiatry.

Are you close to a law school? Some schools take on work pro bono to get experience for students who are supervised by faculty?

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Specializes in Leadership, Psych, HomeCare, Amb. Care.
Does anyone know a pro bono lawyer, or legal service that could look at repayment of a Nursing contract after being terminated? That would give me some relief. This may be a topic for another thread, but if someone knows, I would appreciate. I am in North Central Florida.

Tks

Contact your local Bar Association. Around here they will give you the name of an atty that will meet with you for 30 minutes for $10

I did it once, met with someone who teaches labor law at a well known local university. That was all I needed.

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

Don't know if any of them are in FL, but you can look and see:

TAANA Executive Office - Home

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Make sure you immediately file for unemployment. I don't know the rules in your state, there could be a small waiting period.

I agree you should speak with a lawyer if possible. That is really painful that one infraction was for a parking violation. Speaking with a lawyer might result in forcing them to take that non-medical-related parking violation out of the "three strikes" count for others in the future. It might be high stakes for them, but it is also high stakes for you & you have also invested a lot in your formal training.

In the end I suspect you may end up grateful to have made an early exit from this employer. Of course, it takes time to get there. It sounds disrespectful (towards the nursing staff)- I can only imagine it means there are more, and worse, problems there upstream. Sorry this happened to you! Sounds like inadequate preparation, mostly on their part. It's unfortunate that it went down the way it did. Cold comfort, but looks like whoever was in charge had their mind made up about you for whatever reason. Wishing you luck & light on your way to a better experience in your next position.

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Please look into Legal Aid. This service is in EVERY state. You can meet with them for free, and they will point you in the direction of a lawyer that would be able to speak with you. File for unemployment immediately, even if eventually they say no. The more weeks that pass w/o you filing, those are weeks you lose, IF qualified. Don't think you should have been fired, BUT if you had time to "stand there and watch" which means you were done "gowning and gloving" you were ready to do it yourself. This is where the problem came in. You were "there" at the room. The patient could have waited 35 more seconds..... good luck in future jobs.

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Specializes in FNP, ONP.
I signed a contract with these people also. Now I have to repay the money back that they put into my training. That really stings too. I am hoping it will be something reasonable. Most of these hospitals here are having NG nurses sign a contract. Sucks tho.
Oh, no, no, no. That would so not happen if it were I. You did not voluntarily leave the job. Of course, I haven't read your contract, I'm not an attorney and I'm not giving you legal advice, expect to say, speak to someone qualified to give you legal advice! 'cause that is a whole lot of horse pucky.
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No way to paying the money back!!!!

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Specializes in Public Health, L&D, NICU.
I signed a contract with these people also. Now I have to repay the money back that they put into my training. That really stings too. I am hoping it will be something reasonable. Most of these hospitals here are having NG nurses sign a contract. Sucks tho.

This is just sounding worse and worse. One of your strikes was parking in the wrong lot? Are you freaking kidding me? I've known nurses who would come in street clothes so they could fool the Barney Fife wanna be posted at the parking deck entrance to thwart employees parking in the semi-safe, well-lit lot instead of the dark, scary employee lot. And now you have to pay them, even though they chose for you to leave? I'd go over that contract with a fine tooth comb before they saw a dime out of me.

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