What ever happened to pt safety?!?!

[scraper1]

Hi everyone. Thanks to those who sent me the link to the Florida board of nursing. I guess I should elaborate a bit more. I have been away from my job for the last month. I was out for military duty. I came home Monday night and had Tuesday off to get thins settled. Wednesday night would be my first night back. I work the night shift, so I got up at 2 am Wednesday morning like I alwys do. I figured I would stay up till 9am and go back to bed till 5pm. I have never had a problem sleeping. Unfortunately I never got back to sleep.

I called at 1:40pm to let work know I had not been able to sleep. I figured honesty is always best. I was told to try to sleep and be there for my shift, we were going to be short. No good. I got to work at 6:50. Before I clocked in I told the charge again, I had been up since 2am and had not been able to go back to sleep. I informed her I didn't think I would be able to make it through a shift. I was in triage the first 4 hours of my shift. At 10:30 I explained to the charge again that I had been up almost 21 hours. I felt I was unable to provide safe patient care, and by 7 am I would be a danger to myself. Wrong thing to do I guess. I recieve a long lecture about how we were short nurses and I was threatened to have the house supervisor called and the ER manager. Needless to say, I was shocked. I was at work untill 7 am, up 29 hours, and then drove home. I was a danger to my pt, myself and my licence. Thank God nothing happened. What evr happened to integrity and pt safety?

Friday I gave termination effective immediately. I know that will make some people cringe. Two weeks is professional. I figured, if they didn't care about my licence then, they surely weren't going to for two weeks. I worked long and hard for my licence. I know our night shift is very short on nurses. I gave the manager a list of reasons why I was leaving. That is when my main problem came up. My licence ws threatened again. I was told if I didn't give two weeks notice, not only would I not be rehireable, It would be reported to my licence. Then the next hospital I applied to would see the report and would most likely not be able to hire me.

I know for a fact, you can't do that to a persons licence in Texas, but I now live in Florida. I have read a good part of the Florida nurses act and I can't find anything related to the matter. I would really appreciate any help and/or advise on the matter. Thanks for listening everyone.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

I live in Florida. We are free to leave our jobs without notice as long as we aren't in the middle of an assignment abandoning patients, just as they are free to fire us without reason and notice. They are using idle threats which is immature.

I know you were trying to do the right thing by being that honest. My advice to has always been no matter what the reason for not being able to work, it's usually best to call in sick and leave it at that. You weren't in any condition to work, so while not technically sick, being tired doesn't get you any sympathy or understanding, patient risk or not. You should have never shown up in the first place.

Anyway, good luck to you!

[suebird3]

Geez. The things employers do to us.....

[Thunderwolf, MSN, RN]

What you speak of is an "At Will" employment for that state. Yes, it works both ways. Don't worry about. It was evident that they cared little for you there. You did the right thing. Good luck on your next employ.