Has this EVER happened to any of you out there? What can an RN do when they are Wrongfully Terminated? In the state of Indiana if an RN is terminated and the notice of termination it is alleged that there was wrong doing. The terminated RN is required to notify the State Board of Nursing. Likewise, the terminating entity is also mandated to notify the state of the terminated nurse's status and is required to provide evidence to lend veracity to the grounds for the termination. Basically, this is to be done to justify the termination and to prevent the accused RN from continuing to practice. I did as I was asked to do and I notified the board. The board concurred that based upon the accusations made - the termination was warranted. The other interesting point is that when I was terminated - I was still working as a new trainee under a mentoring RN. We would go out and do home care visits. She and I would share the work load and document each other's care and assessments. That is what is so unexplainable to me. Her work was my work and mine hers!
As for the actual termination, I also informed the board that absolutely NOTHING stated in the notice of termination was truthful. Nothing that was said about me actually ever happened. I asked the board if the entity in questions had actually provided the board with the evidence to support these accusations. This is required by law as well. The board informed me that this company had not complied. The board asked me to secure this evidence. At this point I had already begun that process. I sent e-mail after e-mail. Each was answered and I was told by the firing entity did not have to provide any further evidence. Their simple accusations were evidence enough! My e-mails requests went on for months and all the way to the CEO of the company. He to also finally wrote back to me and said that they were not required to provide evidence to support their accusations against me. By this time I had already secured another position with the VA. It is a good job with benefits; but, it was not working directly as an RN.
The company that did this to me was NEVER required to justify their actions to the board. I also informed the company that fired me that if I had done all that they accused me of - then the entities that they cater to needed to know that various client assessment that I was a part of needed to be identified and re-evaluated. At that point the entity then threatened to sue me for tortious injury. I was required by the nursing board to appear before them to answer the claims against me by the entity in question. I was also required to provide my e-mail and correspondence traffic with the company. I did as I was instructed to do. Upon meeting with the board, the board then became very accusatory toward me when I could not explain the accusations made against me. They also did not understand why I was becoming more and more frustrated with the company that had fired me. I explained that I had been repeatedly for months asking that this company comply with the states requirements that they provide the evidence to support their slanderous allegations against me and that the company continued to refuse to comply and that is why I was upset with them. Most normal people would be! The board did not seem to comprehend this? The board stated that they all knew this entity and that they would not make things. My attorney and I both noted that this presented an obvious 'conflict of interest' for the board to make that statement. The board ignored this when we pointed this out to them. When I also pointed out that the entity had not complied with the states mandates to provide evidence to support their claims against me. The board informed me that in the case of this entity - they were not going to require them to do so?
The board then informed me that I was to be put on indefinite probation; to secure an MMPI-II to evaluate me for anger issues; and to demonstrate my continued nursing education; and finally to complete 6 additional months working as an RN with reports to be provided by my employer of the quality of my work. I again pointed out to the board that I had another good job and that I currently was not working as an RN. I also pointed out that even were I to quit my good job to try and go out and secure an RN position - no company is going to hire an RN with a status of probation on their license.
I have attempted to secure guidance from the board as to how I am to comply with this requirement to keep my good paying job and also secure a full time job as an RN while showing as being on probation. The board has thus far refused to answer my pleas for help and guidance here!
So..., I am very much as a loss as to how the board has actually done anything to even remotely treat this case in a fair, impartial and non-judgmental way? What am I to do? If there is ANYONE who has some idea what I can do here to remedy this situation - please let me know? I guess it really is true - Nursing Boards really do Eat their Young!
