You're Fired!

[pmabraham, BSN, RN]

Dear future nurses and new nurses, one of the internal, emotional, issues you will face as a nurse is when the patient or the patient's family fires you as the nurse for the patient. Your employer didn't fire you, you are still a nurse, just not the nurse for the particular patient.

I was terminated as a patient's nurse two shifts in a row from two different patients. One was a patient who didn't want a male nurse, and the other from a family member who didn't want me caring for their loved one. Personally, I was emotionally hurt more from the former as that was a form of discrimination, and just frustrated with the later as I knew I was providing the best of care.

I'm very thankful we have an incredibly supportive unit where I work. Experienced nurses, including the charge nurses, will share stories with the new nurses about how many times they have been fired by patients and their families. I was told of a case where a given patient terminated every single nurse that cared for them so that towards the end of their stay the patient had to be told they fired everyone and needed to have nurses they don't like take care of them; there was no one left that wasn't fired.

Being terminated caring for a particular patient involves the emotional issues you will face as a nurse as well as playing some havoc on the time management skills and planning of both the nurse taking over the patient's care and your being switched to caring for another patient. Yet, we get through it and deal with it. Hugs.

[Serhilda, ADN, RN]

A patient refusing care from male nurse is not inherently discrimination, not whatsoever. You don't know that person's history, you don't know if close contact with the opposite or same gender is prohibited by their beliefs/religion. Not everyone is willing to disclose past traumas to avoid being falsely accused of "discrimination" so even if no reasoning was given, you really don't know.

[pmabraham, BSN, RN]

1. The patient stated they didn't want a "white male nurse." 2. Sex discrimination does exist and pretending it doesn't make it go away.