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I've been a Registered Nurse over twenty years. In April I started work in the ICU at a Hospital here in Oregon. I was placed on what is called the (B Team), and life went down hill from day one. This team is made up of Nurses who thinks it's fun to sit in the report room and flip each other off, call each other degrogatory names, etc. Since I thought they were all way too childish, let alone unprofessional, I of course didn't fit in to their "little club", and they ran me out of the ICU by making lies up about me and going to the Nurse Manager daily. In fact I was told on Friday July 18th, by six other Nurses that I was going to get terminated the following week. Sure enough when I came to work the following Wednesday....not one of the nurses on the B Team looked at me, or spoke to me...turned out they knew before I did about my termination.

The reason given for terminating me was that " I just wasn't a good fit".

I've worked in Magnet hospitals for years, have wonderful yearly evals, but now I'm fired by a hospital with more than a few problems. So here's where it gets strange. I have gotten every job I've ever applied for my entire Nursing career. But since July 23, I've applied for well over 30 jobs, and I haven't gotten one of them. This is not a COINCIDENCE!  This is called being black-balled.

I'm ready to leave nursing, but not without a fight. I've spoken with the Union (what a joke, they took my money but offered no help at all.) I spoke with Oregon State Board of Nursing(they could only tell me there wasn't anything negative on my profile.) Now I've gone to the Bureau of Labor and Industries(civil rights). I would appreciate hearing from any nurse who has experienced the same thing. Please share your story, tell me what happened and how it was resolved. I also have a Attorney who I am getting ready to use.                                                    

Thank You

Sorry to hear about your situation. I have no advice to offer up as I have only been a nurse for 2 years now. I wish you luck and hope you are able to resolve this situation.

Im so sorry to hear what you are going through,the same is happening to me here in California.

Wow, I'm sorry to hear that you are being treated so unfairly. I've been messed over unfairly in past jobs, but not to the extent where I could not get hired by anyone else.There has to be some way you can prove this. It may be hrad, but don't give up. The truth will prevail.

It is time to get out of dodge. Find a nice travel job. Go some where else for a while. Nurses eat their young. The ICU are the worst I hate to say. Not all but most have a CLICK.

I also have gotten every job I've applied for.  I worked at one place in NC, where it was gossip central.  We had a head RN that referred to several of the CNA's as inbreeds.  quote "Have you seen their children, you can tell they are inbred".  I didn't fit well.  I noticed a pattern, that every nurse that intimidated her (by skill, respect of patients, respect of higher ups, more education) got black balled, and several were fired.  She started rumors about them.  She started a rumor on an lpn, that this person didn't have a real license, that it was 'stolen'.   I got on her sh*t list, because one day I stood up to her about gossiping in the workplace.  I knew my time was coming, so I put in notice and left.  I didn't wait for that one to drop.

You can hire a company that will call your old employer and ask for a refernce. Check "Myreferences.com" or other websites, and for a fee they will pretend to be a prospective employer asking for a reference, and then send you a report letting you know exactly what was said about you. I used them when I was fired because I knew another nurse who had been fired the year before who had been black-balled. When I was fired, I told my boss that if she did it to me, there would be repurcussions. I was happy to pay the fee to make sure she did not bad mouth me. If they do badmouth you, you can take your report to a lawyer.

My name is Wendy, I have been an RN for 8 years. I have had an awful time of it in the field of nursing. The shame of it all is that I am a very hard worker and I love the field and patient care. It all started for me when I took a job at a Cleveland clinic satellite hospital. I applied for several positions as a new grad. The job that I really wanted was in the NICU. Being a single parent I did not have the luxury to wait too long for an interview to be offered so I took a job in a cardiac stepdown unit. After working in the unit for 6 months, I received a call from the hospital that I applied to for the NICU position, I was offered the position. Up until then I had no negative reviews. Upon advising my unit manager that I was contemplating accepting another position and that I was requesting transfer information, I was told that I had to stay in my current position for another 6 months. So I called back the other hospital that was also a cleveland clinic satellite hospital and told them my situation. I decided to stay for another 6 months. After that point the unit manager started treating me differently, every day I was harrassed, I was told my hair wasn't perfect, and asked why I stopped wearing makeup. Mostly time constraint because of the distance I had to travel to work. At the time we were doing primary nursing in which i had to do total care for 5 patients with out the luxury of a nursing assistant, and they were just in the process of switching to "peer evaluation", all nurses on the floor started freaking out. Ones that were there for years started writing up the younger nurses for anything and everything they could to protect their positions. I was constantly staying after my shift about 1/2 hour to make sure everything was done so that I wouldn't get written up for not completing something. Then my manager wrote me up for cutting into the productivity of the unit on dayshift, I worked nights. As far as my personality, I am very friendly but quiet, I stick to myself do my work and try not to get involved in all the clickish bullshit on the unit. This for me was a disadvantage as I am beginning to think that to be a nurse you have to have a certain personality type to "fit in". Any how, the next 6 months they made my life a living hell, I even had co-workers tell me to hire a lawyer because I was being harassed.  I didn't however because I really didn't understand what was going on at the time. Well I was called into the office 2 times in that 6 months, once for being late, and staying late, and once for a pharmacy error that I had explained was not my fault and I had it covered by a pharmacist. At the end of the 6 months the other hospital offered me the NICU position again, I gave my current employer a 3 week notice that I would be leaving. At the end of 2 weeks and after requesting transfer information and information on keeping seniority in the cleveland clinic system, I was called into the office and given a "performance improvement evaluation". One day later I was called by the NICU department and told that they recinded the job because I had a performance improvement in place. They encouraged me to stay there another 6 months. I told them I refused because I was being horribly harrassed. So after 1 week I left the hospital with out any job and went through an agency for approximately 1 year. I have been black balled from the cleveland clinic hospitals ever since.   Now I am in skilled nursing, I really love the patient care however I don't think im working to my potential, and there is not any room for advancement. I am ACLS certified, PALS certified, I can read and intrepret cardiac telemetry and I have always wanted to go into OBGYN, pediatrics, or NICU. I have never been given the opportunity to try any of them. I have over the years worked many interesting jobs however I don't feel like I have ever found my true "nitch".  I have worked in a SICU, 3 prisons, an LTAC, psychiatric none of which I have been satisfied with. I am almost ready to give up nursing all together, and pursuit another career choice because I am so burnt out after only 8 years.

 I'm so sorry to hear of your situation.  They call this type of behavior lateral violence, nurse-to-nurse violence to be exact.  Violence is a strong word because there is always a victim.  I am so heavy hearted for you, I experienced something similar to what you are going through and it is so exhausting.  I hope you find a quick resolve and it doesn't cost you a lot or you can always bargain out your skill for free legal advice some attny's could possibly do this, TG someday everyone might need a nurse and we have that for a skill.  

I pray that you may keep yourself from inner and outer harm.

God Bless

There are things you can do to stop Blackballing from happening.  First unions, which get paid a bundle should be informed and work with them not regarding a firing here or there, but the idea of "blackballing" and how legal it is.  Second, work on getting legislation through preventing employers from blackballing.  Much of what is blackballing is illegal.  Because its discrimination of some sort or some right has been denied you.  Know your Federal rights as a worker.

Nurses themselves have grown pretty sick.  But its not just the nurses its hospital administration.  Hospital adminstration allows this to go on.  Every hospital employees these little cops I call them in their HR departments.  They are the folks that do the collection of dirt against you and they are the cleaners to make sure even though its illegal it looks legal.  They can do these bad things because when we go to work, we go for the money, and we don't watch our backs.  So after we leave our notes are copied and given to these "cleaners" and managers who more often then not lack common sense.  If you work in a negative environment know you are going to have to work better, cleaner and safer than the loonies causing you the problems.  Second you can out employers and specific persons because they are managers and hospitals can't hide under any confidentiality laws.  If you have been blackballed to the extent it affects your ability to get a job and you know it.  You need to handle it with legal help.  Also it doesn't hurt to make appointments with your harassers and make them fess up to your face what you've done wrong, so to speak. 

Good luck to everyone whose had to deal with this humiliation from these small small people. 

STOP

I thought my co-worker was ok I found out she was smiling in my face and reporting to my nurse unit manager things I forgot to do (simpl dsg)she could have done asI have done for her.well I got fired thanks to her evidence was there they kept telling me about my mistake hocan you learn to trust any other nurse after that?

I agree that its difficult to surmount the cultural mores that exist in some places.  I have worked in places were people were so inclined.  However I also do insist that there is recourse via EEOC and other government agencies.  Most of the time before the blackballing starts there is an implicit agreement somewhere along the line that you are going to be a target and targets are targets because they stick out.  Why do you stick out? Being new is the best one, you have no allies.  Second is color, language, and style perhaps.  I worked in an ED once that was basically run by the clerical staff.  That is if they wanted to ruin you they would simply start some gossip and circulate it through the department and to the doctors and voila you would be fired but not before they thoroughly made you miserable.  The managers were complicit with this behavior by the way.  I have to say patients were put in jeopardy and many other things went on that should have been paid attention to, but instead they put their energy into defamation and slander and wouldn't help one another at all.

Blackballing is morally wrong however there is nothing you can do accept walk away and find another job.  also beware of registries they really blackball especially if you fight them about wages and other things.  I am changing my career because frankly I have had enough of this nonesense in nursing, anyway more and more I don't fit because I am not African, or Indian or Filipino.  I am not saying its bad being any of those, its just that the culture around nursing is changing too much.

EEOC? Sorry but unless you have a valid experience resolving something with that agency I'll call you on that. I was blackballed in NM one time. I was told by the EEOC, in their questioning me to see if I had an EEO complaint that basically unless one of that hospital's representatives had told me I was fired because of my age, and did so in front of witnesses (barring any such stupidity in writing which did not exist - of course) that could stand up to questioning during what is basically a court YOU'RE SCREWED! Rather I was screwed.

Now, that said, if you are not white and not male you MIGHT get their attention. But in nursing females are the majority so there you go there. So I went to a lawyer who specialized in civil rights cases. His investigation showed I had been blackballed and he even named the guy who had done the deed. He was right on.

Would he then take my case? NO!!! His wife had business relations with that hospital and he could not endager that.

So I WAS SCREWED!

To hell with the EEOC.