Nurses are human, and humans make mistakes and even get fired from their jobs.
This is how some recent shocking news has hit the healthcare world as four nurses lost their jobs for the craziest reasons.
One nurse sued in response and the jury responded with $41.5 million for wrongful termination. Another nurse was fired for having an affair with a hospital patient, who died during their sexual encounter!
These are some pretty surprising stories, am I right?
I tell you more (and crazier stories) in this episode, so tune in now!
Well then, what are you waiting for?
Let’s dive in!
Fired Nurse Wins $41.5M for Wrongful Termination Lawsuit
What would you do with $41.5 million? On December 14, 2023, Dave Pearson from Health Exec reported on a nurse who sued a Kaiser Permanente hospital for firing her. The jury awarded her with over $41 million.
Nurse Maria Gatchalian was a charge nurse who worked in the NICU. She will receive $11.49 million in compensatory damages from the hospital, $9 million of which is for her emotional distress, along with $30 million in punitive damages.
Her firing was due to her placing her bare feet in an isolette. This sounds like a fireable offense and not worthy of suing for over $41 million, right?
However, when this nurse sued in 2021, she reported that her real “offense” was actually her reporting understaffing to the hospital leadership. The hospital went after her for an offense to let her go due to her ongoing complaints of being understaffed. She maintained that the hospital attempted to silence her.
Kaiser Permanente hospital plans on appealing the decision since they still stand by her termination and are surprised and disappointed by the verdict.
Massive Layoff: Over 100+ MedExpress Urgent Care Clinics Dismiss All Nursing Staff
Nurse.org published an article on August 21, 2023 about all the nurses getting fired from over 100 MedExpress Urgent Care Clinics.
There are nearly 150 locations across the United States and they announced on August 11, 2023 that registered nurse positions would get eliminated. This is to revamp staffing models and cut costs.
A petition has been created by MedExpress Providers claiming that it’s a reckless and unsafe decision to provide patient care at these clinics without nurses.
Medical assistants are valuable resources but do not have the expertise or the scope of practice to perform the majority of nursing duties. In fact, the American Association of Medical Assistants specifically states that their role does not include critical thinking.
X-ray technicians are now going to have to start IV lines and respond to emergency situations and these are tasks that they are not trained to perform. Many healthcare providers are considering resigning as a result of MedExpress not valuing patient safety.
Keep in mind that this company reported a profit of $5.6 billion in the first quarter of this year. Clinics are already understaffed and nurses are already underpaid, so it’s astonishing to think that removing nurses from all the clinics is the answer to cutting costs.
Nurse Dismissed Following a Fatal Incident with a Patient During Sexual Encounter
WKRC Staff reported on July 9, 2023 about British nurse Penelope Williams, age 24, who was treating a long-term dialysis patient. She and the patient had been in a secret relationship since January 2021. When the incident happened, the nurse first claimed she barely knew the patient before admitting to their relationship.
The patient died of a heart attack during their late night meeting and the nurse failed to call for an ambulance. Instead, she spoke with a colleague, who urged her to call an ambulance. After their conversation and realizing that Williams was not going to call for an ambulance, the colleague ended up calling for one instead, which found the patient dead upon arrival.
Initially, the nurse stated that she met with the patient after he messaged her on Facebook stating that he did not feel well. According to nurse Williams, she was only with him for 30 to 45 minutes in the back of his car and that they only spoke. Then, she admitted to their ongoing relationship and that she met up with him for a sexual encounter. This admission resulted in her dismissal. A panel determined that Williams would be off the register and can no longer continue working as a nurse. The committee stated that she placed her patient at risk of harm.
Labor and Delivery Nurses Dismissed for Creating Viral TikTok About Their “Icks” and Making Fun of Patients
It’s a new era of social media and now we have the resources to go viral and make money out of it. What nurses do outside of work does not affect what they do for a living, but they should not be on social media at the expense of their patients. Imagine having to give birth soon and stumbling upon a video of nurses making fun of their patients’ needs. It would make you feel horrible and you would have a hard time trusting your own nurses.
Cassandra Stone wrote an article on Mother.ly about labor and delivery nurses at Emory University Hospital sharing their least favorite patient requests. These requests and complaints apparently give these nurses the “ick”, which is a trend where people share what makes them cringe on social media. The original account deleted the video, but you can still find it online.
One “ick” is moms asking how much their babies weigh. This seems like a harmless and normal question to me. Why can’t moms know how much their babies weigh? I can’t even imagine this being an “ick”.
Another nurse thinks that patients in labor being hungry and thirsty is an “ick”. If I’m in labor, I’m going to complain all I want. Even as I’m writing this, I am hungry. How on earth is this even an “ick”?
Another “ick” is apparently moms who are in pain and refuse epidurals before they are super dilated.
Imagine being a patient at this hospital and feeling uncomfortable for refusing an epidural because you saw this video. You should have the right to refuse an epidural if that is part of your birthing plan.
I discuss these stories in more detail in the episode above, so make sure to give it a listen when you can!
