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I worked at my facility in Florida for more than seven years. I was told about seven months ago to find another job in the hospital or "my working relationship would be severed" due to my floor going to palliative care and my new boss no longer wanting LPNs on her floor.
I have been a hospice nurse at my other job for the last five years, and know more about taking care of the dying and their families than most of the RNs on the floor. I was told to find another job or go back to school.
I have been going for my RN through a bridge program, but I am stuck on the mathematics. Just like most of the other LPNs that give up being an RN.
I had truly hoped they would see that I'm fully capable of helping the dying and their loved ones. I too have suffered loss, and I am comfortable with the meds used in keeping people from suffering while they die.
I was eventually removed from the floor schedule and was told on my last scheduled day I was terminated. I wrote to the hospital nursing administrator, my local union, my national union and even the newspaper.
I believe I am being denied vocational benefits provided under the unemployment act. I am from the union, which sure did get its dues. It seems being in a right-to-work state that anybody can be let go after seven years and no one, including the union, will say anything. Is this even legal?
When anybody calls for a reference they will be told I am not re-hirable, not that I can't work there because I am an LPN. Most of the LPNs have felt for the last few years, starting with the RNs getting COLA raises two years in a row, that the facility is trying to get rid of us.
The staff at my facility was color-coded, including the nurses, but the LPNs were put in another color. Just one more way to make the LPNs feel bad and stupid. There are fewer LPNs there, and no one is standing up for them. The schools are telling me the state is trying to make all nurses get their BSN. With the cost of healthcare going up, is that really the best plan to get rid of hospital LPNs?
The RN union rep told me that this is coming from JACO and the state board. LPNs don't even have their own scope of practice. We pay like RNs for our license, so who is supposed to stand up for LPNs if my nursing board can't be bothered?
Lisa Read, LPN
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