Certified Nursing

[cherylroa]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

 

[cherylroa]

Certified Nursing Assistant

Hello, I'm hoping to get some legal advice, I was currently terminated from my prev. employer. I worked for the company for 3 years and 2 months with a clean record. Up until this month of February there was a situation that the company felt that I had made wrong judgement on. I worked as a CNA in a long term care facility and I work evening shift from 11pm till 730am. People involved was a resident with alzheimers and history of psychosis, another cna and myself. Monday I received a phone call from work letting me know that the resident had a lot of bruises on both of her arms and skin tear on her arm and a cut on her finger. My employer questioned me why did I fail to report the condition of the resident, I explained to them because there was nothing to report, I did not see any skin tear, cut on finger or bruise. They wanted me to fill one out anyway because they said that is our procedure, so I did but under the section where its asking if there was any injuries I put none because there wasn't any. One, two days later I was called in by the Director of operations and was asked to come in and demonstrate to her exactly what had happened. The same day after I had the meeting with her she told me that I might be suspended because they have to do an investigation and that they will call me back tomorrow. The next day the Director of operations called me mid morning and had asked me if I could come down, I said okay because I was on my way to pick up my check. When I came down on Thursday around 1220, I met up with the Director of operations and the Director of Nursing and basically they said that based on their investigations they said that they were gonna have to let me go, I was shocked, I asked them if they are accusing me of abuse and they said they were not accusing me of abuse, they said based on their investigation there was no evidence of abuse but they felt that I was not telling them the truth (basically accusing me of lying), and felt that I did not handle the situation properly. They also mentioned that they have a witness, so I asked who else are the other witnesses besides myself, the resident and the other cna? the director of operations looked at me and said who else do you think is the other witness? and I said the other cna? and she just gave me that look like exactly. I asked her so your terminating me because you believe the story of the other cna? when I'm the one who actually had asked for assistance from her to help me escort the resident back to her room.

This event happened on Sunday morning around 5 am, I work night shift, there are other shifts that comes in after, which morning shift which is 7am - 330pm and night shift 11pm- 730am, I did not get the report not until Monday morning.

If someone could please help me and give me some legal advice I would greatly appreciate it, I feel that I was wrongfully terminated, please feel free to ask me any questions, thank you.

 

[cbg]

A wrongful termination does not mean that you were fired for something you didn't do. It means that there is a law which prohibits the employer from firing you for the reason he did. You were not wrongfully terminated as the law defines it. It may or may not have been unfair; it was not illegal.

File for unemployment and look for another job.

 

[commentator]

In reading your post, convoluted as it is, it is apparent Something happened to that resident. Whatever it was, the other CNA who was on the job told your employer her version of the story, and they thought it was believable enough to terminate you.

File for your unemployment. Tell them exactly why you have been terminated. Let them contact the employer and get their version of exactly why you were terminated. They will make an initial determination of whether you can receive benefits or not. Then either party can file an appeal and there will be a hearing to determine whether the employer had a good misconduct reason to terminate your employment.

This is as good as it gets. There is no such thing as a wrongful termination if the termination did not violate EEOC or such similar statutes. The employer basically can terminate you for any reason. If they cannot prove they had a good misconduct reason to terminate you, you can get unemployment insurance until you can find another job. There is no one you can sue, no way you can demand and get your old job back by proving you did nothing wrong. All you can do is move forward and receive unemployment until you find something else.

It would be to your advantage if you clearly tell exactly what happened, the thing of "escorting her back to her room" the story of exactly what happened to this resident that night, because there are some holes in the story you are giving us here, and these will come out when you and the employer are in front of an appeals officer telling what happened that night.