Question from my wife

[flipper35]

Here's the situation:
My mother is a school nurse in California. In that state, you must complete a state approved school nurse program on top of having a nursing degree. She has been working on it for a number of years and is in the last part of the program. This year she has to have a preceptor oversee her work. She found another county nurse to work with who has done this in the past and was happy to do this for her. The problem comes from her boss. My mother submitted all her paperwork in April to the county to be signed to allow this nurse to work with her. They said they were hiring a new person to fill that position and to wait until it was filled. She said okay, and resubmitted everything in July when the position was filled. And heard nothing back. She contacted the nurse who she was supposed to work with and she said that the new boss has been threatening to fire everyone and pulling all these stupid mind games with everyone so no one will ask him about my mom's paperwork. So she starts calling him. He doesn't return calls or when she shows up there he doesn't have time to see her. Meanwhile her program deadlines are approaching and there are no grace periods. So I called in a couple of friends. One of whom is kind of a big deal at the county offices. She asked him what was going on with the paperwork and where he was with that stuff. He told her that the county did not have a contract with the college doing the credentialing and they couldn't do it. Now that was a lie. When my mom emailed all the info she sent a copy of the contract the county signed stating the contract was good to 2016. When the friend said lets call and ask my mom. She told her that, and sent another copy of it by email and printed a copy and took it down there. When she got there both the friend and my mom went in there to see what else needed to be done to get the man to sign the paper. He said he would look at. So they leave. He calls the nurse that was going to proctor not to sign off on anything or he would fire her and that he didn't have time to deal with my mom and there was nothing she could do about it. I guess the nurse said something to the friend, so she went back to the guy and asked why he was doing this. So later that day he calls my mom and says he would look this stuff over tonight and sign off on it tonight. She asked if she could pick the stuff up in the morning. If she doesn't get the stuff in the morning she will be dropped from her program and lose her job. My husband says contact a lawyer if she loses her job over this. What do you think?

[URY914]

I think that is a lot of reading...

[tevake]

This seems to have dire consequences for your mom. But California is in financial disaster mode, The school system is often a first place to cut spending. If the new boss was a more reasonable person he could communicate with her boss and let him know that the failure to complete this requirement is not of her doing, and perhaps an extension should be considered.

Hope this works out OK for your Mom.

Cheers Richard

[Hard-Deck]

Get a lawyer.
'nuff said

[genrex]

If the preceptor nurse is currently licensed by the state to be a preceptor, then the preceptor can chose to be a preceptor for anyone she chooses, and her boss cannot legally prevent her from doing that. He is not involved in that in any way.

He is breaking the law by threatening to fire the preceptor nurse, and it seems like he means business. If the preceptor nurse signs the forms, she will probably get fired.

If I were your mother, I would call the state's Nurse Licensing Dept and talk directly with the person in charge of licensing for Preceptors for school nurses, and explain the situation.

Also, your mother should talk privately with the nurse preceptor herself, to ask why her boss is doing this. It's possible that the preceptor knows something that you don't know.

Ditto to what Snapper said.

Be sure to document everything -- who was spoken to, the date, the time, what was said, everything.

_

[Amail]

Criticism of your "Wall of Text" formatting aside...

I think your mom wasted her time trying to deal with a difficult person. Does this guy have any real obligation to review or approve her application? If so, he's a government official who failed to live up to his responsibilities - sue the county if he didn't do his job. If not, she should have found another preceptor months ago.

About your "Wall of Text" - find a way to carve that down to about 20% of its current size. Use paragraphs. It's very hard to get to the meat of your question, you're gonna miss out on good responses.

[Zeke]

Get the right lawyer if you have to. But time is of the essence. It's a lot harder to unwind something than it is to persevere. Hopefully the dude will sign off. I'd sure be willing to show him why not signing will have consequences.

[ossiblue]

You should be getting your "attack forces" (be they lawyers, superiors to the man in question, or whomever) mobilized NOW, TODAY! Given this man's record on the issue, it's very likely there will be some "technical glitch" that prevents the mother from meeting the deadline. You need to be prepared for the worst case scenario, now that you are down to the final hours, to prevent the mother's loss of job and opportunity.

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by flipper35

Here's the situation:
My mother is a school nurse in California. In that state, you must complete a state approved school nurse program on top of having a nursing degree. She has been working on it for a number of years and is in the last part of the program. This year she has to have a preceptor oversee her work.

She found another county nurse to work with who has done this in the past and was happy to do this for her. The problem comes from her boss. My mother submitted all her paperwork in April to the county to be signed to allow this nurse to work with her. They said they were hiring a new person to fill that position and to wait until it was filled. She said okay, and resubmitted everything in July when the position was filled. And heard nothing back.

She contacted the nurse who she was supposed to work with and she said that the new boss has been threatening to fire everyone and pulling all these stupid mind games with everyone so no one will ask him about my mom's paperwork. So she starts calling him. He doesn't return calls or when she shows up there he doesn't have time to see her. Meanwhile her program deadlines are approaching and there are no grace periods.

So I called in a couple of friends. One of whom is kind of a big deal at the county offices. She asked him what was going on with the paperwork and where he was with that stuff. He told her that the county did not have a contract with the college doing the credentialing and they couldn't do it. Now that was a lie. When my mom emailed all the info she sent a copy of the contract the county signed stating the contract was good to 2016. When the friend said lets call and ask my mom. She told her that, and sent another copy of it by email and printed a copy and took it down there.

When she got there both the friend and my mom went in there to see what else needed to be done to get the man to sign the paper. He said he would look at. So they leave. He calls the nurse that was going to proctor not to sign off on anything or he would fire her and that he didn't have time to deal with my mom and there was nothing she could do about it. I guess the nurse said something to the friend, so she went back to the guy and asked why he was doing this.

So later that day he calls my mom and says he would look this stuff over tonight and sign off on it tonight. She asked if she could pick the stuff up in the morning. If she doesn't get the stuff in the morning she will be dropped from her program and lose her job.

My husband says contact a lawyer if she loses her job over this. What do you think?

Made it a bit easier for everyone to read. Paragraphs are your friend on something like this!

Sure sounds like she is getting the run around and I would contact a lawyer "just in case" to have them standing by if needed...

[Z-man]

Originally Posted by URY914

I think that is a lot of reading...

+1. You lost me at "My mother is a school nurse in Californi...."



Ok - I went back and read through it -- cliff notes version:

Mom nurse needs a preceptor as she completes her final year of nursing certification.

Boss of the chosen preceptor has stopped the paperwork for some unknown reason, while Mom nurse's paperwork submission dealine is looming.

After meeting with Boss, Boss assures her she will get paperwork, but mom hears conflicting info from preceptor.

Mom worried, afraid she will loose opportunities.

What to do, what to do...

Anybody able to turn this story into a Haiku? Rika? Anyone??

Ok - my $0.42 on the subject matter: paperwork takes a long time to get done in school systems. I wouldn't worry, even if the deadline has passed.

-Z

[Tobra]

I think she probalby is going to need an employment attorney.

Have her contact her state assembly person

[aap1966]

Originally Posted by Tobra

I think she probalby is going to need an employment attorney.

May just require a phone call from a lawyer making clear there will be consequences.

[masraum]

If her stuff gets worked out, great. If not, then I'd make the guys life Hell. He doesn't deserve the job that he has. Lawyer up.

[flipper35]

Update:
The guy did not sign the paperwork. He sent her an email saying he was passing it on to the personnel department then left town for 5 days. She called the personnel department and they told her that they could not release the papers until they had the chance to speak to the guy.

Meanwhile the instructor tells my mom not to drop and the Fresno State lawyers will be contacting the guy for not honoring the contract.

[Joeaksa]

Sounds like he is a real piece of work... and a good lawyer needs to get involved as well as his HR having a "come to Jesus" talk with him for not doing his job.

[Laneco]

Release the Kracken.

Hold him PERSONALLY responsible which I believe you can do when he is acting outside of his contract and job expectations. Even if he can't be held personally responsible in the legal sense, he can certainly suffer some righteous anger of Biblical proportions!

angela

[mepstein]

...and document everything on paper.

[stomachmonkey]

Get a lawyer.

I'm curious as to why the guy won't sign off.

Sounds like he is putting more effort into NOT doing his job than actually doing it.

Sure seems like he's got it in for someone for some reason.

Why would he risk his career to intentionally sabotage a stranger?