Hello Everyone!
I was previously employed at a clinic owned by a regional medical system. My employment was terminated because a doctor tricked me into completing a CME for her (some computer based thing that looked like a lecture powerpoint). The doctor gave me a website to log into, gave me her password & log in information. She asked me to complete the assignment on the website, and "let her know what I thought." Being motivated and intellectually curious, I read through the thing and answered the simple questions at the end. When I was done, I told my manager that I had gotten everything correct, and she asked to see what I was talking about. Turns out, it was something I wasn't supposed to be doing! Woops! I cooperated fully with the company's investigation. But, at the end of it, both the doctor and I were terminated. The doctor did not lose her license, she is currently working in private practice.
There really isn't anything more to my part of the story, and I'm not sure what I could have done to prevent this from happening. I was really young (just out of college) and a glorified personal assistant at the time- there was no way I was going to know A) what a CME even was or B) the significance of it to a doctor's ongoing medical training. I know the doctor in question was highly disliked by the hospital administration. I think they used this incident as a convenient way to get rid of her, and couldn't do so justifiably (aka without risking a law suit) without punishing me too. I know the doctor sued for wrongful termination, but I'm not sure how the case panned out.
My question is about pre-employment background checks. When I graduate medical school (I was recently accepted!), it will be 2020. Most VA employment background checks ask for 7 years of employment history. I was terminated at the end of June in 2013... Just barely within the 7 year window if I'm filling out paperwork in the middle of March. Do I need to/ should I include this? Is there any chance the search will be from the beginning of the residency program (like, from July 2013-July 2020)? I only need a couple days of leeway hahaha!
The only issue is the VA background check. I looked through a bunch of state's licensing forms, and nothing in them would compel me to mention this incident. To be clear, if there is a question like "have your hospital privileges every been suspended/ revoked?" or "have you ever been disciplined by an oversight committee?" the answer to both is "no." I was a low level employee (like, medical secretary level). I never had any hospital privileges, and did not have a professional license, so I was never under the jurisdiction of an oversight committee.
Also, all of my managers felt terrible for me. They all offered to provide references if I needed them. One of them even wrote a glowing LOR for me for medical school. I'm not mad, either- it gave me the opportunity/ motivation I needed to finally finish my pre-reqs and apply.
I've scoured other forums on here for a similar situation. The only one that came close was from a guy who was terminated for violating HIPAA, and could not get a job at the VA afterwards. It wasn't exactly analogous, because his termination occurred far more recently than mine.
Thanks for any feedback/ help you can give me! I'm just looking for options. I definitely have considered contacting a lawyer for help, I'm just not sure what they could do.
I was previously employed at a clinic owned by a regional medical system. My employment was terminated because a doctor tricked me into completing a CME for her (some computer based thing that looked like a lecture powerpoint). The doctor gave me a website to log into, gave me her password & log in information. She asked me to complete the assignment on the website, and "let her know what I thought." Being motivated and intellectually curious, I read through the thing and answered the simple questions at the end. When I was done, I told my manager that I had gotten everything correct, and she asked to see what I was talking about. Turns out, it was something I wasn't supposed to be doing! Woops! I cooperated fully with the company's investigation. But, at the end of it, both the doctor and I were terminated. The doctor did not lose her license, she is currently working in private practice.
There really isn't anything more to my part of the story, and I'm not sure what I could have done to prevent this from happening. I was really young (just out of college) and a glorified personal assistant at the time- there was no way I was going to know A) what a CME even was or B) the significance of it to a doctor's ongoing medical training. I know the doctor in question was highly disliked by the hospital administration. I think they used this incident as a convenient way to get rid of her, and couldn't do so justifiably (aka without risking a law suit) without punishing me too. I know the doctor sued for wrongful termination, but I'm not sure how the case panned out.
My question is about pre-employment background checks. When I graduate medical school (I was recently accepted!), it will be 2020. Most VA employment background checks ask for 7 years of employment history. I was terminated at the end of June in 2013... Just barely within the 7 year window if I'm filling out paperwork in the middle of March. Do I need to/ should I include this? Is there any chance the search will be from the beginning of the residency program (like, from July 2013-July 2020)? I only need a couple days of leeway hahaha!
The only issue is the VA background check. I looked through a bunch of state's licensing forms, and nothing in them would compel me to mention this incident. To be clear, if there is a question like "have your hospital privileges every been suspended/ revoked?" or "have you ever been disciplined by an oversight committee?" the answer to both is "no." I was a low level employee (like, medical secretary level). I never had any hospital privileges, and did not have a professional license, so I was never under the jurisdiction of an oversight committee.
Also, all of my managers felt terrible for me. They all offered to provide references if I needed them. One of them even wrote a glowing LOR for me for medical school. I'm not mad, either- it gave me the opportunity/ motivation I needed to finally finish my pre-reqs and apply.
I've scoured other forums on here for a similar situation. The only one that came close was from a guy who was terminated for violating HIPAA, and could not get a job at the VA afterwards. It wasn't exactly analogous, because his termination occurred far more recently than mine.
Thanks for any feedback/ help you can give me! I'm just looking for options. I definitely have considered contacting a lawyer for help, I'm just not sure what they could do.
