Work related AIBU

[Trudij123]

First post in here, wasn't sure if it should be here or in AIBU, but it's about my work, so it's here. I hope it makes sense, it's going to be long !!

I've been in my job for 17 years or so now, and was head nurse for seven. I left for 2 years and was asked to go back when my other job finished. I'm not currently qualified but am starting my training when I go back to work ( had signed up before I got pregnant and carried on with my registration thinking I could do it while off, but they said no - so can't start till I return)
Before I left work, I was acting as deputy head nurse. I had this position for a year (old head nurse went on maternity, so deputy went up and I moved into unofficial deputy, but no contract change etc, it was just expected of me)
While I've been on maternity leave one of the other girls ( who has worked for us for two years and is currently finishing her training) took over a few of my extra roles and the others shared the rest between them.
Head nurse is now leaving, her last day is before I go back. The girl who took over from me has been appointed "acting" head nurse from September, with a view to becoming it properly if she feels happy after six months. While I'm away The other trainee is the only other full time member of staff, so presumably she will step up to acting deputy until I return. She will qualify in 2016 all being well.

My bosses have a huge thing about being qualified - now there is an exam for us, if you don't have it in their eyes you are pointless. They pay me the same (new) wage as the qualified nurses (less than the ones who have left) and tell me it's because of my years of experience and they don't need me to do my exams if I don't want to. I'm only doing them for the extra money I should get and stability for me and my daughter.

So

Bearing in mind I have worked for them for a VERY long time and I know how their minds work, am I being unreasonable to be a bit miffed that I've been totally ignored for the head nurses position? There's no rule that says you have to be qualified, just that you must have at least one qualified nurse on the premises. I know full well the reason they haven't asked me is because I now have a child and the other girl doesn't, (so as far as they are concerned they will just tell her she has to do extra because she hasn't got a baby. ( I know this because I've already got the tshirt containing most of their favourite phrases) on the one hand I'm happy because I can now walk out the door at home time and not give the place another thought, but on the other, I was good enough before and it had been implied to me by one of the partners ( though she will deny it!) that when the then head nurse left I would be "back where you belong"
Now using their qualified logic, surely they will have to take the other trainee who will qualify before me to be official deputy - can they do this? I thought I was supposed to go back at least at the level I was employed at before I left?

Big assumption, but does the "me doing the job for a year therefore it's implied that I am DHN" hold any water if I go back to find the other girl is it? I know they love to trot out the " by doing XYZ you accept it as part of your job" when it suits them....

Really hope this makes sense and someone will know? I'm thrilled for the girl who is taking over - she will be great at it as long as the bosses aren't total knobheads to her and she gets some self confidence, but I'm more than a bit offended that they didn't even ask me....

[MissDemelzaCarne]

I don't understand, how can you be 'Head nurse', if you're not a qualified nurse?

[Trudij123]

It's a vets. Up till a few years ago there was no qualification for my job. The term head nurse is a figure of speech rather than like people nurses :)

[Trudij123]

Equine vets before anyone points out that the VN qualification has been around for many many years. The evn qualification has only been around for about 8 years - 7 years after I was made head nurse ( or manager if that makes it make more sense?)

[Trudij123]

Anyway, it's not that that I'm so bothered about ( just a bit miffed that I wasn't asked if I wanted to do it - as I said, I think she will be very good!) I'm more interested in wether or not they can replace me in my implied position with the other girl or if the fact that I've been doing the job for 2 years mean that I have rights to go back at a minimum of that level.

[Lonecatwithkitten]

You are almost certainly out of sight out of mind - the norm for the equine side of the industry.
I think though you will find that it is not just your bosses who have a big thing about being qualified. The RCVS are pushing for veterinary nurse to become a protected term that can only be used by RVNs. In addition to schedule 3 procedures being reviewed as RVNs are now regulated professionals.

[Trudij123]

Yes. I'm sure I've seen something about that in the VN times, that's a good thing and hopefully it will also include the EVN side.
But that's not what I'm asking and as far as I'm concerned the actual title of my job is totally irrelevant to what I'm asking here. They call me a nurse, always have done in the 20ish years I've been there so so do I. Hence me saying its a figure of speech rather than a title. I'm not suddenly not a "nurse" because there is now a qualification for it, although according to my bosses I don't have the letters so I am now not able to complete any tasks ( not schedule 3, even the qualified girls aren't allowed to do them!) unless there isn't a qualified nurse around. Which is bloody infuriating when I'm told to go and get one of the others to take the vet a twitch, despite being stood next to said twitch and the nurse in question being busy.... But I digress again, I think it's just annoyed me more than it should have and appeared in my question more as a rant than anything useful.

I realise that I took an incredibly scenic route to get to my actual question, but nobody has remotely come close to even registering what I asked - irrespective of what my job title is - I have been working for the last (technically two) years as deputy "person in charge of everything" so if I go back to work after my maternity leave ends and discover that they have given the other full time girl ( who isn't any more qualified than me at the moment!) "my" job as deputy , am I legitimately allowed to be stroppy about it or do I have to just suck it up?

I'd love to say it's not fair, but they don't care about what's fair - never have and probably never will. I'm getting ahead of myself by asking, I don't KNOW that anything has changed - I'm more curious than anything else. they are so quick to tell us that by doing something not in our contract we automatically accept it as part of our job, so in theory it should work the other way round as well?

[Lonecatwithkitten]

You need to post on the main employment board.
As I understand it you were acting deputy head nurse, they have now made someone who was below you head nurse.
Their mistake was not to inform that you could apply for the position of head nurse, which they should have done even though you were on maternity leave.
They can probably say we considered Trudi, but felt that new head nurse had better qualities and that is why we selected her.

[Trudij123]

Thankyou :) i know exactly why they've given the HN Position to her, it's because (all being well, but there's no reason not) as long as she has passed her exams, she will be the only qualified full time member of staff. Because of my maternity leave I am a year behind the other trainee, and again - if she passes her exams ( and there's no reason to suspect she won't) then she will make two qualified full timers. ( and I will make three full timers if I pass!)
There are no rules about having to have qualified nurses, only the rules about what unqualified people aren't allowed to do, hence why i was asking what happens if they ( effectively) demote me to make the other girl deputy - to my mind they shouldn't have done anything other than make the other girl deputy in the first place if they were worried about me having a baby and that I hadn't started training yet,..
I just keep reminding myself that I'm going to have lots of good things like being able to put my foot down and go home vaguely on time ;)