Nightingale/Media
http://www.standard.net/Local/2015/04/26/Nightingale-College-give-back-day - write comment
| Friday, February 9, 2018 | ||
|---|---|---|
On Friday, February 9, 2018, at approximately 9:15 am, as an employee of Nightingale, I mailed my work laptop to the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (hereafter "ACEN") director, . I am deeply concerned that my issues are not being addressed fully and if I continued to work on this computer, the forensic evidence of what CEO Mikhail Shneyder had asked me to do during ACEN would be deleted.
At 1 pm, because I did not promptly come in at 11 am from a dentist appointment, my immediate supervisor Susan Jero called, with HR director Kevin Smith. I told them that I sent my computer to ACEN that morning. I was terminated over the telephone. Later that day, I texted Susan Jero that I was retaining a lawyer on Monday. On Friday, February 9, 2018, Susan Jero sent an email with a deadline of Monday to decide on how to end my employment, she gave me three options. [email forwarded by request] |
 | |
| Background |
|---|
|
My name is Travis Lee Bailey. I am an international attorney, licensed to practice law in Washington DC.* I am currently not licensed in Utah and work at at Nightingale Nursing College (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightingale_College), a for profit school which is at risk of losing its accreditation with ACEN in March 2018. I am currently the secretary "coordinator" directly under Susan Jero, the Director of Nursing Education Services [NES], a non-legal position. I started this job on August 7, 2017. Nightingale has a phenomenal 24% annaul turn over rate with staff. Stories abound among staff about how terrible it is to work at the organization. Most of these problems stem from Kara, the director of Finances and the Russian CEO, Mikhail. Nursing schools must be licensed by accredited national organizations to stay open. Like many for profit colleges, Nightingale is getting intense pressure from the federal government to show demonstrable pass rates and academic standards or risk being shut down. Nightingale is about to lose accreditation from ACEN. Utah is a right to work state, but there are very strict rules about the way that nursing schools much function nationally, there are also strict rules Nightingale must follow regionally, if they do not follow these rules a nursing college risks losing accreditation. I am not an expert in accreditation guidelines but Nightingale (may) be breaking several of these accreditation rules by doing the following. |
I will now explain some of these concerns which I brought to the college's attention.
- In August 2016, the Russian CEO of Nightingale College, Mikhail Shneyder ask me to spy on Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN), the accreditation organization that licenses nursing. This spying meant that I would ask all of the staff to write down questions that ACEN asked. I also sat in all of the meetings as an employee of Nightingale under the guise of technical support which Susan Jero approved. This is strictly against the rules of ACEN. ABHES had accused Nightingale of recording the sessions before, and only after a lengthy battle did Nightingale retain their accreditation with ABHES. Although this verbal conversation with Mikhail was face to face, I have electronic and hard copy proof that the four directors of Nightingale knew about it. Susan Jero signed off on it twice, and Kara signed off on it once. Ignorant of the history of this organization, I interpreted the conversation with Shneyder as that I should record the conversation. Executech Curtis Hartley told me that he lied to ACEN official Bill M. and stated it was his initiative, in an attempt to "shield" Nightingale. I was severely reprimanded for recording this online conference, but Kara, Mikhael and Sue supported me collecting these questions and responses for future "ACEN meetings". This is when I found out from Curtis that Nightingale had almost lost its accreditation with ABHES.
It is very likely that Nightingale will lose these final appeal in March against ACEN in March 2018. If ACEN and ABHES finds out about this it could jeopardize Nightingale's accreditation not only with ACEN, but with ABHES, regional accreditation, etc.
- Nepotism - Director Kara hired her son Chase and his best friend Kyle as IT tech support employees at Nightingale. It is an open secret with the organization. I spoke at length on Wednesday with the IT director Carson about my concerns about this. He said that they were addressing the problem that very day, and that Chase would now have strict guidelines to follow. He acknowledged the problems were endemic with Chase. He could have also potentially shared this with the directors. IT personal Russ Fuller discussed at length how the school "misappropriate funds" with the Nepotism - in his words, this allows "Kara to not have to pay for Kyle's car payments" etc. Russ stated that the school was being fleeced by Kara. I brought these issues up to Carson also. I repeatedly told Susan Jero about what Russ Fuller was telling me about the school in confidence. She suggested that I "don't talk to Russ" anymore. Based on Russ's body language and aggressive stance toward me, I suspect that Susan Jero divulged this confidences.
- HR Confidentiality - In my first four months Elia Miller openly discussed past employees records and misdeeds with me at work. It really shocked me the number of people that Nightingale has fired or who have quit. She openly discussed a former director who had worked at the college and who had gotten a 6 month severance package when he was fired. This former director may have signed a confidentiality agreement which Elia maybe violating. When I brought this to my direct boss attention on Wednesday February 7, Sue Jero, she openly admitted that Elia Miller discussing past clients was a past issue. Elia would openly talk about Suzette, another past director of nursing who crossed Mikhail.
- HR retention rate, historical retaliation and personal retaliation I complained about the high turnover rate and some of the things I had heard from the employees with Kara and the HR director Kevan in writing. We had a conference call. On November 12, Kevin had the door unlocked in my office by another employee, and without knocking, came into my office and threatened me, with his finger in my face saying, if you "keep this attitude up you will not last here". [Note]
- Personal Retaliation - Nic Flores, the assistant directly below Mikhail, filed a frivolous HR complain against me. Both Kevan and Susan Jero acknowledged that it was frivolous. Kevan warned me that if I responded to this complaint "one of us would be fired" and Susan Jero told me to drop the complaint. Before and after the meeting Kevin told me that this was "not a democracy" repeatedly in which Susan Jero was a witness. When I gave the written complaint to Susan Jero about Kevin threatening me on November 12, she said "there is nothing here" and dismissed it. Refusing me to file the complaint.
- Fire code violations. On Thursday I discussed at length with Nerima the problems with Nightingale with fire code violations which Nightingale must strictly follow. She said that Nightingale is a firetrap [my words]. she discusses her frustration about CEO sounding "annoyed" when she told him about this problem. I tell her I just walked downstairs last night and it ends at level 2. I asked her if she knew I was an attorney. She said no. I told her about options that we could do [ladder outside of window], liability in a suit, etc. she says that she will include me in the meeting with Kara and KayDee. I express my reservations about that, knowing how angry KayDee and Kara will be if she suggests that I be part of the meeting, but she says she is okay with this as it is her meeting. She may have told Kara about this discussion that I had on Thursday with her.
- Other issues not relating to me directly
- HR issues Accreditation director Faith Williamson in my third week discussed how some "woman" (probably Kara since there is only two female directors, Susan and Kara) got in an argument with her best friend Taylor Allen when she complained about conditions at Nightingale. Allen argued about the written guidelines on working. This woman crossed out the HR rules while she was sitting in front of her. This woman was then pushed out of Nightingale for arguing with this woman. I did not bring this issue up to anyone.
- Everyone in the school is frightened of Kara, the director who hired her son to work in IT. In receptionist Sylvia's words, "you will do just fine if you just don't cross Kara". I witnessed Kara and Mikhail screaming at the top of their lungs at each other at work. Everyone said at one time this was common. Susan said this was the reason that she had moved to another part of the office. When I brought up my ambitions, I was warned on Friday, February 2, 2018 by Marketing director Jonathan Tanner about how it was "dangerous" to attempted to do anything outside of Nursing Education. John Bowen talked about how he would watch whole groups of people walk out of Nightingale in one day.
- On Wednesday, John Bower later warned me about how vindictive Nic Flores, the assistant to the director can be. Elia Miller stated that the replacement to Suzette would openly fight with Nic Flores.
