I am from an “at will” state and got fired today. This is my first time working at a specialty in which we performed procedures in the office involving needles and scalpels. I started working there 5 days ago and have had a trainer work with me during this time. The clinic is severely understaffed so these five days have mostly been me just watching her do her job without her explaining much because she was in a rush to finish, and at points we didn’t even get lunch breaks.
Today I was left to care for a patient on my own and assist the physician for a surgery. Before I started, I asked the trainer if she could grab me the patients tray (which had bloody needles and scalpels) to continue the second part of the surgery and she accidentally handed me the wrong patients tray and I didnt read the name as I figured my trainer was correct. The trainer then left the room. We almost used the wrong needles from that tray on the patient when she came barging through the door before we could use them on her and stopped us saying there was a mix up and she reprimanded me for not checking. However the physician was furious because he could have “lost his license” due to this error ( which i think is BS because if he was that concerned about his license he should also be checking) and the trainer denied being the one to give me the incorrect tray, even though I denied being the one to bring it into the room.
Despite this, they said I should have checked the name on the tray and I was fired with absolutely no previous warnings. I feel like this was so unfair, especially because the trainer was not completely honest and because I felt as though it was her responsibility to be in the room with me no matter how busy it was as I was still training. I havent even learned about blood borne pathogens yet. I understand that I should have checked the name, but I feel like I deserve a warning given the circumstances and lack of training. I want to know if I have any rights or if not, if I had any grounds to report them for this. Thank you all.