Being Asked By DON to Resubmit Incident Reports

[kendrasuey]

Hoping for some insight here-

I am an RN at a small nursing home. On Monday of this week, I submitted 2 incident reports to my DON, she admits that she "KNOWS" I did them but now, on Friday, they are nowhere to be found. She is requesting that I redo them over the weekend to have them ready for her on Monday morning. I am not sure I feel this is right? I didn't lose them and I can hardly remember yesterday, let alone Monday. The incident report is just a facility policy, it isn't part of the chart (we still paper chart). Any input?

Thanks!

[Tenebrae, BSN, RN]

Its happened to me.

I redid them and made sure from that point on I photocopied everything for my clinical record. I also put on the top of the form 'orginal form given to "such and such" this is a second form and may not be exactly the same" Stayed in my locker on the facility however I find it rude and disrespectful when people loose paper work

Our clinical manager has lost medication competencies of various staff and they have had to redo them. Everyone photocopies their competency now

[morte, LPN, LVN]

Its happened to me.

I redid them and made sure from that point on I photocopied everything for my clinical record. I also put on the top of the form 'orginal form given to "such and such" this is a second form and may not be exactly the same" Stayed in my locker on the facility however I find it rude and disrespectful when people loose paper work

Our clinical manager has lost medication competencies of various staff and they have had to redo them. Everyone photocopies their competency now

And i bet, they don't go "missing" anymore!

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Hoping for some insight here-

I would complete the incident reports once again...if you refuse, you might subtly end up with a target on your back from this point forward. Insubordination is not perceived in a positive light by the majority of nurse managers.

Good luck to you.

[amoLucia]

You already documented in your nurses notes the occurrence. An incident form pretty much repeats much the same info, with some few extra details usually. So unless you weren't being asked to deviate from your original report (as you best remember it) by embellishing or laundering some of the information I don't see a big problem here. It is critical for the administration to have incidents reports as they most often DO contain supplemental information usually NOT recorded in the chart.

And yes, incidents reports are in-house documents, but they are almost ALWAYS requested by State surveyors for review whenever they come out for special investigations or for routine surveys. They are legal documents and can be subpoenaed. If your incidents reflected SENTINEL EVENTS, it is all the more important that your DON have your reports so she do her internal investigation with interventions and also make her report to the appropriate authority ASAP in a mandated 'timely fashion'.

FWIW, I hated the redundancy of multiple similar documentation, but that's what is required these days. Not worth making a snit over it

[caliotter3]

I have been asked to resubmit documentation that went missing. I make notations on the second submission that indicate it is a second rendering of the form. When I got told one time to remove that notation, I refused. No way am I going to have three versions of a legal document floating around the office so that they can take action against me for "falsifying" documentation that they "lost".

[amoLucia]

Caliotter3 - I like your post. I don't recall ever having to rewrite an incident report. To be honest, sometime I wish I had had the opportunity to rewrite an IR or nsg note. Sometimes when I would re-read something I wrote, I would think I must have been asleep when I wrote it. But I would write it as best as I could at the time.

And then, I could never understand how someone would leave a facility WITHOUT doing the 2 most critical-est documentation pieces (even when I know that facilities frown upon overtime).

[SWM2009]

This used to happen all of the time in our facility - love the DON but she would lose her head if it wasn't attached to her body. Thankfully almost all documentation, including incident reports, is now electronic. So much better.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

It's annoying to have to resubmit paperwork because someone else lost it. But if that someone else is your boss, just suck it up and resubmit the paperwork. I like the idea of writing "Second submission" on it -- it explains why it's not exactly the same as the first.

I've written some incident reports that were somewhat . . . colorful. When offered the opportunity to redo them, I took it. What seems like a good idea in the heat of the moment often isn't.

[morte, LPN, LVN]

i think part of the problem is the implied threat that the first one wasn't what the PTB wanted. keep photo copies, and resubmit the exact same thing again.

[kendrasuey]

Thank you everyone for your input. I redid both incident reports today and hand wrote, "Original report turned in to DON mailbox on 12-14-15. This is the 2nd submission of the report. Answers here may not be exactly the same as the original." And signed and dated it, glad they're done, I have copies now. Now I hope there's no backlash because I wrote that.....

[CapeCodMermaid, RN]

I've had nurses tell me they left something in my mail box when in reality, they never did the form at all.

Ive also had things taken out of my mailbox so give your DON some slack.