nonlicensed personnel using RN password and logon

[centraltexas]

I need some guidance in whom I need to report some questionable behaviors at the workplace.

We had a RN out on FMLA. Our direct supervisor at this Home Health company told 2 nonlicensed personnell to use that nurses login and password and go in and sign off on over 1000 coordination notes.

I live in Texas. I was the Palliative Care nurse for this company and worked both the Hospice and Home Health sides. When I brought up other questional behavior I all of a sudden was treated like an enemy. I went in to work one morning and looked at my schedule to find my Palliative Care patient was no longer on my schedule. I was the only Palliative Care nurse at this office. When I questioned what happened to my pt I was told a new RN would be going out to do her Recertification but not as a Palliative Care pt, she would be a Home Health pt. This pt had been hospitalized with a decline in status the prior week. A few days later I received an email from our regional manager stating she has turned in all the appropriate doccumentation for me to no longer be shared by Home Health and Hospice because of an "incident" involving me. I was then a fulltime RN CM for the Hospice side. I asked for explanation regarding the alledged "incident" but never have recieved a response. The nurse that went out to Recert the pt was a nurse I would not check off while I was her preceptor because I felt she was unsafe. Once I stated I would not sign off on her I started being treated very different and that nurse wouldn't speak to me after that. I feel like I have been bullied and discriminated against with this company but I don't know what to do about it. Advice would be greatly appreciated.

[sissiesmama, ASN, RN]

Wow! I would get out ASAP!

Anne, RNC

[applewhitern, BSN, RN]

What is the point of having a password if someone else knows it? Good luck to you.

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

Log ins are not to be shared. Period. That anyone other than the nurse involved are signing her name to care notes is outrageous. And easily trackable, as if the Rn is on a leave, pretty difficult for her to sign off on notes, no? Which could in fact mess up her FMLA, as now it appears as if she is working.

The powers that be know this is wrong. However, were counting on your silence. When that didn't happen, they seemingly are trumping up incidents to question your character as a nurse. With that being said, again, easily trackable as a nurse who is on leave is certainly not coming in to sign off 1000 care notes.

If you have a parent company, call the ethics hotline. Call your malpractice insurance for guidance.

Unfortunetely, they can and do decide to take nurses off cases all the time. That is not unheard of, regardless of reasoning. And interestingly, as a case manager, you will have access to the charting moreso than a care nurse would. Hence why they don't want you nosey-ing around in the Home Health side.

Report this also to the BON. If the care notes were not signed, there must have been a reason. That is only known to the nurse who did the notes to begin with. That they are forging signatures on documentaion is huge. That the powers that be are using another nurse's log in is huge. And could get the nurse in question in trouble to begin with--

Finally, RUN....don't walk. No telling who is getting your log in and using it for whatever......