Accused of falsifying charting

Tweety, BSN, RN · Apr 30

Sounds like you are omitting charting? I think it's semantics to say that you are "falsifying charting". But if you are doing wound care and not charting what you did, how the wound looks and is progressing then that is perhaps what they are talking about.

The others are in the wrong for charting wound care they didn't perform or witness but if you're not charting then you are in the wrong. In my opinion.

toomuchbaloney · Apr 30

What example of falsification did they give you? An accusation of that type should have examples/ evidence. What you described is not evidence of you falsifying anything. You need to provide more information. Maybe the problem is that you aren't including all of the pertinent observations and documentation of the wound and care.

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Apr 30

Your charting should be done under your own log-in name, separate from other nurses so each nurses entry is recorded under their own name. Need to explain more so we can try to help you.

FolksBtrippin, BSN, RN · Apr 30

Are they charting that the wound care was done, and then there is no place for you to chart it after they do that? If so, that needs to be addressed. In the meantime, do a narrative note when you do wound care.

MamuRN_15 · Apr 30

Do NOT meet with them alone. If you have malpractice ins you can call them and get legal advice. I have a couple decades in plus do legal nurse consulting. If you're in a union talk with your Steward ASAP.

kbrn2002, ADN, RN · May 2

If the nurses who are not performing the wound care are clicking that off in PCC then they are the ones falsifying documentation, not you. I was the wound care nurse in the SNF I worked in for years. I did my own charting, there is a "wound" category in PCC that should be utilized, then your charting is coded under wounds and not only in the general TAR that all floor nurses see. Then a narrative charting entry was made, this followed a specific template and was also entered under the wound category. Anybody auditing charts looking for wound charting could then easily find it. I also had floor nurses often signing off the wound care in the TAR but that charting was separate from what I entered so as far as I know nobody in management ever made an issue of it though the floor nurse was charting a treatment they didn't do.

Dee1959 · May 2

Thank you! It was an honest mistake on their part and they felt they did nothing wrong either...up until I was assigned all wound care, the floor nurses did their own wound care...it took a few days to get them to stop but they did..I did all the skin assessments and wound documentation so it was clear I was doing wound care... yet I should be "glad I wasn't fired"

kbrn2002, ADN, RN · May 3

Dee1959 said:

Thank you! It was an honest mistake on their part and they felt they did nothing wrong either...up until I was assigned all wound care, the floor nurses did their own wound care...it took a few days to get them to stop but they did..I did all the skin assessments and wound documentation so it was clear I was doing wound care... yet I should be "glad I wasn't fired"

Honestly, I would be angry about them threatening your job when clearly you did nothing wrong. Especially with an accusation of falsifying charting which is an offense that could get you in hot water with the BON if they were to act on their empty threat. There are plenty of LTC facilities, probably more than one in your area. I'd take that wound care experience elsewhere. You'd have no problem getting a job in a different place. While it's true the grass isn't always greener it's likely better than a place that potentially threatens your license with false accusations.

Dee1959 · May 3

More to the story...it took our DON 3 times to pass his RN boards ... in the meantime, my facility hired a floor RN to step in in case he didn't pass.. he did and they made the RN just a supervisor... he commented to me that he would have to find plenty for her to do so we could keep her... in the meeting where I was accused of falsifying charting, it was brought up that we were over budget on nursing managers...I was made ADON 2 years ago... they promoted a new LPN to adon 2 about 2 months ago, then hired the RN supervisor " just in case”… both of us Adons were told in the same meeting that 4 people had called and complained that we were unapproachable and rude...from the weekend double crew... We haven't worked a weekend in months! Sound fishy?

kbrn2002, ADN, RN · May 3

Dee1959 said:

More to the story...it took our DON 3 times to pass his RN boards ... in the meantime, my facility hired a floor RN to step in in case he didn't pass.. he did and they made the RN just a supervisor... he commented to me that he would have to find plenty for her to do so we could keep her... in the meeting where I was accused of falsifying charting, it was brought up that we were over budget on nursing managers...I was made ADON 2 years ago... they promoted a new LPN to adon 2 about 2 months ago, then hired the RN supervisor " just in case”… both of us Adons were told in the same meeting that 4 people had called and complained that we were unapproachable and rude...from the weekend double crew... We haven't worked a weekend in months! Sound fishy?

Sadly that doesn't surprise me. The SNF I worked for is a good one. Best reputation in our region and well deserved. But talk about top-heavy. It's a 90 bed facility separated into three wings. Day shift has 3 or 4 floor nurses, when there's a 4th that nurse works a different shift that comes in later and only works from the AM through the Supper time med passes. But there is 7, yep 7 nurses in non-bedside roles. The DON, ADON, 3 Unit Managers and 2 MDS Coordinators. So there's more than double the amount of nursing managers as there is floor nurses.

And of course after regular business hours the floor nurses are on their own. Funny how you can be unapproachable and rude when you aren't even there, huh? Part of that complaint is probably just because the floor staff are understandably frustrated when the day shift Mon-Fri is tripping over management staff but there is nobody available outside business hours. If there is not an on-call rotation for management there should be.

Dee1959 · May 3

Oh there is... we each take a week at a time and rotate... I have never even received a call from a weekend staff member during my call...I just worked an overnight shift for the RN Supr because she told me she had to work a day shift that Saturday... and she didn't... I have 12 years at this facility, the longest of anyone here... I've been through 3 buyouts in the last 2 years and had high hopes for good things... I feel like there's a target on my back