Working night shift the other night I came across orders for patient to be discharged to NH the next day. They had not been signed off, so I did so with a time of 0005, started the discharge paperwork, then completed 24 hour chart review and signed that at 0030.
The next morning the resident made rounds (2nd year I think - been around long enough to know better ) and wrote orders above my signature, added something to the discharge orders, crossed off another order, and changed my discharge paperwork. When I came across the orders before I left that morning, I called him and told him he could not alter a document after it had been signed off by a nurse, and he acted like it was no big deal. I then wrote an incident report as instructed by the nursing supervisor. The next morning, he confronted me about it and said that he didn't mean to do anything wrong, blah blah:rolleyes: , and that he was told he could be charged with fraud. I explained that he should have known that and had I not written it up it would have fallen on me as the responsible party (and you know, we nurses do not take the fall for a doctor!). (Yes, I have copies of everything!)
Anyone ever have a situation like this? What was the outcome?
