Asked to Write a Formal Explanation

Published

I am an RN in CO at an Addiction RTC & today, while on break I layed down in the station to rest. I fell asleep during that & allegedly a CNA tried to awaken me once & I didnt wake up. After 20min of napping I woke up myself & during that nap the CCA called another RN at a sister facility claiming she was concerned of impairment, as I am not able to afford my heart meds (due to a company email hack where I spent 1000$ on gift cards when CEO email was hacked.) I passed my UA & Breathalyzer as well as neuros. Now I have to write a statement. Needing any help, suggestions, etc on this.

Msg from Doctor: Hope you’re feeling OK. With the concern by the cca will need to go through proper protocols. I’ll just need you to write up a formal explanation. I’ll see if I can come in during your shift Sunday or Monday to meet.

Specializes in ICU.

It's quite common for scammers to use phishing techniques to hack top level emails from CEOs to University Dean's to Presidents of real estate companies. They hack the boss' email then email lower level employees saying I need some money for xyz and cannot make it to the bank due to abc, please buy X # of gift cards and email the codes. The lower level employees out of fear and ignorance usually send the gift cards. Unfortunately no US bank will refund the victim as the money is unrecoverable. I previously worked for the largest US bank. Very common scam. I'd consult legal advice op.

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Specializes in School Nurse, past Med Surge.

Sleeping at the nurse's station wasn't the best choice. I'd guess that is their main concern here, and maybe that they (apparently) had difficulty waking you? Is there not a designated break area where you could have napped? Just keep the letter short & factual. They don't need to know about the gift card issue.

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
16 hours ago, Jory said:

You may not realize this, but if you keep calling your malpractice insurance "just to run questions by them", they will consider you a higher risk and they will refuse to renew you. You don't have to make an actual claim.

Weird, because my invites policyholders to ask them questions.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.
On 1/27/2020 at 2:20 PM, jetsy62 said:

Short simple. I was on my break. I chose to nap during my break. I woke up and successfully worked the remainder of my shift.

Yes, that is all you need to say.

I do agree the story about not being able to afford medications is confusing. Does that make you sleepy?

The problem is not this, but that someone tried to wake you up and was concerned. Frankly if I found a coworker that dead asleep and not rousable to normal stimulation I would be concerned too. However, I would have tried harder to wake you up and when successful would have then minded my own business and apologized.

This happened to a coworker on a very slow rehab unit on night shift that fell asleep while charting. She was drug screened and all was well.

In the future if you want to take a nap on your own time, why not alert your coworkers this is what you want to do.

Good luck.

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Specializes in ICU, trauma, neuro.

Perhaps she works at a facility like mine where there simply isn't sufficient staff to safely cover us during breaks most days. In tens years I've had maybe 15 real lunch breaks of 30 minutes (even though I have to clock out). Of course this is illegal, but if you complain they will simply say "you should have had a coworker cover your patients". Even though it is an ICU and that would leave the co-worker with four ICU patients (or two co workers with three, and the charge nurse usually has two ICU patients as well). Also, if you complain, they will find another "excuse" to fire you worse make you go away in a far more ominous manner. Bottom line any break I get is at the nursing station. True, I usually don't sleep, but I've had times when I was "coming down with something" or sleepy from studying where I dosed off on break.

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