Falsified a Blood Sugar

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I am a new nurse and worked in a LTC facility where I was recently terminated for falsifying a Blood Sugar reading. I feel horrible about it and I just want to crawl under a rock. I was running late passing meds and I completely forgot to take a BS for a patient who is diabetic but is not on any medications or insulin for their diabetes. I was freaking out... this is my first job out of college and I thought I'd be in big trouble if I didn't record this Blood Sugar so I made one up. Needless to say they caught me and fired me. Going forward, I am worried I will get my license suspended or revoked bc of falsifying the medical record. Any input on what I should do as I move forward in my nursing career?

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If you escape punishment from the Board for this and get another job, never do it again. That is all you can do at this point. A coworker made up all of her BS's on night shift. I discovered this one night and discussed it with the supervisor. Along with the sleeping on duty and other instances of not doing the job, I can't understand why she was never fired. Versus your one instance, (that you acknowledge). As they say, life is not fair. Best wishes going forward.

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What is the typical punishment for this? Should I worry about getting my license revoked?

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Have you reflected on the harm that could have happened to the patient as a result of falsifying a blood sugar? Hypoglycemia? Hyperglycemia? Undertreatment or no treatment when treatment is indicated, or overtreatment?

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Yes, it's all I think about. I feel not only like a Terrible nurse but a terrible human being. I know I deserved to be fired. I let everyone down and my patient deserves better. I didn't realize I had forgotten to take it until the end of my shift and I panicked. I usually am on top of things but my day got away from me but there are no excuses.

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This patient had no orders for any diabetic treatments or medications of any kind- just for the readings.

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Specializes in Hospice, corrections, psychiatry, rehab, LTC.
What is the typical punishment for this? Should I worry about getting my license revoked?

It depends upon the board in your state. You have falsified a medical record, which is a legal document recording information that could influence a patient's treatment. My guess is that you will be required to complete some additional training, and there is a possibility that your license may be suspended for a specified period of time. Revocation probably won't happen, since this is a first offense and there is not a history of multiple instances of this happening. As I said, though, this is just an educated guess. Your nursing board may or may not follow this course of action.

What could also be problematic for you is the fact that you have little experience in the field, yet you will have discipline against your license. That is not an attractive combination for a potential future employer. This information will also remain on your record from now on.

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No matter the outcome from the Board, you can expect a very hard time securing employment.

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Specializes in Med Surge, Tele, Oncology, Wound Care.

Not to dig the knife deeper, why didn't you just check the blood sugar at the end of the shift? Sure it was very late, better late than never.

You learned your lesson.

The only way the board will find out is if your employer tells them.

They probably won't, the firing is probabaly punishment enough, unless you live in Texas

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I think your owning up to it will go a long way to convince someone else to hire you.

I don't know what your Board will do, if anything. Do they even know about it?

As someone else said, there is so much that goes on - sleeping on the job, not charting, not doing all the ordered treatments, just so much. Not that any of this excuses or justifies your behavior, but I'm not sure you did worse than some of these other things. Panic is understandable.

How do you plan to go about job hunting? Are you going to blurt out this error as you walk through the door to your interviews? Are you going to put it in your resume and cover letter?

You feel, rightfully, very bad. But you still, I assume, need to make a living and plan to do it in Nursing. So, what's your plan?

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Have you reflected on the harm that could have happened to the patient as a result of falsifying a blood sugar? Hypoglycemia? Hyperglycemia? Undertreatment or no treatment when treatment is indicated, or overtreatment?

Did you read the original post?

The patient was not on any type of diabetic medication. Sounds like diet controlled or borderline diabetic”.

The problem is the falsification of records. I've never seen orders written for non medicated diabetics.

A better question is how was the fraud uncovered? Did OP self report?

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Years ago I had a Nurse falsify MY blood sugar in my records. I KNEW damn well she never tested it. She said it was something like 150 so she gave me 5U of "R" Insulin. UGH....in less than 15 minutes I took my own blood sugar because I didnt feel good. It was 37!!! I "pulled the red cord" and showed the RN who came in. OMG she lit that place up like the 4th of July. The DON wasnt real happy to say the least. I dont know if any of you have ever actually had a BS reading that low but it seriously kicks your ass and you have to be super quick to stop it.

Sooooo, please please please dont ever guess-ti-mate the actual reading.

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