Forged signature

[Joyfulnurse79]

I will try to make this as brief as possible.

My coworkers and I work in a long term care unit for veterans. We have a nurse who had her license suspended for diverting drugs three or four years ago. She returned two years ago.

She is an extremely difficult co worker in that she is one of those ones who is almost chameleon like and her ability to charm people ( including management ) but she is difficult to trust.

We are also struggling because our management is sub par, overwhelmed, and currently looking for a new job. Follow up after incidents does not always happen.

The most recent incident with said nurse involved an insulin being given. The way it works in our facility is signed in the MAR, then double signed and checked in the diabetic records.

Said Nurse was on day shift. An LPN noticed the RN had not given an insulin that was due and said nurse was on break. The LPN started preparing the insulin and said nurse returned from break and got angry. The LPN told evening shift of incident who then checked to make sure the insulin was given, nothing was signed for.

The evening RN mentioned it to said Nurse and asked if it was given and just forgotten to sign ( which is somewhat impossible, due to double signing needed before given, but whatever)....her answer was " leave it with me".

To make a long story short, when that evening RN went to check again the following day, the RN in question had put a time in the diabetic records, her signature, and had forged the evenings RN as a double signature. The evening RN of course got upset and asked what that was all about , and the RN in question said " oh it must have been someone else" and crossed it out with an error.

This is ridiculous. As far as we can tell, nothing is being done, as management was notified, and said nurse in question has been at work all week in the best of moods carrying on in her usual manner.

If for some reason, management doesn't follow up with this , can this be reported to the association, like , we are all dumbfounded thinking this is something major, but it seems as though it's being treated as a " oops, don't do that again!"

Any insight?

[ruby_jane, BSN, RN]

Follow your chain of command. You may or may not see any result from management as most times we won't know what happens with our co-workers' disciplinary action.

Has this risen to the level of ingrained pattern and should you report the co-worker to the BON? That's for you to decide. Best of luck.

[JKL33]

If all of this was going on and if I were the evening RN, my message to admin would be, "She is leaving or else consider my 2 weeks notice tendered."

I would not work closely with someone who behaves like this, and I wouldn't work for an employer that allowed it.

(That said, being the "best of moods" this week means she has probably been written up. That's what they do...constant attempts to manipulate others' perceptions of reality.)