Is that really a nurse?

Nurses Safety

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I work for an agency that sends me out to LTC facilities to cover overnight shifts. Oftentimes I'm the only license on the floor or even in the building. All well and good. But the really scary part, is--more often than not, the offgoing shift rarely greets me with anything more than "are you the nurse from that agency?", without even checking my ID! They don't have any idea who I am or even have me sign in anywhere...

The next time someone says "are you that nurse who's on tonight?" , I'm going to reply: "Yeah, let's go with that". And see if they have the gumption to check further.

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

That is a huge pet peeve of mine. As a supervisor and even when I wasn't.......I always made it a point to ask for identification and would greet the "agency" nurse face to face. My routine when I was a supervisor was that agency had to check in at the super's office prior to the first shift worked and then I would take them and "introduce" them to the units.

Many are lulled into a false sense of security....had to believe in this day and age.

I believe it's called "realistic risk assessment".

No, seriously, if you have a reason to believe that some criminal is trying to get into your LTC by impersonating a nurse - just ask yourself what do you think has happened to the real nurse. (And then ask yourself if you really want to be the one demanding ID...)

Okay, well that's interesting. I have to admit that I've often been the nurse waiting for someone from the agency and I have indeed said 'hi, can I help you?' and they have said 'yes, I'm so-and-so from such-and-such agency' and if the name is correct, that's been good enough for me.

It would be different if I wasn't expecting anyone, but I have to agree with cat013, it's a risk that so far I've been willing to take.

It HAS happened that I've had a feeling that something was off with the agency person to the point that I didn't feel comfortable leaving him or her with the residents, and I've sent them away and had to stay myself for the next shift because there was no-one else available anywhere.

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