opinions please?

Published

A co-worker nurse has bragged to me 3 times now that our agency has missed that her BLS expired. She is glad she didn't have to re-cert.

What do you think of this?

Specializes in Private Duty, L&D.

Irresponsible of that nurse to let her certification lapse if she is gainfully employed. Our continuing education is OUR responsibility, not the agency's. Bad....bad....bad.....

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My employers can "forget" to provide my paycheck, but they surely won't forget to request my CPR update.

Ain't that the truth!

Not that I'd try to get away with it anyway. Like eeffoc said, I take pride in keeping my certs up to date.

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Specializes in pediatric.

Personally, I would keep updated, and do. Even if not being current with her BLS isn't affecting your coworker now, it may later, and what a hassle that would be- trying to back track, and provide documentation, and whatever else is involved. Seems like it makes the most sense to just keep current and adhere to a standard of quality that's expected of our profession :)

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Also if the state audits her agency's files and finds her BLS out of date, the agency AND the nurse will get fined. Wouldn't want to risk that.

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Specializes in Peds(PICU, NICU float), PDN, ICU.
Also if the state audits her agency's files and finds her BLS out of date the agency AND the nurse will get fined. Wouldn't want to risk that.[/quote']

That may depend on the state. In my state, nurses aren't required to maintain CPR cert. Some jobs don't require it here if the nurse just does paperwork. But the majority of employers require it here. That makes me curious about how other states work.

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Specializes in Peds Homecare.

At my agency, if your BLS expires we are not allowed to work. It is against state regulations for anyone providing home nursing to be without it.

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Specializes in Gerontology RN-BC and FNP MSN student.

It says a lot about her and the agency's standards.

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Specializes in Pediatric.

We are not required in CA to show that we've renewed CPR when we renew license. However every job I've ever had had been on me like white on rice a month it's expired. So I am surprised that the agency looked over this.

Sent from my iPhone using allnurses.com

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.

I think it says more about her agency than her. My CPR card expired when I worked in assisted living. My boss said "Don't worry about it", and I took the next available CPR class. At my current job, when I mentioned offhand that my card had expired, I was very surprised to find that I wasn't allowed to work without a valid card. They had to get some kind of 2-week waiver from corporate to keep me in the field. I found a class that afternoon, took a class 2 days later, and had my card within a week.

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It is HER responsibility to keep up with all certifications! Come on now! My agency is supposed to remind us like 30 days before something expires (PPD, CPR, etc) but they forget all the time. I understand that it is my job to keep up with these things, not anyone else's! A reminder is helpful, but I won't rely on anyone else when it comes to keeping up with things that can affect my licensure. And lacking a BLS certification WILL eventually affect your licensure!!

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Specializes in Home Health, PDN, LTC, subacute.

My agency is always on top of it but this winter they let people slide if they proved they registered for a class and it was canceled or rescheduled. I personally think they should offer it to employees for free, the LTC I worked in did.

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Specializes in LTC, Memory loss, PDN.

i'm a little late to this thread, but my question is

why would you not recertify

yes, it might be a pia, but it's CEUs and things always change

maybe ask her,"do you not want to have the latest knowledge?"

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