I am not sure under which category to post but I'm seeking some advice on what my next course of action should be. I'm currently staying out the remainder of my prepaid hotel room for the next 3 nights, at a small town in the midwest, as opposed to working during my stay as previously scheduled. I came here to work as an LVN charge nurse in a Covid facility. Warmly accepted by the existing staff, I've been working 12 hour night shifts.
I was here for about 1 week before another travel nurse, which happened to be from the same state from which I traveled came in one morning to start her assignment to fill the day shift need that the facility had for a charge nurse.
Skipping ahead, it became routine that we would expect to see each other and exchange report with one another, every single day, as neither of us were taking any days off according the schedule. Shift report started to become a bit more rough as opposed to smooth in regards to attitudes, conversing, speaking over one another, interrupting one another during report, etc., etc. The ridiculousness of it all, but I couldnt just get up and walk away, I had to sit and go through it until the last patient was reported on...everyday, twice per day.
Skipping ahead again, one morning earlier this week, the ECS went down for a scheduled downtime during which we were to resort to paper documentation. A readmission returned to the facility during the time when the system was down. She came with a slew of orders from the hospital. Of course the orders needed to be verified, but at 4am I was lucky to get the on call NP to call me back at 5am. When she called, she declined to verify the orders with me either over the phone or by fax. She instructed me to wait until the staff NP came on duty later in the morning since this patient had been long term, was a readmission and most, if not all of the medication orders were just going to be updates. Which meant that I would need to monitor this patient and act accordingly until the orders were reviewed.
When the day shift traveler came in, she was none too happy about this. This meant more work for her. Her shift starts at 6am. When we got to this part of report , she lost it, jumped up out of the chair, charged down the hall, shrieking about how she was not going to let me do this to her, as well as a few other choice insults directed at cutting me down. I stood up & stood still at the nurses station as I watched this large woman angrily charging up and down the hallway, ranting. Other staff members stood silently and watched as well. Once I realized that I wasnt going to be able to get anywhere near this woman to finish report so I could leave, I contacted the director of nursing to let her know what was going on. The method of contact at that time of morning was via text message which was sent at 0707.
At 0905, I received a text message from the DON telling me that my name had been taken off of the schedule for remainder of my scheduled shifts (5 in total) .
That same afternoon I received information that the angry day shift travel nurse had been reporting that I had not been doing any of my dressing changes nor any of my bolus tube feedings at night. What's more, at this facility where she was a traveler just as I was, she was going into one patient's supply of tube feeding formula which comes in 240 ml cartons, and numbering each carton with an ink pen. After I would leave she would go in to see if any of the cartons that she numbered were gone and if they weren't, then she could prove the lies that she was reporting about me. I found out that she would re-number additional cartons as I used them so that it looked like they werent being used as none of the numbered cartons were missing. In addition, she was removing the dressing changes that I complete, sign & date every night with her own dressing change, name & date! She had recruited one of the staff medication aides to help her in her quest to malign me (dummy!) So cutthroat!
But the very worst part follows, and this is where I need advice. On the very same day that I received the message from the DON regarding the cancellation of my shifts, I get a call from my grown son at home in Houston, TX. He tells me that an investigator from Child Protective Services just left. They went to my home looking to investigate me for anonymous allegations of severe child abuse against 2 children that live in my house, ages 9 & 12. That the allegations come from someone claiming to know that I used to live in 2 other states which is how they know of me.
Its true... I have lived in those 2 other states, each one more that 20 years ago; it is also true that I had 2 children, ages 9 & 12, living in my home...but that also was a very long time ago ( those children are now grown). The thing about it is knowing that when CPS get a complaint, they are obligated to investigate immediately. Rarely does 1 whole day pass before they are seeking to investigate the alleged perpetrator.
I've been out of town on this same assignment, same hotel, working at the same facility since October 30th. As of the date of this post, I am still here and haven't left yet. I believe that this other travel nurse is so full of spite that she actually pulled up my personal information on one of those pay to investigate anyone websites and used the information to make false allegations against me with CPS. Not being very bright, this woman, it's the best thing she could think to do to try to hurt me and give herself some weird sense of satisfaction.
This thing is still ongoing, because the CPS case hasn't been closed just yet. I'm not worried too much about the outcome of the CPS case because nothing about the allegations that were made line up except my address and the fact the my children are 3 years apart. But, I don't think that a 51 or 52y.o. woman, all of 5'7" is gonna do enough damage to "child" that is 6' 2" or 6' 3" tall, both strapping young men of 24 and 27 years old to where someone would need to secretly call Child Protective Services to step in and save those children from their abusive Mommy! LOL
I am worried that she will get away with making false allegations, and the abuse of the services of CPS, where I think her ultimate goal is to attempt to screw with the status of my Texas nursing license by reporting the allegations to the TBON! She also has a Texas nursing license!
Sooo, that was the short version, because I've already contacted the police here in the city where I am located for the next few days. They say they cant make a report unless I have proof that she made the allegations. I'm hoping to be able to get to that point, but I know it'll take some Kind of technical computer magician to do that. I appreciate advice. Thanks for reading.
