bstern

The NP would have been content to have the person warned not to do it again....but then she lied and said she did talk to him....put it in writing as well....that changed his opinion right away....now he feels as though she cannot be trusted...and would like her gone....

I'm sorry to say your educated guess is wrong. I had no problem with this nurse. I barely know her. She is new to our facility, just came from another. I think she falls into the category of one who was given a "good reference" just to leave the facility she was employed at. We all know nurses like that. I'm saying that if she is doing something like this right out of the gate, she is not worth keeping, and is a threat to all of our patients, and our licenses. I worked hard to get mine, I've maintained a good reputation, and I don't intend to have it marred by someone with no professional ethics. Would I "want" anyone to lose their job? No. Do I want to work side by side with someone capable of falsifying an order? Or work next to someone who would hang me out to dry rather than tell the truth? No, I do not. I think that someone should not be in the nursing profession if they are not willing to be a truthful, ethical person. If tomorrow turns out to be "my day", you can bet I will tell the truth and take my lumps. And that is the difference here.

Thanks! I know what you mean about the bio-clock. I worked midnights for over 20 years.

WOW...someone else who gets up as early as I do? I don't leave for work until 5, but find that if I get up at 3 I have some quiet time to myself. mmmmm....it is great!

The nurse who wrote the order wrote "verbal/telephone order" in the chart. Sorry for any misunderstanding about that. I guess what I'm really questioning is, why would she such a thing in the first place?

This was a verbal/telephone order. The nurse who "took" the order did indeed write that it was a telephone order, read back and confirmed. It was documented as such in the chart. The nurse who implemented the order had no idea until the NP came in the next day that he was never called. To me, it was a deliberate misdeed. Perhaps where she worked before she had gotten away with things like that, but our NP was not having it, and rightfully so. She not only lied about it, she wrote a statement denying it and signed it. Seems to me that she should be terminated at the very least.

I'm not really sure what you mean when you say she stepped on toes before, and now it's a matter of getting even. I really am not involved directly in this at all, except as one of the staff nurses in the facility. The NP and the co-signing nurse are the reporters of this incident. I don't feel their reporting it is getting her in trouble, her actions got her in trouble. She has no one to blame but herself for using very poor judgment. I just wanted an outside opinion on the matter.

It has been reported to our unit manager, and we are just waiting to see what she does with the information. She has asked for documentation from the NP, and from the co-signing nurse. I'm sure telephone records will be checked to verify. This is not a "new" nurse, but a seasoned professional, and she knows better. She is "new" to us, and is in an administrative position. The nurses on the unit are now leery of taking direction from her, myself included.

A nurse gives you a VO she has taken from a NP. You find out later that the NP was never actually called, and did not give the order. While the order content itself was not critical, and caused no harm, he did not give the order. What happens now? Should it be reported to the state ed dept, could she lose her job?