Tech falsified vitals

Sour Lemon · Jun 24, 2018

Came back? Are you kidding???

CelticGoddess, BSN, RN · Jun 24, 2018

There was an incident at the hospital I work at where many nurses noticed that she wasn't getting up to do vitals after bringing it up to our director she investigated and the tech admitted that she did make up vitals. Our director suspended her for 3 days and when she came back she told the charge nurse she had only made up vitals for 2 weeks which is 6 shift at 12 patients a shift times 3 is 216 made up vitals .. I feel she has done this longer and don't want to work with her for fear of my patients.. can I go above my director and call our compliance line... not sure what steps I can take but I know I can't trust her to do her job. Not to mention all of the falsification on these charts. Any advice would be helpful

If you don't trust her, then do your own vitals. And chart them. YOu, ultimately, are responsible for your patient. And if you are giving meds that you need an accurate set of vitals, you really need to trust what is charted is accurate. You're going to be better off getting them yourself.

allnurses Guide · Jun 24, 2018

There was an incident at the hospital I work at where many nurses noticed that she wasn't getting up to do vitals after bringing it up to our director she investigated and the tech admitted that she did make up vitals. Our director suspended her for 3 days and when she came back she told the charge nurse she had only made up vitals for 2 weeks which is 6 shift at 12 patients a shift times 3 is 216 made up vitals .. I feel she has done this longer and don't want to work with her for fear of my patients.. can I go above my director and call our compliance line... not sure what steps I can take but I know I can't trust her to do her job. Not to mention all of the falsification on these charts. Any advice would be helpful

Easy solution is to take your own vitals

caliotter3 · Jun 24, 2018

Find another CNA task to hold this individual accountable for to make up for the fact that you are doing part of her shift responsibilities by taking your own vitals. No way would I ever trust this person, who, BTW, has most likely been falsifying the vitals since the beginning of her employment. That is a very good reason why almost all employers immediately fire personnel caught doing this.

Kallie3006, ADN · Jun 25, 2018

I cant get over the fact that the CNA is falsifying patients records and there wasn't repercussion for it.

JadedCPN, BSN, RN · Jun 25, 2018

Unfortunately I am not surprised to hear that vitals were falsified, but I am just flabbergasted that the person wasn't fired. Along with sleeping on the clock, this has been an immediately fireable offense at any facility I've worked at. I would most definitely refuse the help of the tech from here on out as I would rather make sure things are being done right (or even done at all) even if it means some extra work for me, and if anyone asked me why I was refusing I would professionally state the reason why.

nightlightnurseaide · Jun 25, 2018

Came back? Are you kidding???

agreed all those vitals my god what if someone died

thoughtful21, BSN, RN · Jun 25, 2018

A tech that I worked with did this, and was immediately fired. I couldn't believe it...why would anyone make up vital signs? She threw her whole career down the tubes along with her reputation in our community. It takes 5 minutes to go in and put a blood pressure cuff on. It seems like it'd be more work to make them up. Also, didn't she realize that she would be caught? In this case, a mistake was almost made in the care of a critical patient because she said their vitals were normal. Then more checking was done, and they learned she'd made up a lot.

After reading this post, I realized that this happens more often than I thought. I just don't get it. Maybe they don't realize the importance of vital signs, or they feel that they are too busy...? Luckily there are a lot of good CNA's out there that we can count on though!

brownbook · Jun 25, 2018

There is another thread on Allnurses, General Nursing, asking if nurses are enablers. The solutions offered here, for the poster to take the vitals herself, is a great example of enabling. Plus not very helpful for a busy nurse on a busy unit.

Before you go above your director can you get your co-workers, including other techs, to meet with your director. Tell your director you don't trust the tech, don't want to work with her, etc. Or something like that?

Perhaps even tell your director you are going to notify her boss or compliance line if this tech continues to work.

I am never good at thinking up appropriate things to say when there is a conflict, so don't use my exact words.

psu_213, BSN, RN · Jun 25, 2018

This kinda irritates me a bit (a lot). The CNA did not do her job and then lied about it. Why she was not fired is beyond me. The response then becomes "do her job for her," even though she is still getting paid to be there? I agree, you can't just let these vitals go, but make sure this CNA is tasked with something else. If she does not complete these tasks correctly, write her up.

Also, incident reports are not meant to be punitive, however this CNA's actions put pt's at risk for harm. For that reason, I think an incident report should be entered. Don't name names, stick to facts, but the powers that be, beyond the NM, need to be aware that pt's are being put at risk. It may be time consuming, but enter one for each pt and each incident, if possible. The wording may be a bit tricky....something along the lines of "VS were charted as taken at 1200. Pt adamant that no VS had been taken for 'hours'." Hopefully someone will get the idea.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Jun 25, 2018

Years ago, when I came into work a half hour before my day shift started, I found a code in progress. An elderly woman wearing a Holter monitor was the patient. As questions were flying, I went to get the vital signs flowsheet -- and was able to tell the doctors that she had normal vital signs at 2am and 6am. After it was all over, the Holter monitor was removed and was read immediately to get some insight into the patient's arrest. From the Holter monitor, it was clear that the patient had been in VT at 11pm, progressing to VF and asystole before midnight. Yet she still had those normal vital signs posted at 2am and 6am.

The investigation revealed that our NA -- we'll call him Melvin -- had a habit of doing vital signs by ESP. When I left two years later, Melvin was still employed and still doing his vital signs by ESP. The nurse who was working with Melvin that night was fired for failure to supervise. They called her home that very afternoon to tell her not to bother coming to work ever again.