I have an unusual problem, that I hope someone can help me with. In the past year, our hospital has had an influx of nurses of all types: travelers, agency nurses, per diems, etc. and our hospital was also recently taken over by a well known corporation which buys up small community hospitals. During the course of the takeover, the Director of our Unit gave her resignation. It was difficult to find a replacement, but eventually a traveling nurse who had worked in other departments was hired to become the director. Recently, a fellow nurse discovered that our Director, who has now been on board nearly a year, is not listed as having a license with our state. In addition, he does not have a certification for CCRN, according to the AACN listings, however he signs all his memos with RN, CCRN, etc. and he also wears that title on his name badge. I would be inclined to forget about this, but now it is starting to worry me. Is it possible that nurses from other states somehow can slip through the cracks so that their history doesn't follow them? Can my hospital be sued in some way by patients who discover this? I don't want to be fired myself, but I want to be able to trust the integrity of the Director.
