False Documentation

What will happen to an RN who admitted falsifying a patients medical record? will the license be suspended, revoked?

STORY
A close friend of mine working in LTC 40+:1 patient:nurse ratio. One patient with end stage renal was found bleeding the RN immediately called 911 but the patient wasn't able to survive. The patient's shunt was dislodged and they cannot find out how it happened. The RN wasn't able to closely monitor the patient because of the overwhelming work and the number of patients on her shift, she wasn't able to get the patient's blood pressure... the problem is- she admitted that she charted a false blood pressure. She was terminated. This happened September 2010. Does anyone know what will happen to her license? will it be suspended/revoked?
It depends on whether or not the employer reported the reason for her termination to the board and filed a complaint. If the employer only fired her and did not report anything to the board, she could conceivably get away with nothing happening to her license.

Depends on what the BON in her state decides to do. It could be suspended, could have limits placed on it, could be revoked. In Oregon the BON publishes their disciplinary decisions on their website, kind of like a modern day police blotter of all the things they've done for all the nurses/nursing assistants in Oregon who haven't been meeting the standards.

MurrR, thanks for replying. her RN license is from CA

Has she been contacted by the state BON? If not, this may never have been reported to them. Her facility may have terminated her, cleaned it up and swept it under the rug. Unless you can provide more info, I think she may be okay.

I did know (personally) one nurse in my state who lost her license for three years for falsifying documentation in a situation that involved the death of a client.Having said that, though, each state BON handles each disciplinary situation on a case-by-case, individualized basis, taking into account all the relevant information, so there's no way to predict anything like that. As already noted, it also depends on whether the situation even gets reported to the BON in the first place.

Depends on the manager and if s/he reports it to the RN Board.It really is a shame when someone has to falsly document a B/P, however, I will say that I've been in that same situation.....and never do I falsify records. If for example I don't have "time" to get a b/p I admit it. Are you saying she didn't get the b/p at the beginning of the shift? Or she didn't get it during the crisis.

The administrator reported it to the BON. 4 months after the incident, she received a letter from the Department of consumer affairs asking her to authorize them to release her personnel records - where she used to work. After authorizing to release her records, anyone has any idea what will happen next?

Quote from redroses13The administrator reported it to the BON. 4 months after the incident, she received a letter from the Department of consumer affairs asking her to authorize them to release her personnel records - where she used to work. After authorizing to release her records, anyone has any idea what will happen next?

i don't understand why she falsified the BP. She could have had a CNA get the blood pressure while she checked on other patients. If the blood pressure was abnormally low or too high then we call 911. It covers our butt and could have saved the patient. I understand that there was an overwhelming work load as there typically is in LTC, but there is usually assistance from unlicensed personnel. I wouldn't work somewhere where I didn't have back up. If she was falsifying something so simple like a BP, what else could she be falsifying? sorry to say but this is not a safe nurse.