An agency nurse wrote a colleague’s name and signature on six timesheets and later applied for a job without disclosing that her Nursing and Midwifery Council registration had been suspended
The charges
1. While working at a community hospital, Nurse A wrote Colleague A’s name and signature and position in the space allocated for the authorising client’s signatory to complete on six timesheets;
2. Her actions were dishonest as they intended to give the impression the shifts had been authorised by Colleague A;
3. Omitted/failed to inform the practice surgery of the restriction on her practice;
4. Her actions in charge 3 were dishonest in that she deliberately sought to mislead the practice surgery by withholding this information.
The background
Nurse A was employed as an agency nurse at a community hospital. She was deployed by the hospital on an ad hoc basis as part of its out-of-hours nursing team. Nurse A was required to complete timesheets, which were then authorised and signed by an appropriately qualified person at the hospital and faxed to the agency, before payment was issued.
Colleague A, a nurse at the trust, noticed her name and purported signature on one of Nurse A’s timesheets and was not aware of ever having signed a timesheet for Nurse A, as they had never worked a shift together. A review discovered a further five timesheets which purported to have Colleague A’s name and signature on them.
It was accepted by the trust that Nurse A did work the hours claimed. Nurse A attended an NMC hearing before the Conduct and Competence Committee in relation to a separate matter. As a result, Nurse A’ s NMC registration was suspended for eight months.
Nurse A applied for a job at the practice surgery as a healthcare assistant and was asked if they were the subject of any HR investigations, to which she responded “No” and did not disclose her suspension. Nurse A was successful in her application. The practice checked the NMC website and found that she had been suspended from practising as a nurse. It was alleged that Nurse A initially described the NMC suspension as “spent” and “old”, before acknowledging that they were suspended. As a result, Nurse A was dismissed immediately.
At the hearing
Nurse A admitted the charges. The previous hearing concerned allegations that Nurse A had dishonestly accepted salary payments from their previous employer for nine months after leaving, and had taken no action to alert the trust to this mistake or return the overpayments. The allegations were found proved and the panel imposed a suspension order of eight months.
The panel felt that Nurse A’s actions amounted to multiple acts of dishonesty over a prolonged period. It also considered that, at the time Nurse A forged Colleague A’s signature, she was facing an upcoming NMC hearing. The panel was satisfied that her actions fell seriously short of the standards expected of a registered nurse and amounted to misconduct.
Nurse A had acted dishonestly and breached a fundamental tenet of the profession, namely to act with honesty and integrity. Despite expressing a developed level of insight into the impact of their misconduct and the importance of honesty at the earlier hearing, this was not reflected in Nurse A’s actions since. Nurse A was in fact continuing to act dishonestly by forging Colleague A’s signature. Furthermore, Nurse A attempted to conceal their suspension when applying for a healthcare assistant role.
The panel decided that there was a significant risk that Nurse A would behave dishonestly in the future. The panel was satisfied that Nurse A’ fitness to practise was impaired.
Results of the fitness-to-practise panel
The FtP panel can impose four different sanctions:
- Caution: the nurse or midwife is cautioned for their behaviour, but is allowed to practise without restriction
- Conditions of practice: this will prevent a registrant from carrying out certain types of work or working in a particular setting, it may require them to attend occupational health or do retraining. The order can be applied for up to three years and must be reviewed by an FTP panel again before expiry
- Suspension: the nurse or midwife will be suspended from practice for a period of initially not longer than one year, but this can be extended after review by an FTP panel
- Striking off: a nurse or midwife is removed from the register and not allowed to practise in the UK. The nurse or midwife must apply to be readmitted to the register
Share what you believe is the right action for the NMC panel to take below and then find out what they decided: Final panel decision and reasons
"colleague" - Google News
September 07, 2021 at 06:16PM
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What should happen to a nurse who forged a colleague's signature on timesheets? - Nursing Times
"colleague" - Google News
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