Question: When you suspect somebody in your workplace is tampering with your paperwork (patient reports) and altering what you have written, what do you do?
Answer: You take copies of your original documents and file them in a safe place (a locked office drawer in a nurses only office) so you can compare them to the documents that are purported to be the correct notes at a later date.
Question: And when you find that your reports have been tampered with what do you do?
Answer: You go and talk to the boss who asks you for the evidence that your reports have been tampered with and are not the same as your copies of the originals.
Question: Then what do you do?
Answer: You show the boss the copies you have to compare the reports so the boss can clearly see that the two reports are not the same and the note tampering is exposed.
Question: What does the boss do?
Answer: Dismisses you for keeping the copies in a locked draw in the office and showing him those copies and therefore breaching patient confidentiality.
ARE YOU BLOODY SERIOUS? I can hear you screaming... "This has to be a joke?"
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED TO ANA SHAW.
And how do I know this? I sat in on the first hearing in the Employment Relations Authority for two days and heard it all first hand. This hearing even had two hired security guards to make sure nobody was recording any evidence... WHY? What is there to hide? Why not record everything so we can look back and say whether the ERA did a good job or not?
As you can read in the Herald article the DHB backs the boss and Ana takes the fall.
Ana is not the only one. A dear friend took his own life after this type of treatment from the same DHB. And there are others who have paid the ultimate price because the incompetent DHB heads stand beside the bully and not the bullied.
It's disgusting and it makes me sick. I'm embarrassed to be a New Zealander when this behaviour happens right under our noses and we do nothing but give the incompetent bosses a promotion.
IF YOU WANT TO KEEP YOUR NURSES AND HOSPITAL STAFF NEW ZEALAND, GIVE THEM A VOICE!