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Woman Employed as Nurse Accused of Medicine Theft
AP
August 29, 2008
IOWA CITY, Iowa – A woman employed as a nurse at a Coralville nursing home is accused of stealing more than $8,000 worth of medication by forging other nurses’ signatures.
Heather Jackson was arrested on Wednesday on charges of second-degree theft, tampering with records and seven counts of prohibited acts.
According to police, Jackson was suspected of stealing large amounts of medication while she was employed at the Windmill Manor nursing home. The incidents allegedly happened from August to October in 2006.
Jackson’s arrest on the tampering charge is from April 2005, when she presented an Iowa Nursing License. The Iowa Board of Nursing indicated that Jackson was never issued a nursing license in Iowa and that the numbering, spacing and font were incorrect on the fake license.
A court hearing is set for Sept. 8.
(c) YellowBrix 2008
kstiltner1
about 1 month ago
1326 comments
This is crazy.
TyD
about 1 month ago
2 comments
HR is in charge of ensuring that employees meet the employment guidelines and have the appropriate documentation on file. In fact, the nurse had a valid Arkansaw license and Iowa is a compact state for nursing licenses. The nurse was legally employed originally with that license and only had to apply for an Iowa license within 30 days. When the employer later requested a copy of the Iowa card it was provided by the nurse and kept on record at the facility as required. (a forgery of course) This nurse was very skilled and provided excellent patient care, she was even the wound nurse for the facility. Unfortunately she later developed a need to aquire large quantities of narcotics and was also skilled at that. A new DON discovered a descrepancy between narcotic volume entering the facility and actual patient usage which lead to Ms. Jackson's current charges.
ladydi
2 months ago
20 comments
Sounds like HR, the DON or ADON whoever is in charge of hiring and checking credentials is also in deep *%@#. Wouldn't the DON be held liable? She/he is after all the director of nursing. Was this women perhaps at one time a nursing student that never finished or passed boards? She would have to have SOME sort of knowledge in order to blend in. If not, I wonder how many deaths/accidents happened during her shift.
casassy62688
2 months ago
262 comments
Wow, that's pretty scary....employers should be more thorough when it comes to that stuff!
KenFerster
2 months ago
2 comments
Unfortunately, the credentialing department did not do the proper licensure verification, which can be done online. A costly and embarrishing mistake.
KLF
neuroRN
2 months ago
22 comments
Unfortunately, with the nursing shortage, so many companies are quick to hire nurses without checking their creditials. It seems like it would be hard to do that, but it actually happens as with this case. In order to protect us good nurses that really enjoy working in their profession, I think that the Board of Nursing needs to develop a better way of issuing licenses or they need to develop a paperless system. Many potential employers can go online to the state board of nursing and verify a nurses license.
jesusfreak
2 months ago
12 comments
What I think is sad is the Nurses that are loyal and caring have to suffer the consequences of others behaviors. Some jobs watch you like a hawk as if you were already a criminal and put you through difficult, political mumbo gumbo because of what others have done. How fair is that.
cdnurse
2 months ago
3240 comments
How do they get by with it? Does someone not pick up that a person is not a nurse? How dumb is the employer? How dumb are the coworkers to be fooled?
vettern
2 months ago
4 comments
There is no reason for someone to be able to work under an altered license as it is too easy to check any states Nursing Board as to the license being active and legit. The nursing home probably saw a woman with an RN license and thought manna had dropped from heaven. The are as responsible as the woman for not checking.
pntrnurse
2 months ago
4 comments
One thing I want to know....didn't they check her license via the Nursing Board BEFORE she was hired? Everywhere I have worked has and BEFORE I started working.
jeannie1956
2 months ago
12 comments
09/03/2008 1051AM Wednesday
If LTC facilities would place more on patient safety in regards to staffing and not just seek
a warm body; place yourself in that patient's position and their family's position and then maybe
that DON/ADON would be able to recognize falsehood.
Shan4691
2 months ago
1568 comments
I had an aunt by marriage that forged a NC RN license way back when they were paper cards. She worked for Duke University in the ICU for many years before they caught her. It's scary!
gggirl
2 months ago
30 comments
it's scary to think it took that long to catch her...what is this world coming to....unfortunately it supplies bad pr to those of us who are real nurses
sap
2 months ago
682 comments
Does she like the color orange??!! LOL. She'll be wearing it.
What brings someone to do this?
RN_jen
2 months ago
2 comments
How horrifying that she presented a fake liscence in April of 2005 and was able to make it more than a year practicing as a medical professional, allowing the opportunity to steal and tampor with records before anyone became the wiser!!! Thank GOD that that is all she did!! & shame on the facility for not being more thorough when she was originally hired! The safety and lives of many people were unnessesarily put at great risk here!! & I disagree that it should effect future nurses seeking employment. Safety practices should ALREADY be in place to ensure the legitimacy of a liscence. I now live in one of the most backwards & appalacian communities in southern Ohio, (yes it does get worse the further south you go, but it is pretty DIFFERENT here to say the least) & the employer that I work for is very thorough with there prospective new employees. They have a very long process that they DO NOT stray from. If it can be done here, there is NO excuse for it not to be done to ensure the safety of our patients elsewhere!!!!