I've got a question about nurses..

[Luckystar777]

I feel stupid even to be asking this but here goes.

So someone I know is dating someone who claims to be a nurse. But the thing is, this nurse gets an awful lot of time off - like she gets let out early if she ''can't focus'' and gets away with taking extended lunch breaks and things like skiving off work for an hour to see her partner. Is that even allowed if you're an NHS nurse? 'Cause I'm thinking no.. but I don't know any nurses so wanted to ask people who do know/are nurses.

Fwiw, this person does also sound kind of abusive and has been known to lie about other things in the past (including telling her partner she was working one night but wasn't and was actually at home) so this has just got me wondering.

As a retired nurse I would say absolutely not. I can't imagine a nurse being allowed to leave work early due to inability to focus.

You could always show an interest in where this person trained, what specialty etc.

As a nurse of 35 years definitely not, but she could work part time or on the community and skiving.

In my experience even the student nurses who are there unpaid after the bursary was scrapped wouldn’t be allowed to do this!

Nurse is a vague term and doesn’t necessarily mean NHS nurse, which she clearly isn’t. Has she said she works in the NHS or medical community. Some people call themselves nurse if they work privately for the elderly or as a nanny

I've been a nurse all my working life and I've never heard of a nurse - whether NHS, private or whatever - leaving early "because they can't focus" or for any other reason. Nurses stay and do their work no matter how focussed they are . The only time a nurse would ever leave her workplace, is if she / he was sick. Same with taking time off to see their partner, or taking extended meal breaks.

The whole point of nursing is that you are employed to care for people. So anyone taking extra time off, is no longer caring for those people. Which removes the whole point of nursing.

I'd say that this person is making up a lie - there is no form of nursing where these behaviours would be acceptable.

A nurse working on a ward or with direct contact with patients - no, definitely not. However there’s lots of nursing roles like donor coordinators, research, various managerial/executive roles where I could imagine something like this happening as they work autonomously. Doesn’t sound great though.

What setting does she say she's working in the community or a lone worker in someway..,It's possible but she's not doing it with her employers knowledge she's lying, faking visits or appointments ect and that is why she has the extra time.

Like any job of course you don't get to go early if you can't focus or take a long lunch or disappear for and hour in they day.

If she's working in a hospital ward environment she's lying in 10years I have been let go early maybe 5 times and I'm talking 1-2hrs here or there and it's either time owed to me because I have stayed late or annual leave.

Thanks everyone, yeah it is still confusing me as bits do sound genuine but then like the skiving off doesn't.

2 years ago this nurse was supposedly assigned the banned nurse for a convicted child abuser. He was chained to his bed and she had to watch him (someone had beat him up in the jail) Does that sound like something an NHS nurse working in a hospital would have to do occasionally?

On another occasion she said a visitor of a patient tried to break into the medicine cabinet and kicked off/threatened to hit her and she had to call the police.

The charge nurse allowed her to have 5 days off work to go to another part of the UK for her partner's nan's funeral? But before that she had done '13 shifts on the bounce'. She has random work times, like really long shifts then ones that are 5 hours?

Sometimes she's had to stay on longer if a colleague phones in sick but at very short notice - like a few hours notice, while she is already on her shift?

She supposedly works part-time but this includes 35/40 hours?

She often swaps shift with people at short notice too?

They change her hours for her at short notice?

Her shifts seem to change every week.

Also claims to do things like having taken 4 hours annual leave - is that even possible?

She also gets 'split shifts' ?

The other thing that I thought was odd was this nurse claimed to have an abusive ex who was convinced she was lying about her shifts and using the time to see other people.

Yeah she has made it sound like she works in a NHS hospital ward. It's all very strange.

Ok so last minute shift swapping - yes very common (at least where I work it is)

Lots of consecutive shifts - I’m in Australia and our union/EBA prevents this as it’s unsafe for OSH reasons. You could potentially do a few extra shifts as overtime but any decent manager won’t let them work over a certain amount per week. Here it’s 6 8hr shifts in a row max.

The scenario where she was watching a prisoner - if they were a current inmate then they would have prison officers doing that job. If the patient needed watching for clinical reasons then where I work they don’t waste nurses doing this, more likely to use AINs/PCAs.

The story with the crazed visitor - sure it can happen but perhaps they’re just telling tall tales to impress?

The mix of long and short shifts could potentially happen somewhere where nurses are on call like radiology or theatre, neither of which would have patients restrained to the bed for a shift or have visitors kicking off.

I have extended my shift I was already on by a few hours for overtime when we’ve been short staffed so that’s not uncommon. And my shifts also can change from week to week, that’s the nature of a rotating roster.

To answer your question, no it doesn’t sound plausible that this person can over work and then swan off for long lunches. If she has direct patient contact and therefore a patient load, I can’t imagine this happening anywhere.

It sounds like perhaps they work in a hospital setting but aren’t actually working as a nurse, or simply that they are a nurse but they’re full of utter shit and is a pathological liar for the sake of it?

You can can check if someone is a registered nurse on the nmc website

Maybe she’s actually a carer is some of it us plausible and the rest is mince as she covers her tracks (wearing crocs and scrubs of course!)

I wonder if she's on some zero hours contract in some role ( cleaner ? ) at a hospital and is fantasising ?

I can't see any job really where one would come and go as she seems to .

Sounds like an agency nurse or bank nurse role. Maybe they sent her home early because she wasn't being much use.

Thanks, yes, the extended lunch breaks and being let off for not being able to focus were what really stood out/sounded unlikely. It's not adding up at all now I'm reading all your comments.

It could be that she used to work as a nurse and still pretends to. I only know her first name. And I'm guessing the hospital wouldn't do anything about some strange lady lying about working there? Even if she was an ex employee?

She's an older woman, late 50s. Thing is, she does appear to have, like, medical knowledge to a certain extent and it's as though she used to do it as a job? Or still does?

I used to regularly work ten days in a row , and lots of irregular shifts ,long days was were 7.30am until 9pm a short shift ( hollow laugh) would be 7.30am until 3pm or 1.30pm until 9pm .Half day annual leave sounds unusual ,may be in a community setting ,or she's taking time owing ? Time owing or time in Lieu is accrued by staff staying over after shifts not getting a break etc ,( although where I worked it was impossible to take as there was never enough staff!). I would regularly swap shifts at short notice , when I was single and had no kids or commitments , she would also get compassionate leave for a Grandparents death I think I got two day,s when mine died however this was 20 odd years ago , if she had to travel to the funeral than may be she also took some annual leave ? Or it was at the managers discretion how long she got ? A relative trying to break into medicine room also sounds odd ,I did work in acute mental health for many years and at times patients could be violent and aggressive ,regarding long lunch breaks and time off to focus not in my experience! It wasent unusual not to be able to take a break!However it depends where she works I suppose.

She could have a part time contract ,but topped up with a lot of bank shifts ?

Thanks, wow it sounds extremely exhausting.

I done a bit more fact finding and apparently she is, quote, ''a staff nurse/manager thingy something and she is in charge, delivers training etc etc.''? Even her partner has only been given vague info on what she does and they've been together 3 years

The funeral she got 5 days off to go to was her partner's gran, not her own gran?

well I think we're relying on you OP to find out the exact job title so that we can search for vacancies

A Staff Nurse could be a,Nurse in charge of the shift ,but that's not the same as a manager ,there are different levels of management in the NHS ,but she might manage HCA,s on the shift for example ,what training is she saying she delivers ? I did CPR training as a staff nurse ,and a Health care assistant I worked with used to be a fire trainer so she might do some sort of training ?

Thank you, I wish I knew more but feel sort of bad for prying. But I also wonder if that's how she wants people to feel so they'll back off.. And then I think I must be mad!

It could be possible. Do you know what field she’s in?

I don't know what field she's in, sounds like she works in a large hospital in a capital city.. one where she can skive off taking extended lunches and going home if she's not able to focus! [confusing]