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Misrepresenting yourself as a Nurse

Catastrophe
Catastrophe Community member Posts: 21 Courageous
It is a CRIMINAL OFFENCE to represent yourself as a Nurse if you are not.  Legal Action can be taken against any such individual.  Always ask for your Assessors FULL name.  If they only give their first name, insist on their full name and full Job Title and check out the registration on the appropriate professional body's website, i.e Royal College of Nursing etc.  If you find out that your Assessor has wilfully misrepresented themselves, phone the Police and get a Crime Reference.  They may well tell you to phone ACTION FRAUD and if so, DO SO!  
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Comments

  • Misscleo
    Misscleo Community member Posts: 647 Pioneering
    Good advice many thanks
  • charlene
    charlene Community member Posts: 555 Pioneering
    Have just checked the RCN website to see if the nurse who assessed me is regiistered. 4 names came up, I was ruled out for distance, I was not practicing.  So this left 2, one is practicing BUT the other one has been removed under 'fitness to practice' not sure what to do now.
    When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
  • susan48
    susan48 Community member Posts: 2,221 Disability Gamechanger
    @charlene,
    im not sure what you could do, maybe call ATOS and simply ask! At the end of the day you are telling effectively a stranger details about you so thinking about it I’d think we would be well within our rights to see there ID etc.

    maybe I’m wrong but just a thought 
  • whistles
    whistles Community member Posts: 1,583 Disability Gamechanger
    Silly question.
    But why are some people so concerned about their assessor not being trained, when the dm at dwp isn't?
    When it was all paper based DLA nobody felt the dm needed to be a qualified person?

    I understand it if they have lied on your assessors report. But whoever they were lying on the report would be why I was doing the MR.
    Do not follow me, I don't know where I am going.
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  • Catastrophe
    Catastrophe Community member Posts: 21 Courageous
    Victoriad said:
    It is a CRIMINAL OFFENCE to represent yourself as a Nurse if you are not.  Legal Action can be taken against any such individual.  Always ask for your Assessors FULL name.  If they only give their first name, insist on their full name and full Job Title and check out the registration on the appropriate professional body's website, i.e Royal College of Nursing etc.  If you find out that your Assessor has wilfully misrepresented themselves, phone the Police and get a Crime Reference.  They may well tell you to phone ACTION FRAUD and if so, DO SO!  
    Please correct me if I’m wrong but it’s only illegal to misrepresent your self as a currently practicing nurse if 1)you ARE not on the professional register.
    2) you are dispensing medical care to TREAT patients who have medical symptoms when in fact 
    3) you have NO medical qualifications whatsoever as a nurse
    4) You are causing actual danger and harm to those asking you to care for them

    Being an assessor is just making a decision based on a set of descriptors and matching these with your ability to live an independent life.

    It has nothing to do with providing care in a medical capacity.


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  • Catastrophe
    Catastrophe Community member Posts: 21 Courageous
    Exactly, that it just what I said.  It is illegal to misrepresent yourself if you are not a Nurse but telling Claimants that you are but you have not one medical qualification and are therefore NOT on the Register.  I am well aware that Assessors are not there to provide care in a medical capacity.  A person with one brain cell knows that.  However, when someone tells you that they are a Nurse, a person, patient, Claimant will feel inclined to trust that person.  If they are not a Nurse at all but say that they are, that is a GRAND breach of integrity.  Why should any Claimant have to divulge their private and personal and private medical details to any Joe Bloggs?  It is indefensible and criminal which is why if a Claimant discovers that their Assessor is not medically qualified but state that they are, report it to the Police and get a Crime Reference.  They may well be told to contact Action Fraud.  Only someone who is actually misrepresenting themselves as a Nurse would have a problem with this!  I hope this clarifies my post but I think it was already very clear.  



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  • Catastrophe
    Catastrophe Community member Posts: 21 Courageous
    No you do not have to be medically qualified to tick boxes on an on line form but to state that you are a Nurse in order to gain confidence of those sitting before you is criminal when you not a Nurse at all.  This is my final comment on the issue.  It is a Criminal Offence to state that you are a Nurse when you are not, or a Paramedic either.  
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  • sleepy1
    sleepy1 Community member Posts: 297 Pioneering
    So on a good day we could all be employed as a health care professional assessor deciding if someone else looks ill, thin, pale, unkempt, depressed or in pain!

    Trouble is too many people make far too many assumptions based on very little knowledge! 

     
  • debbiedo49
    debbiedo49 Community member Posts: 2,904 Disability Gamechanger
    At my pip assessment the first words my assessor said to me was I am a mental health nurse. This gave me confidence that she should know about my health issues and so created a rapport . It turns out that she was not to be trusted. The report was not factual and I should have known not to get my hopes up that she was going to represent me factually and honestly. Therefore I’m now thinking was she even a nurse? 
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  • debbiedo49
    debbiedo49 Community member Posts: 2,904 Disability Gamechanger
    @Victoriad I disagree but that’s your opinion and we can all have one. 
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