[FurmanGirl]

CUMBERLAND, Md. -- A West Virginia woman has been convicted of neglect after she admitted removing a nursing home patient's time-release pain patch and sucking out the medication.
Megan Oglesbee, 21, of Keyser, W.Va., pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of neglect of a vulnerable adult.
A judge sentenced Oglesbee to 18 months in jail, all suspended, and placed her on three years supervised probation. Oglesbee will be required to complete substance abuse treatment, submit to drug testing and is barred from caring for vulnerable adults.
A $1,000 fine also was suspended.
The state attorney general's office said Oglesbee was working last year as a nursing assistant at Moran Manor Nursing Home in Westernport, Md. A patient in her care had been prescribed a 72-hour transdermal pain patch. The day after the patch was applied, Oglesbee removed it, stuck a pin in the patch and sucked out the medication.
http://www.wyff4.com/irresistible/5304029/detail.html

[traumaRUs]

I have (unfortunately) heard of this before...we have had several Duragesic patch overdoses - people suck or lick the medication - however the instant release of this much medication can kill!

[Jessy_RN]

wow, how desperate.

[Marie_LPN]

That poor patient.

[nurse4theplanet]

where do they FIND these idiots...geez

[hipab4hands]

"supervised probation"? I'm sure that will teach her not to use drugs.

[scrmblr]

I had a patient who kept "losing" her duragesic patch. The CNA kept telling me "I can't find mrs. soandso's patch after her bath" and dumb old me kept replacing it.

Hello? CNA was fired a few weeks later after someone saw a duragesic patch ON her...I was such a dork!

[Darlene K.]

good grief! I thought I'd seen it all, but I guess not.

[elkpark]

Duragesic (fentanyl) patch diversion/abuse is a fairly widespread problem, and there is quite a bit of literature out there on it.

When I was working as a psych surveyor for my state, I investigated one death on a psych unit due to acute fentanyl OD from ingesting the gel from patches, and the hospital ended up getting in big trouble with the Feds because the nursing staff could not account for the used patches they had taken off of clients.

Please be aware that "used" patches (the ones you take off of people after the three days) still have enough fentanyl gel in them to be attractive to users -- the Federal DEA (and, probably, your state DEA) expects you to document wasting them the same as any other partially used dose of narcotics (witnessed and signed for by two people). Also, putting them in a sharps container is NOT considered appropriate/adequate disposal -- the preferred/acceptable methods are to either 1) cut the patch in half (so that the gel will be washed out/diluted) and flush down a commode or 2) secure in a locked container (not a sharps box) until they can be taken away to be incinerated.

[babynurselsa]

There was a patient in our hospice who was found doing this with her own patches.