Help I'm being kicked out of nursing school!

[miwachiru123]

Yesterday at clinicals, I was watching my instructor change a PCA. There was still 5ml left in the syringe (5mg) but since this was not a full dose, the machine made us change it out for a new syringe. My instructor took the dilaudid and said she was going to go waste it. Well at the end of the shift there was a discrepency in the omnicell and it was from the dilaudid. My instructor told all the nurses that I had it last and it was my responsibility. I never even came in physical contact with the syringe!!

They are threatening to kick me out of school what do I do help!!

[michael79]

What is the facility protocol for wasting a PCA? Most instructors are not allowed to do this....

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

All I can say is to PLEASE keep us posted. I don't need to repeat the sage advise of the participants on this board, but I do want to know how you fare through this. Your instructor is a mange animal, however.

[Acosmo27]

First of all... are students even allowed to handle narcotics by themselves? Were not allowed, therefore that would be impossible for me to have had the syringe last to dispose of it. Secondly, do you have the keys to get into the PCA? If not--- then its obvious someone else was with you to dispose of the dilaudid...

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

Smells of a diversion case (not by you :>>). Write up an incident report detailing everything and schedule a meeting with the director.

I had to pull a syringe of ativan through the inventory med back door for a psych emergency a couple weeks ago. We ended up not needing it after I loaded it into the injector. I returned it to stock with a coworkers sig (per pharmacy directions.) Anyway my NM asked me about it and we ended up fixing the discrepancy in the pyxis. I explained the sequence of events and there was no problems.

Hang in there.

[RedWeasel, RN]

Sounds fishy to me....even if you were supposed to have had it she shouldn't have left you alone with it THAT is her responsiblilty...she has to witness YOU waste it....if not you witness her waste it....It screams...."I am going to take this and blame it on her..." How were her pupils when you left her....maybe she likes the teaching role so she can get near more narcs and blame issues or discrepancies on students...that can only last so long...how long has she been an instructor....does she have visible pain or seem spacey....just wondering...anything is possible....? Even if it was a, say Omnicell, you would need two RNS to witness a half dose of a narc....

[RedWeasel, RN]

did she have a locator or a vocera on that can track her movements? DId you as a student have a locator....If you can correlate times with when you were in the room, and when you left, if you both went in different directions it could show she left with it alone....course she could have left her locator at the nrsg station while this occured so don't let them lay that on you....be aware, be VERY aware...

[justme1972]

Go to your director of the school. First of all shouldnt she have witnessed the waste with you? Its ultimately her responsibility for anything like this happening. Secondlly, why did she tell the nurses she had nothing to do with it? That is just screaming "I'm unprofessional".

Be a pitbull, dont let them kick you out. Threaten her with a report to the State Nursing board.

Or screaming..."I'm an addict"

[RedWeasel, RN]

I mean we have had pts with chemo med cream...I have never administered it...just witnesses the admin and the disposal of the nitrile gloves into a chemo bucket. We have to sign our names in the computer that we have done this, and then enter our passwords....One nurse said I can give it while you give the med in your hand and if you just meet me in the hall later and sign...that would be great...I said, "No I can wait on this", put the meds in the drawer and went in the room to witness her. You never know if they didn't like you they could be trying to throw you under a bus....("hey she just agreed to falsely sign a witness.") It could get bad for you.....Hopefully everything will be okay, just remember, teamwork is great but trust no one with your license, it is yours so keep it, BE paranoid rather than lax....better than explaining your laxness later on....Be Prepared BUT Expect the Unexpected--it is always lurking around the corner.