Medical Professionals Abusing Drugs

Nurses General Nursing

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Lately I have witnessed some very scary things from people I know.

1. I was invited to a party or get together with some people that work at a very well known hospital where I am doing clinicals. The people that invited me were all medical professionals a medic, nurse BSN, ER charge nurse MSN, nurse MSN student, physical therapist, unit clerk, trauma nurse BSN and respiratory therapist. When I get to this party they are all high and or drunk. They had exstacy, coke, nitris oxide (whippets), hard alcohol and crystal meth. I stayed with them and had some drinks as I watched the night unfold. this was about 10pm when I got there. The house is across the street from the hospital. they proceed to do all these drugs at once to my dismay. I was absolutly dumbfounded, here these are people that I look up to, as they are very very good at what they do in the hospital and they are doing illegal drugs. the worst thing about all this is that 2 of the nurses and the respiratory therapist had to be at work at 7am the next morning. At about 4am they start freakin out cause they have to go to work soon and are in no shape to do so. At this point one of the other nurses gets a large amount of coke out of her car and instructs them to do as much as they can so that they will be awake and sharp for work. At this point I was like you guys are crazy at least call in sick. They were like no way I can't do that, so I asked what would happen if they killed a patient due to their current condition. The charge nurse proceded to tell me that they would not kill anyone and that even if they did get caught they would not get fired cause the hospital could not afford to lose any nurses.:confused:

I was like isn't that agianst the law for them not to fire you if you were caught?

2. One of the ladies that was there at that party 30 years of age and going to school for her PNP recently attempted to kill herself. She had been doing Meth for three days on top of extacy, when she was having "guy troubles" then crushed up a bottle of tylenol and drank it with coffee. Later another guy who is an RT finds her in a pool of blood and vomit and takes her to the next town's hospital so her own work mates don't see her this way. Her tox screen came back positive for all these drugs adn she stays in ICU for a week as they could not stabilize her for a while. When she recovers she loses her house, quits her job and moves a couple hours away to live with her parents while she recovers. As soon as she moves there is she gets another nursing job.

Now my thoughts on this are: why didn't this girl lose her nursing license after having all these drugs in her system? If these people were caught at work doing this they would be fired and lose their license right? and How on earth can these people be sooo smart but sooo stupid at the same time. Sorry for the long post but I was really confused by all this as I think that healthcare professionals should be upper class citizens and not engage in these activities and that they should be punished if they do. They could ahev killed someone. Your thoughts, experiences and knowledge on this subject would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.:( :( :scrying:

Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.
i'm thinking they're not worried about being caught, is r/t grossly impaired judgment.

i honestly don't know what i would do, if i were in the op's shoes.

if i left the party, i don't know what that would have accomplished except to look the other way.

i honestly don't care what one does on their own personal time.

but when they are going to work within hrs of partying, then it's worrisome.

if it were me, i would probably write an anonymous letter to the dept of public health (the governing agcy for all these people, i believe) and report what i witnessed w/o being too specific.

and cc this anonymous letter to one of the bigwigs of the hospital.

just try and think this through: do not respond emotionally.

i'm sure this goes on more frequently than we think.

best of luck in implanting the seeds of suspicion to the appropriate person(s).

leslie

You are correct (as usual). Impaired judgment + birds of a feather, flocking together.

I agree with the last poster if I had known what was going to go on I would not have been there and they didn't bring out the drugs for a while after we got there and had a couple drinks. I would have never never ever guessed that I would have been in that situation that night at a get together of medical professionals. I will be much more careful from now on.

Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.
I agree with the last poster if I had known what was going to go on I would not have been there and they didn't bring out the drugs for a while after we got there and had a couple drinks. I would have never never ever guessed that I would have been in that situation that night at a get together of medical professionals. I will be much more careful from now on.

:icon_hug: Good for you.

Specializes in OB, ortho/neuro, home care, office.

But you said they were high and drunk when you got there

"When I get to this party they are all high and or drunk. They had exstacy, coke, nitris oxide (whippets), hard alcohol and crystal meth."

If it is true, yes, please be safer and think of your future before going to anymore parties.

I am sorry for being cynical. The thing is it's just way too much information, and way way out of my scope of belief of how professional behave. I am sorry if I am going at this with a cynical attitude, but ....well I just guess my first thought was "yeah right' because this just isn't seen where I am.

Way back in highschool (almost 20 years ago for me) I did my share of illegal things. I use those experiences to talk to my children about doing drugs.

I am honestly sorry to the OP if this is true. Just take care of yourself and do the right thing. Would you want people in that condition taking care of your family? I doubt it, so get them out of that position (where they have the ability to hurt someone) before they kill someone - because who knows it very well could be one of your family members lying underneath the stoned nurse taking care of them.

I found out later that that's what was going on at first I was thinkin that they had a few drinks.

if there are reported stories of anywhere from 10-30% of nurses being addicted to drugs, then why is this particular story so hard to believe?

substance use/abuse, alcoholism is a very real problem in this country; with professionals being a large part of this population.

nothing surprises me anymore.

leslie

Specializes in Day Surgery/Infusion/ED.
But you said they were high and drunk when you got there

"When I get to this party they are all high and or drunk. They had exstacy, coke, nitris oxide (whippets), hard alcohol and crystal meth."

If it is true, yes, please be safer and think of your future before going to anymore parties.

I am sorry for being cynical. The thing is it's just way too much information, and way way out of my scope of belief of how professional behave. I am sorry if I am going at this with a cynical attitude, but ....well I just guess my first thought was "yeah right' because this just isn't seen where I am.

Way back in highschool (almost 20 years ago for me) I did my share of illegal things. I use those experiences to talk to my children about doing drugs.

I am honestly sorry to the OP if this is true. Just take care of yourself and do the right thing. Would you want people in that condition taking care of your family? I doubt it, so get them out of that position (where they have the ability to hurt someone) before they kill someone - because who knows it very well could be one of your family members lying underneath the stoned nurse taking care of them.

Mmm hmm. Now the story started to change a little.

As far as not being able to leave because someone else drove, there's always a taxi, call a friend/relative to come get you, or if all else fails, take the "shoe-leather express."

And I am still wondering about the huge HIPAA violation in publicly describing in detail someone's mental health issues.

I would of left the seccond i saw illegal drugs. thats scary helth care workers doing those kinds of drugs when they see pacients like that when the pacients overdose.

Specializes in Hospice, Med/Surg, ICU, ER.

1) Nothing should surprise ANY nurse; including unprofessional (or illegal) activities of our colleagues and co-workers.

2) Drug abuse is rampant in our society. In my (much) younger days, I partied with docs, lawyers, ministers, COPS, and even a state court judge once. NO segment of our society is immune to the temptations of illegal drugs - NONE.

3) Always protect yourself first - don't allow someone else's extracurricular activities jeopardize your future.

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