I am a new nurse and I am not sure exactly what to do regarding this issue. I am about 4 weeks into my first job as an RN and yesterday my preceptor asked me to see if any of my patients had PO Zofran. I asked why and she said that one of the nurses was feeling nauseous. She stated that the nurse she was asking for had asked for PO Phenergan but that she felt better giving her Zofran. I replied by saying "no, none of my patients have PO Zofran". I'm sure I had a funny expression on my face because she followed up with the fact that she frequently took medication like Mucinex or any over the counter medication from patients, reasoning with me by saying "you can get them from the store. So it's okay." And I responded by saying "you can't get Zofran from the store and even if you could the patients are still having to pay for the medication that you're taking from them."
I'm at a loss and I can't get this off my mind. I feel like taking any medication out of the pixis under a patients name is stealing from that patient. I've already had issues with this preceptor and next week I'm going to finish my orientation with another nurse. (This preceptor frequently leaves the floor to talk on other floors or to go outside and smoke. There was one instance when a patient was going into ARF and we had to call a rapid response. She was outside smoking and wouldn't answer her phone when called. Another instance just recently was that one of my patients was having chest pain and I was having to make all of the decisions and call the doctors all by myself. Being new and never having to deal with those things alone are VERY SCARY!)
Anyways... I know what the rules are regarding a nurse stealing/diverting narcotics from a patient. But I don't know what the rules are if it's non-narcotic medication. Also, I did not see this nurse take anything. It was merely a conversation. I don't want to cause a stink over this since I've already had issues with this nurse. But, I just can't get it off my mind. Is this something that I should take to my manager. Or is it something I should file an anonymous incident report over? Or should I just ignore it all together? I don't know what to do and if she does end up in trouble she's going to know it was me that ratted her out. Any advice?