Re: Hospice question from a new-ish LTC nurse
My thought is that someone needs to talk to you board of nursing about the behavior of the DON and NM. I would call them and ask about annonymous reporting, explaining, if necessary your concerns about your job/work relationships. Have you spoken to anyone in the hospice agency you worked with? They may be able to do an in-service on symptom management, that includes a discussion of the kinds of uncomfortable side effects that people can experience with opioids (and morphine often has the most uncomfortable effects, whether it is itching, or nausea, or just a feeling of vauge, general, discomfort), as well as a strong emphasis on patient-centered care, and how sometimes when we are medicating for (percieved) discomfort we are medicating the caregivers (paid or unpaid) as much as the patient!
Good luck with this. I understand you being in a difficult situation regarding the work relationships, particularly in this economy, but you also need to be comfortable with your co-workers/superiors, and you do have an obligation both to future patients and the profession to report unethical/illegal behavior.
One other thought, if going through channels does you no good -- contact a local television station and tell them you might have a story for them. Health care issues are allways good stories, and if you make it clear that you need to protect your annonymity, they will. I'm not saying this should be your first course of action, but if nothing else helps, bad publicity can be a very stong motivator to change bad practices!
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