So I gave a controlled substance to my patient and then decided to straighten up the room before I left ... and promptly (absentmindedly) put the remainder of the ampule in the sharps container without having had another nurse waste it first.
So my options, as I saw them, were either to ask another nurse to "waste" with me ("How much do you trust me?" ), which I don't think is ethical since they didn't actually see me discard the remainder, or to admit to my error. So now I'm waiting for my pee test to come back, missing scheduled shifts since missing drug is a diversion investigation, and hoping that a big organization with rigid policies has room to accommodate honesty about a mistake.
Even though I know the pee test will be negative, I'm becoming paranoid :-). I've been a nurse for 7 years. I have a good reputation with my coworkers and I always try to play an honest game. But I've been thinking about all the things we do, every day, that could look suspicious even when they weren't intended that way.
Example: You pull a narc, get to the patient's room and they no longer want it, and you go from there to a bed alarm and an exploded ostomy and an "oh, whoops, your admit you didn't know you were getting from the ER just arrived" and it takes you 2 hours to get back to the med cabinet to return it. Or you have somebody watch you waste the remainder of a vial with you immediately, before you give the dose, but you forget to go to the computer and waste it with them there.
I would be interested in knowing (from people who are actually working on the floor and know how crazy it can be) what foolproof routines you have developed to keep yourselves absolutely above suspicion when it comes to the daily handling and wasting of controlled substances on the job.
), which I don't think is ethical since they didn't actually see me discard the remainder, or to admit to my error. So now I'm waiting for my pee test to come back, missing scheduled shifts since missing drug is a diversion investigation, and hoping that a big organization with rigid policies has room to accommodate honesty about a mistake.
SleeepyRN
1,076 Posts
OP stated "the remainder of the ampule." I took it to mean the remainder of what was inside. I misread the situation.