I am still shocked and feeling very uncomfortable about a conversation with a co-worker yesterday, and I am not sure whether to just let it go or to say something to her. I am a school nurse and the co-worker in question is not a nurse, so BON type issues are not present.
This co-worker is a cancer survivor, still in treatment. At lunch yesterday she started asking me some questions about some chronic pain she was having, which was partially present before the diagnosis and partially made worse by some of her treatments. She was upset because her MD who used to prescribe vicodin recently told her he can no longer prescribe it. She is having intractable pain, especially at night. I advised her to ask the MD for a referral to a pain management specialist and possibly to physical therapy. I also mentioned that many docs are getting more and more leery of giving scripts for narcs, due to the rise in prescription drug abuse. She asked if it was because of celebrity cases like Michael Jackson, and I said that probably has something to do with it, but that there are a lot of regular people out there drug-seeking as well.
What she said next stunned me and I did not know how to respond. She said that she should have just kept the meds that her MD prescribed her previously, but when a "friend" asked her if he could buy the pills for his "friend", who was very sick and could not get any meds, she gave him the pills and took the money !!!! I was shocked and said something like, "really, wow", and I guess my feelings registered on my face because she said "yeah, he just kept asking and asking, and finally I just gave them to him and later he brought me the money". I said something like "well, I would have just told him no way!" Then she mentioned how when you have cancer and medical bills, it is hard to turn down money like that. I was very uncomfortable, and she was too, so I just changed the subject back to talking to her doc about PT and pain management consults.
The worst thing was that another co-worker was in the room as well. That is the main reason I did not mention that what she did was ILLEGAL! I did not want this other co-worker, who may or may not understand the legal implications of this, to get involved or spread info around the office. Now I have no idea what to do. It has been on my mind ever since it happened, and I do not know if I should pull her aside and tell her that it is illegal to give meds to someone other than the person the script is written for, and it is especially illegal to SELL them!!!! Or, should I let it go and pretend I never heard this. I do not think this person was seeking a new vicodin script in order to sell them, I believe she does have pain, and that maybe this was an innocent (?) mistake. But, I also do not know her very well, so I don't know what to think.
Someone tell me what you would do if you were me, everytime I think about the conversation, I get the willies. Very uncomfortable to have this knowledge about someone you see on a regular basis!
!!!! I was shocked and said something like, "really, wow", and I guess my feelings registered on my face because she said "yeah, he just kept asking and asking, and finally I just gave them to him and later he brought me the money". I said something like "well, I would have just told him no way!" Then she mentioned how when you have cancer and medical bills, it is hard to turn down money like that. I was very uncomfortable, and she was too, so I just changed the subject back to talking to her doc about PT and pain management consults.