CoWorker using a patient's medication

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My RN coworker took prescription ointment from a patient diagnosed with scabies and used it on herself, fearing she would be exposed and did not want to take scabies home to her family. She had no signs/symptoms of scabies, just very nervous. Am I mandated to report this to the BON? Management and pharmacy staff are aware, but because she is well-liked (and they often socialize/party together outside of work), there has been no discipline. Seems like this is a case of diversion and working outside the scope of practice, as this was a prescription medication. Management recently reported a different coworker to BON accusing her of "neglect" because she accessed internet on work computer . Doesnt seem fair to me. Your thoughts, please?

Specializes in ICU/ER/Med-Surg/Case Management/Manageme.
2 hours ago, It'sYaGirlK said:

I usually don’t post to things like this, but as you KNOW being a veteran nurse and all, the BON is not FOR nurses..I’m confused as to why you feel the need to report use of some scabies cream to them? Reporting to your supervisor is sufficient..some people go above and beyond on things that don’t matter.. things like this is what scares me the most..hard to get your license and easy to loose it..this post reminds me to trust NOONE when it comes to my license as I embark into this field!!!!! Thanks ❤️

Absolutely, It'sYaGirlK! Absolutely! At this stage of my life, I may very well be the patient some of y'all are taking care of in the near future. I don't want you stealing my much needed morphine or dilaudid or my life-saving antibiotics, but a bit of scabies cream? Give me a break. The risk of some nurse - frightened of carrying some little mite home to her family - rubs a bit of cream on herself? And is subject to losing her license for that? And if not that, just the nightmare of going through a Board investigation?

It's a sad commentary when someone like you, coming into our profession, says they "trust NOONE" but I fully understand. I'm just glad I no longer have to work in the environment of nurses stabbing each other in the back and especially over such small infractions that HAVE ALREADY BEEN REPORTED TO THE PROPER HOSPITAL CHAIN.P

I'm not perfect. Who is? And PS: Good luck/fingers crossed/best wishes as you pursue your career.

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Specializes in Psychiatry, Community, Nurse Manager, hospice.

OP, you don't really know if the nurse was disciplined or not.

Management won't tell you about that.

Sometimes discipline is just a verbal warning not to do something again.

If I was supervisor to a good nurse who didn't cause drama who did this and it was a first problem, that's what I would do. I would just say, "Hey listen don't do that again. If you're worried about getting scabies from a patient you can get checked out by a doc through employee health. It's covered. Talk to me first."

Now if she was a bad nurse, or a nurse who created drama for my team, for example, nitpicking others and reporting every little thing, creating unnecessary BON investigations on my team, well then I would write it up so we can fire her eventually if we need to. I'm smart enough to know what really affects patient care. Team members who are spiteful to other team members really bring down the team, and that is bad for the patients in addition to creating a toxic work environment.

If you don't like the folks you work with, or you feel left out of the clique, you have a few good options. You can quit and go elsewhere if it bothers you a lot or seems hopeless. You can try to befriend others by earning trust and respect, and letting your best self shine: whether you are kind, funny, dependable, or whatever your best self is. But what you're doing is just going to make everything worse for you.

One day you're going to make a mistake as a nurse. Hopefully no one will actually get hurt from that mistake, and hopefully you don't work with people who will feel the need to rake you over the coals when it happens.

Examples of times you actually do need to report a coworker would be patient abuse, drunk or high at work. You should report to your supervisor, and not the BON. Then let it go. If the problem continues, then you go to the BON and you look for another job because that one just got wrecked through no fault of your own. Unfortunately, you may have already wrecked a perfectly good job.

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I see people break traffic violations all the time. Do I call the police to report them? No. Do I disagree with it? Yes. You are being very uppity about this. Why would you want to get your co-worker in trouble with the BON? In this situation, not wanting to take scabies home to her family isn't exactly the same as stealing opioids to get high on. Is it wrong? Certainly. Should she have done that? Absolutely not. I'm sure there are a few things you've done in your life that you weren't supposed to do. Go to her directly and tell her that you think what she did was wrong and to please not do it again. Don't be sneaky and report her behind her back. Have some integrity.

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7 hours ago, DallasRN said:

Absolutely, It'sYaGirlK! Absolutely! At this stage of my life, I may very well be the patient some of y'all are taking care of in the near future. I don't want you stealing my much needed morphine or dilaudid or my life-saving antibiotics, but a bit of scabies cream? Give me a break. The risk of some nurse - frightened of carrying some little mite home to her family - rubs a bit of cream on herself? And is subject to losing her license for that? And if not that, just the nightmare of going through a Board investigation?

It's a sad commentary when someone like you, coming into our profession, says they "trust NOONE" but I fully understand. I'm just glad I no longer have to work in the environment of nurses stabbing each other in the back and especially over such small infractions that HAVE ALREADY BEEN REPORTED TO THE PROPER HOSPITAL CHAIN.P

I'm not perfect. Who is? And PS: Good luck/fingers crossed/best wishes as you pursue your career.

Post threads like this one makes me nervous but it’s a reminder to always dot my Ts... Thank you so much for the warm welcome ❤️ took my NCLEX yesterday ??

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OP, I find nurses like you to be the scariest ones in the profession. Every. Single. Nurse. Has done something she/he could be disciplined over by the BON. Left a secondary antibiotic unclamped? That is technically a med error and something you can be (and people have been) disciplined over. Incorrectly charted something when rushed? That’s false documentation. Didn’t count respirations? That’s false documentation.

I fear the day I have to work with a nurse who will throw me under the bus out of some moral obligation to a board who doesn’t care about protecting her, either. This job is hard enough without co-workers like you.

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Specializes in CRNA.

Nurses notoriously eat their young and/or coworkers.

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14 hours ago, ashleybobashley said:

OP, I find nurses like you to be the scariest ones in the profession. Every. Single. Nurse. Has done something she/he could be disciplined over by the BON. Left a secondary antibiotic unclamped? That is technically a med error and something you can be (and people have been) disciplined over. Incorrectly charted something when rushed? That’s false documentation. Didn’t count respirations? That’s false documentation.

I fear the day I have to work with a nurse who will throw me under the bus out of some moral obligation to a board who doesn’t care about protecting her, either. This job is hard enough without co-workers like you. 

The OP didn't actually call the board, she/he was inquiring as to whether or not she was mandated to do so...

This thread has made her the one in the wrong for thinking of this issue, and made assumptions about her/his motives. And the tone is as though she called the board and got her co-worker fired.

To be clear, I don't think she/he is the "scariest" one in the profession. I think that a nurse who is willing to lie, steal and cheat, etc... is the one you need to be concerned about. And a nurse willing to steal from a patient, if she is willing to do that what else would she think is okay?

And everything in your first paragraph is true. Edit: but we don't usually report them to the board, that is true. And in many instances incident reports are utilized to prevent future errors. It doesn't make me a back stabbing nurse to point out an error to a fellow nurse. I have even filled out incident reports on myself. I once called a nurse on another unit who sent a faxed report, yes we used to do that, I'm old, and she said she gave a mag run and it was supposed to be morphine. The doctor's orders were abbreviated and a nurse made an error. Was I wrong to tell her and ask her if she wanted to fill out the incident report herself?

This job is hard and I want honest nurses with integrity working with me and the patients.

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Specializes in VA, Ortho, Med/Surg.
On 1/15/2020 at 8:00 AM, RNNPICU said:

OP if you witnessed and observed her using, why did you not stop her? The BOD could very well ask you why you did nothing except stand by. All of us have done bonehead move at some point and regret it, not usually worth a call to the BON. How do you know with absolute certainty that the hospital may have done something.

Your strong desire to contact the BON for this nurse makes it seem like there is an ulterior motive behind it. While I agree this nurse should not have done something like that, I would much rather have the hospital handle it. You too are complicit in this event as a bystander and you did not intervene.

Her strong DESIRE to contact the DON? LOL. Now who is an assumer?

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Pretty much everything that needed to be said has been said but I wanted to make a point to someone who said let’s not act like she already reported the coworker to the BON, she only came here for direction and understanding to determine what she needed to report.

Well, we can be sure the coworker was, in fact, reported to the BON because the OP stated that she contacted the BON to find out if she was mandated to report it and the BON said yes. What do you think the chances are she didn’t didn’t spill the beans right then and there?

The BON makes money. They make money off of every disciplinary strike that requires fines to be paid, which is pretty much all discipline. Any questions about why they would want EVERYTHING to be mandated to report? $$$

(let’s put our critical thinking caps on and not let laws and ordinances dictate alone what we know in our hearts to be right or wrong. there are laws and policies which are immoral and there are things that are not immoral which are against laws the policies. when you remember that $$$ is involved, it helps to understand why.)

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Specializes in Nursing Education, Public Health, Medical Policy.

Why in the world would you jump immediately to reporting the nurse to the BRN? That is really low and sneaky. If you are so bothered by the behavior, then you should be brave enough to have a 1:1 discussion with the nurse. Also- since discipline is supposed to be private and confidential- you really have no idea that the nurse was not disciplined by your administration.

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Specializes in ER, Psych, Chemical Dependency.

Sounds like you should probably mind your own business. You are an employee, and your job description doesn't include making your workplace fair for all. Especially if the politics are against you.

As for myself, I concern myself with my own practice, there are enough pitfalls that it takes most of my attention, most days.

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