Delivering narcotics to outside buildings should i be responsible?

Specialties LTC Directors

Published

i recently started a 3-11pm rn supv. job at a ltcf that has 2 buildings seperated by a gas station, on a main road, with nearby bar, group homes, homeless people and the occasional street drug deals, the pharmacy always made 2 seperate deliverys of meds and narcs to each building, now, the new don (1st time as a don) wants my building to be the only delivery building, and after i log in all the narcs, expects me to take the other buildings narcs over there late at night by myself, i asked the male nurse in the other building to pick up the narcs as i did not feel safe and he didnt and reported me for not delivering the morphine he needed for a patient, so now the don wants to fire me for failure to fulfill my duty and leaving a patient without pain meds. the pharmacy delivery person offered to continue delivering narcs to both buildings but the don refused, i do not feel that i should put my life at risk:cry:

Specializes in LTC, ER, ICU, Psych, Med-surg...etc....

I would talk to the DON and tell her that she can deliver the narcs. There is no way on earth that I would take narcs out of one place and deliver them somewhere else....not to mention the fact that if there are undesireables who may get wind of this and start watching you...you could be robbed...or killed. Drug abusers would not care to kill you or worse if desperate for the drugs. Okay, so what if there are narcs missing when you deliver them...who do you think would be the number one suspect???? I think you are putting your license at risk as well as your life. If you choose to get an attorney then I think you are justified in refusing to put your license and life on the line. I would contact the Board of Nursing for Direction or a good attorney if you are fired for this. Please protect your life and your license.

Specializes in acute care and geriatric.

You deserve a better job-- I strongly disagree with this DON. In this day and age you have to be crazy to do what she is asking.

BTW- What does she expect you to do if something happens to YOUR patients while you are out delivering narcotics?

Was this explained to you prior to your accepting this position? Is there someone you can appeal to other than the DON? Not that I like going over her head- but this is not fair. When I took my nursing boards there was no question that asked how to deliver narcotics from facility to facility....this is totally unprofessional. THe pharmacy is responsible for the delivery -end of story!

Keep us posted. Don't worry if you have to leave this job- you'll find a better one!!

hi everyone, this is a follow up to the dangerous drug

delivery, the don & his assistant called me in today, they were unhappy with my attitude, prior to all this a patient had fallen after 11pm, they wanted me to falsify the accident report to read it happened at 10:50 pm, i asked why they werent asking the 11-7 supervisor to file the report, and why when i came on at 3pm the printer was loaded with lab reports the 7-3 shift wasnt at least screening them, so many things, i had to go to CVS one nite to buy an otc med that the lpn signed out for four hours earlier, but didnt have, a family member complained at 3;10 pm one day about the care her mom got on the day shift, and i passed it on to the social worker and asked the cna to change the patient, the family reported to the Don that i did not examine her moms diaper to see how wet it was, lpn had duragesic patches on top of her med cart, out of the vision of the lpn, we couldnt wash our hands in the facility for 3 days because there were no towels to dry them, too much, and the previous 3-11 rn supervisor is having her license revoked because of a similar situation, she had so much piled on her, she missed a fracture on a patient that had fallen the don and assistant were unhappy with me and asked me to resign and i wouldnt, so they terminated me, they still insist it was my fault that a patient didnt get her morphine and that the lpn that told me he would come get the morphine from me was not at fault, so i feel that a resignation would have been like a guilty plea, sorry that that whole job had to happen, does anyone know who's hiring in the nassau county long island area :confused:

Specializes in acute care and geriatric.

Piece of advise- if you are asked about your previous experience or specifically about this job - I wouldn't go on and on about how terrible they were- I would be very concise and unemotional. Better to just say that it didn't work out. If the new employer persists- try to steer the conversation back to accentuate your positives and say that honesty, professionalism and hard work are important to you as well as being a good team player. Since this was not possible at that facility, you are looking for one where these qualities are appreciated.

Good Luck!!

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