Do you have to make absolutely certain that inmates swallow their meds?

Jaila · Oct 20, 2009

We try to make sure they swallow their meds. They have to take the med there in front of you, and we check their mouth after...open wide, lift their tongue,etc...if we have doubt we can have them pull lips down or up. That said...they do have their ways. They will regurgitate them later and sell them or trade them. After all a lot of those in jail don't care what they get to take if they get to take a pill and wouldn't know the difference if they were told they were being sold one pill and it was another all together. Ofcourse it gets worse too...if they suspect a search and they have been stockpiling it isn't unheard of for a few of the more extreme to hide a pill or more rectally for later trading. If they are caught cheeking their med the chart is documented, put up for the md and the med is most often dc'ed. Hope this helps.

jailhouserock_lpn_08 · Oct 20, 2009

At our Facility we do the same; open wide, lift tongue, and in gumlines. some have tried to hold them in there hand and pretend to take them or spit them into their cup(Most times these are the clumsy ones and they are VERY obvious about it). If they try to cheek more than once it goes to the provider to decide whether or not it will be D/C'd. We can crush the med (if crushable) also. This goes for ALL I/M. We have had instances that involved something as "harmless" as Ibuprofen and Tums!

stephied · Oct 21, 2009

Thanks to you both. It sounds like some inmates try to be very "creative" in their deception.

military spouse · Oct 25, 2009

I've worked corrections in two states and both changed the terminology from watch-swallow to watch-take, since we can't actually see or verify that they swallowed. Inmates will cheek the silliest things and it is so disgusting to think of where the meds have been and the fact that some of them are probably sold for Little Debbies. YUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guest371144 · Oct 25, 2009

In our pill lines the nurse give the medication and the officer does the oral check. It depends on the officer just how thorough they are.

Orca, ADN, ASN, RN · Oct 28, 2009

We do it with everyone. It isn't just psych meds that are of concern on the yard. Clonidine in particular is in demand at my facility because of its sedating properties. Inmates will also try to sell medications as something other than what they are. There is also the risk that an inmate will take something given to him/her by another inmate and have a severe reaction to it. We had a death a couple of years ago that was likely caused by a medication one inmate bought from another.