i dont know what to do, please help.

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Ok, I was out at breakfast with a few friends of mine and they were asking me how nursing school was going. They started to tell me about another woman they know who is currently working as a nurse (someone i also know) and they were telling me how she is not doing so well. They told me that she was doing drugs (iv drugs) and that she was taking them from the hospital. i was pretty baffled of how she was stealing them from the hospital for so long and not caught yet untill they told me how she said she was taking the meds from the pts in the icu she works in :eek::eek: ! im assuming she is taking the pain meds when the pt refuses and charting as though she gave them. now i have never been one to gossip or spread rumors, but i know this woman, and i know that she has a drug problem. i just never knew she was a nurse, and the fact that two of her close friends both told me the same story and defended her actions:nono::angryfire. i want to report this to the hospital asap, but i am just a student and i dont work at that hospital. is there anyway for me to report this to her hospital or anything that i can do? will they even believe me or look into it? will she loose her licence or what will happen? if anyone works at allegheny general hosp and knows the steps i should take that would be great. they may not be my pts but idk. i wouldnt want this witch taking care of someone i care about. what do i do? help:bluecry1::bluecry1:

Unless you work with her, have seen her actually taking the drugs, etc. STAY OUT of it. If she is doing it, she will get caught. Just because she has a history doesn't make her guilty. As others have said, pharmacy is watching, managers are watching. Was she an RN when she was in rehab in the past? It is frustrating and of course patient safety is and always should be our number one concern. If you suspect then you should go and talk to HER, tell her what you are hearing, be her friend..encourage her to get help if she needs it. Good Luck

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

I have seen so many rumors within nursing such as misunderstandings about policy and procedure, practice, etc... that lead to unsafe predicaments that have the potential of ruining people's lives young into their careers. Until you know for sure...such as being a witness yourself, I really believe that for now, stay out of it. No matter how well intended, you don't have ALL of the facts. I am not trying to be harsh, but believe me, I have seen horrible things happen to good nurses based on rumors. This does not mean that I support drug abusing nurses, this means I believe that there should be substaintial proof than the rumor mill.

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Specializes in mental health; hangover remedies.

Your information seems to be changing in quality through this story and I'm also bugged by the fact that these two "friends" would raise the matter with you for general discussion.

If you're that concerned - go talk to her.

In the least you can tell her that her so called "friends" are spreading these rumours about her.

There are several checks and balances for the safe dispensing, administration and recording of medication.

The last time I looked - "idle gossip at the coffee shop" wasn't one of them.

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im just trying to get feedback from nurses who have dealt with this before. trust me i do not want to ruin her life. at the same time though, i am worried about pt safety with her working in an icu. the more i think about it, i think that she will be caught by her work if she is doing this. using heroin or opiates is kind of hard to hide for long. i would rather her come forward and ask for help instead of getting caught and loosing her job. when i talked to my old instructor, they told me to report it to the hosp she works at, but i still am not sure what to do.

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Specializes in Med Surg, Ortho.

She will hang herself. Just sit back and wait for it to happen. It won't be long.

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Time for critical thinking! and

If they are her close friends, why are they spreading gossipabout her?

None of you know if she is stealing drugs from the hospital.

It is too bad this woman doesn't know what kind of 'friends' she has.

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Specializes in ICU.

If you are truley her friend, then go talk to her. Tell her hou're concerned for her and her pts. Look up online on your state board of nursing website and find a number to the peer assistance program and give her the number.

You've gotten very good advice here on this thread. Don't mess it up by "telling on her" when it is all just hearsay.

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

wow! some friends! first of all this is all hearsay. gossip. i worked with drug abusers. very few to none confide in friends on the job what they are doing, especially if they are stealing the drugs from their job! that's professional suicide. so who knows how much of it is true. what i would do, since you know who this woman is, is tell her what these people have been saying about her. let her deal with the situation. if you ever work with this woman and see her doing any of the things you heard these people say, then report her, but not on hearsay.

the next time people gossip like this in front of you, stop them. tell them that if they have proof of this that they need to report her, otherwise they need to shut up. their talk is literally destructive and you will go to the woman and tell her what they are saying about her.

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Specializes in Acute post op ortho.

When I first started out in nursing, we had an addicted nurse & not one of us suspected she was stealing drugs from the hospital. We worked in progressive pulmonary, taking as many as 8 total care patients with trachs, chest tubes.....you name it. We developed a 'battle field mentality' knowing we had to all pull together, or we'd all fall apart.

We were mystified when one of 'ours' was moved to another shift, out of the blue.

She was stealing demerol (this was back when we hand counted narcotics kept in a locked drawer). She was moved because management knew we couldn't see the forest for the trees when it came to one of our own.

The other shift was alerted to the suspicions of our clinical manager, and she was caught in less than a month.

The hospital sent her to a rehab. facility and she was allowed to return to work after completing 30 days of treatment.

She wasn't allowed to dispense narcotics for a year, and was drug tested a random intervals during that time. After a year, she was no longer considered 'impaired' and was allowed full privileges again.

It turned out that her husband was abusing her & her son. We all stood united with her until she was able to exit the marriage & get on her feet.

That was 20 years ago, we are still in touch with each other (she worked as my husbands nurse when he graduated from PA school) and to this day she is doing well.

And we all lived happily ever after,

The end......:)

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These friends are something else! If you know for sure she is using report it, if not , do not report unfounded gossip. If she is using she will trip herself up, and if not she needs to be aware of the gossip. If you are her friend in any way, you need to talk to her. Good luck in handling this situation, but I do not think I would be discussing this nurse with these friends anymore. They are just too helpful without any foundation to base their "talk" upon.

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mind your own business, u did not witness any of this, it is mere hear say. As for your friends who told u about it, if they have first hand knowledge, they are obligated to report it. It sounds like mere gossip to me and i would hope affecting someone's livelihood with out definite proof is something u would not do

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