Hi. I was wondering if anyone has any experience of being falsely accused of med diversion due to giving meds 1-2 hours after pulling them out of the pyxis.
I am so upset and frustrated since my manager recently told me that the pharmacy put me on an alert list for possible medication diversion. The only reason for this is because I have pulled out morphine at times and not given it until 1-2 hours later. There isn't any medication missing. No accusations from patients. NOTHING else.
I am so upset that this is happening. I work on a really busy floor and I often have pulled out a pain med in expectation that the patient will ask for it, though when I go into their room, they are sleeping or don't want it at that time. Rather than return the med immediately, I hold onto it until they need it so I am prepared for the next time. I am on a floor where there aren't any CNAs at times, nor a resource RN and sometimes no unit clerk and every minute counts. I have been beyond frustrated with the work environment and now I am being falsely accused of this. I am trying not to get upset but it's truly difficult.
Wrong or not I'm sure she still thought it was weird you were flagged TWICE. I think you are missing what I'm saying, had you been flagged once, I'm sure you would still have a job.[/QUOTe
She was flagged in ERROR. I get it. If she were an employee of the hospital, she could have gotten a lawyer and kept her job because SHE didn't do anything wrong.. the NM did something wrong. I am always suspect of travelers because of from a higher rate of drug problems, BUT to fire tho person because of the system's errors was just stupid. Listen up, nurses. When you are unjust we accused of drug diversion, demand an immediate drug screen. If it becomes a legal issue, at least you have that. The large majority of nurses who divert drugs do it for their own use. But the rare few will steal to sell or give to S.O.
BTW...I offered to give a drug screen right then and there...she said no. And if you saw my bank account you'd see I am not selling drugs...LOL!
Okay. I'll write a post on the subject. It is too much to explain here and I should have just waited to bring this issue up. Many assume the worst..."I must have been up to something​", if the manager accused me.
I think you said the manager dismissed your EXPLANATION of the first issue, and other people thought you said she dismissed the issue itself. I could be wrong but going back to previous pages is really awkward on a phone browser.
Travel position asked to extend 4 times. All was well, no issues, no history of drug problems, never stole drugs from anywhere. Not my issue.
Called in to her office and told there were 2 flags from the pharmacy.
The first one was stated as not having an order for the med. As we combed through the chart, and multiple binders related to pharmacy, flags, etc...we eventually found the order. So, I did not do anythinG wrong. Possibly, the doctor wrote the order later for a verbal....not sure why it was so hard to find the order. We had to comb through several binders as I said. Maybe he wrote it incorrectly, maybe written too long after the fact to cover a verbal order... Dont know why it was flagged that way since we found there was in deed an order.
The Second flag was related to me taking out a med from the Pyxis at a certain time for a particular patient, (that I was not assigned to), and then it was charted as given a few minutes earlier by another nurse than when I took it out. In that moment, I was stumped. What? I didn't get it. Turns out, the times on the Pyxis machines and the times on the charting computers, AKA Wow's were not in sync.
It turned out that I had been helping another nurse in PICU, where we run and get things for one another on a regular basis....patients are too critical for the bedside nurse to leave the bedside, and/or a patient gets out of control and you can't leave and need someone to get sedation while you monitor or hold down the patient.(Pediatric Critical Care)
Mind you, both of these supposed occurrences happened several months earlier. Why so long to flag? How am I to defend myself, or even remember the patients or the specific details in order to remember why something that "appears suspicious" occurred? The second one didn't even make sense to me at the time.
I think, since I couldn't explain the second flag, right then and there, she Dismissed me! Escorted to my locker, handing over my badge, escorted out of the building and the whole 9 yards. A co-worker friend of mine who I told what had happened, looked into the time stamps on the Pyxis machines and WOW's afterwards as she had seen this happen before and that is how I found out what caused the flag on the second issue. It all was so Humiliating and so frustrating. In spite of what I told her, even going into personal details (not that she was entiled), but to explain something she eluded to, she kept saying that she hoped I got help. Did not care that I offered a drug screen etc...
lol. and that ain't the only thing.....old computer, this one was not working....keyboard on old one lacks space bar, ", 'z','4', '6','/', and probably a few more. but it still gets me on line.....
@morte is something wrong with your keyboard? the spaces between the words show the underscore symbol.
No, I believe it is ye that is missing the point. The pharmacy error should not be laid at the feet of the nurse. and would not be, by a decent and logical person/manager.
I get it. But there was still an error & a flag raised by the pharmacy. Again, I said the fact that there was TWO flags raised by pharmacy is what I'm talking about. Not the errors themselves. You are missing that point.
Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.
No, I believe it is ye that is missing the point. The pharmacy error should not be laid at the feet of the nurse. and would not be, by a decent and logical person/manager.
Well maybe she isn't decent. Because the OP was let go rather quickly & for no valid reason. That is the only thing that explains it.
Well maybe she isn't decent. Because the OP was let go rather quickly & for no valid reason. That is the only thing that explains it.
BT2012 said there had been two perfectly explainable discrepancies and that she was dismissed without a sufficient investigation to obtain the facts.
My experiences in life and nursing have destroyed my ability to have blind faith that management make reasonable, rational decisions. Sure it's possible that they're a raging drug addict thief, but there's absolutely nothing in their actual words that leads me to believe that.
Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.
BT2012 said there had been two perfectly explainable discrepancies and that she was dismissed without a sufficient investigation to obtain the facts.
My experiences in life and nursing have destroyed my ability to have blind faith that management make reasonable, rational decisions. Sure it's possible that they're a raging drug addict thief, but there's absolutely nothing in their actual words that leads me to believe that.
Lmao. Where did I say she was a drug addict?! I said this is why I BELIEVE she got let go. It confirms my thought with the fact that the NM didn't do anything to get the facts. After working for a lot of DONs & NMs I know for a fact this would happen & wouldn't be surprised. It also doesn't help that she was a travel nurse. Had she been on staff, maybe it would've been different. But she was let go so quickly, it's as if the NM was upset with her for some reason.
Scariest, and one of the dumbest thing I did as a nurse. My FIRST day on my own as a nurse. I d/c'd a PCA the patient never used and stuck the vial of morphine into my pocket as I took down the pump. Well, I got busy and forgot about it. Took that sucker home. 40mg of Morphine! My hubby said " your fired for sure!" OMG! Thank God when I brought it back, (unbroken, the patient had not used it) My charge nurse didnt throw me under the bus and said "Guess you'll never go home without checking your pockets now" Lesson learned I never put narcotics in my pockets even for a walk down the hall. Too easy to screw up.
"lmao" I did not intend to imply that you did. I was referring to the way the manager treated her. It sounded like you thought the manager must have behaved reasonably in firing her (that there must have been valid suspicion), so I replied that I do not believe what BT2012 said supports that idea.
Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.
"lmao" I did not intend to imply that you did. I was referring to the way the manager treated her. It sounded like you thought the manager must have behaved reasonably in firing her (that there must have been valid suspicion), so I replied that I do not believe what BT2012 said supports that idea.
I never implied that. I said many times right, wrong or indifferent that is probably what cause the firing. I never put my personal opinion out there (on the firing). Do I think it's possible that the manager probably thought that way? Yes. Because there are many horrible bosses compared to good ones.
It also doesn't help that the OP wasn't a staff nurses employed by the hospital. It raises a lot of flags that the manager didn't bother to look into the problem (if there was a mistake before). So with all that, it seems to add up to me that two flags raised by pharmacy (even though the problems were easily solvable) bothered the manager & add to it that the OP was a travel nurse.
Everyone has dug too much into what I have said. All I said was, it seems to me that is *why* the OP was let go. I never said it was justified/OP deserved it/etc.
BeenThere2012, ASN, RN
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