Ok so yesterday was my first day back from maternity leave. I went in monday spoke with manager about a few random things and had some loose ends tied up before returning. I emptied my mailbox then. Today I go and check my mailbox and there was used narcotics in there! A few containers that had about half the dilaudid gone as well as a bunch of other random things.
Odd huh? thankfully i found them before someone else found them in my box.
I'm an ER Nurse at a very busy ER in MA. Most days we work below staffing requirements and we don't always have another RN witness a narc waste. So, we place them in our scrubs with hopes of wasting later or throw in your locker and sometimes bring them home by mistake. I had collected a few narcs and brought them to my ER Director's attention. I was suspended and interrogated by 4 suits that don't have the slightest clue as to what goes on in an ER. I told them they could take my blood, urine, breath, hair and give me a polygraph just to prove I'm not a narc user. Why would I hand over all the narcs I had if I were using? I'm NOT a diverter. All of my pt's received the narcs prescribed. I just failed to properly waste the remaining narcs at that time. It's a nightmare!!!
ah, a fellow paranoid! lol ....this was my first thought as well......watch thy back
This is not paranoid... it is perceptive! But probably more likely is that someone has been using your box to divert, not realizing you were back from leave.
Do you share mailboxes with anyone else? Is there a new nurse on the floor who has a mailbox next to yours? It looks pretty bad, but if I was diverting I wouldn't stash the drugs in someones' mailbox, they would be somewhere I could take them home private. My best guess is that someone is sloppy about "wasting" thier leftover narcs, and just emptied thier pockets into your mailbox thinking it was thiers at the end of thier shift. In my MANY years of nursing I have put my hand in my labcoat pocket after a few days off and found a half full dose of MSO4 or Versed I ment to waste but my patient couldn't wait for another staff member to be avail.-Next thing you know, I have a souvenir in my pocket that could cost me my licence!- it happens- not often, but it happens to most nurses who pass a lot of narcs. I hope it is nothing more sinister than that.
Brianrs73
1 Post
I'm an ER Nurse at a very busy ER in MA. Most days we work below staffing requirements and we don't always have another RN witness a narc waste. So, we place them in our scrubs with hopes of wasting later or throw in your locker and sometimes bring them home by mistake. I had collected a few narcs and brought them to my ER Director's attention. I was suspended and interrogated by 4 suits that don't have the slightest clue as to what goes on in an ER. I told them they could take my blood, urine, breath, hair and give me a polygraph just to prove I'm not a narc user. Why would I hand over all the narcs I had if I were using? I'm NOT a diverter. All of my pt's received the narcs prescribed. I just failed to properly waste the remaining narcs at that time. It's a nightmare!!!