Stealing drugs!! what's your opinion?????

oramar · Sep 12, 2003

Never underestimate the ability of a human being to get around security measures. Especially a human being that has strong motivations. One of the most commen things is that people just take advantage of the laxity of others.

renerian, BSN, RN · Sep 12, 2003

Humans are very creative. I had several good friends who did this.

Oh by the way, I did not know this at the time of the theft.

renerian

meownsmile, BSN, RN · Sep 12, 2003

I have seen a couple instances where people were caught diverting medication (narcotics). But i guess the most important point is that it was caught and they got treatment. How they did it wasnt really of consequence because eventually it shows up one way or another. I guess as to whether they lost their license or reprimanded by the licensing agency was dependant on the cirucumstances.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Sep 12, 2003

What were they taking? We had a problem in our facility with the Benadryl and prenatal vitamins disappearing. Those aren't controlled substances . . .

snoogans · Sep 12, 2003

If someone is an addict and stealing/diverting narcotics to feed their habit they are not thinking of the concequesces (sorry kaint spele gud) of their actions, only getting their fix.

I worked with a nurse who had conditions on his licence from past dirversions. He had to have another nurse give narc's but somehow he mananged to get into the narc fridge and replace topical morphine with a thick lotion. we discovered it during a count when their seemed to be a lot of air in the syringes, not to mention the tips were kind of messy.

Other nurses say/document that a med was given which wasn't. and pocket it for themselves. A float nurse was finaly caught (did rec treatment for drug addiction) after a patteren was noticed that she was the only nurse that always gave prn pain meds twice on her shift even if the pt's hadn't complained for pain for weeks. Or gave perc's for mild pain.

snoogans · Sep 12, 2003

Whoops, forgot to mention, in our back up emergency drug kit, anitbiotics and diflucan were always missing.

tonchitoRN · Sep 12, 2003

zantacs were always missing in our unit. also bottles of insulin. whenever i worked the first thing i did was gather up my zantacs and hid them so they would be available when it was time to pass meds.

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Sep 12, 2003

We have a staff bottle of tylenol, staff bottle of ibuprofen, and a staff bottle of tums. Anything else that comes out missing is an automatic termination.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Sep 12, 2003

It's an act of despiration by an addict. It's easy to do actually.

However, addiction (like overeating) is something we should never judge an individual on. It's not a moral issue with me. They need help.

Stealing is wrong, same as drug addicts on the street who steal, I'm not condoning that.

Tilleycs · Sep 12, 2003

Originally posted by 3rdShiftGuy
It's an act of despiration by an addict. It's easy to do actually.
However, addiction (like overeating) is something we should never judge an individual on. It's not a moral issue with me. They need help.

Stealing is wrong, same as drug addicts on the street who steal, I'm not condoning that.

Tweety, I was under the impression that we are discussing the ACTIONS, not getting back into the endless debate/argument of "You're judging them/no I'm not/yes, you are, you shouldn't judge people, etc." Please don't open that can of worms again by pointing the "You shouldn't be judging people" finger. We need like that we need another hole in our heads.

kimmicoobug · Sep 12, 2003

I know of one case over the past year at my facility where a nurse was brought in for a drug overdose (not necessarily diversion). She got treatment and is back to work. We don't know who, but it has been confirmed that in the past year there have been a few diversions from staff. As for floor stock, I think taking the occasional tylenol and Ibuprofen is ok...anything that has to be charged to a patient is not.