I think I just ended someone's career

Nurses General Nursing

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You are reading page 7 of I think I just ended someone's career

newnurseotb

7 Posts

Other staff members were using this woman as a target?!?!?!?! What do they do to patients in this condition? :uhoh21:

linda535

16 Posts

Long story short, I had to report a registery LPN who was seen crushing, cutting, snorting, and then rubbing the residual powder on her gums by nearly an entire med floor. Most of her narc cards are missing several pills each. She was so intoxicated she could not stand at the cart and nearly fell over several times. She was escorted out and made the statement that she was already being investigated and was about to finish RN school. While waiting for the bosses to arrive some of the staff made it a game to shoot staples at her face and throw cups and tape at her, she was so impaired she didn't notice and just continued to look around the room we had her sit in. Her eyes were half closed and she would constantly fall asleep, while talking in a very slow and slurred speach! She couldn't even dial her phone to call her husband, someone had to dial for her...made we want to cry. I have never seen someone so completely intoxicated.

I feel bad that this nurse's promising career was cut short, I feel worse about her patients.

Sad day for nursing.

:sniff:

I got to the end of this story and my gut reaction was "WHAT?? What about those idiot staff members who "made it a game to shoot staples at her face...". If this is the way they treat a fellow staffer, HOW DO THEY TREAT IMPAIRED PATIENTS? At the very least, that behavior was WRONG, at worse and legally it was ASSAULT! I think they should all be placed on probation at minimum and have the incident put in their records. There is NO excuse for that behavior, no matter how insulted . That whole episode was indeed a very "Sad day for nursing."

Linda D

CrunchRN, ADN, RN

4,530 Posts

Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

Sounds like you did everything right in a horrid situation. You followed policy. I think you deserve a huge pat on the back and probably saved her life.

:yeah::yeah::yeah::yeah::yeah:

mvg rn

56 Posts

Specializes in NICU.

don't worry about ending her career. she made her decisions and she needs help. you may have saved her life by reporting her and you definitely protected her patients.

summe66

4 Posts

i feel sad for the nurse and i hope that she gets some help. you did nothing wrong; however, i do not excuse the staff who shot staples and threw things at her. this is scary, especially coming from those in healthcare. i hope that they were disciplined. the bosses need to be disciplined also. i hope that you tried to stop them. i am ashamed on the entire staff.

raindrop

611 Posts

This situation was handled unprofessionally. The only people who should have been in the room with the impaired nurse was the charge nurse and house supervisor. The charge nurse should have sat with her, looked up the policy for employee impairment, and followed it accordingly. I'm sure the impaired nurse should have been wheeled to the ED per policy. The ED would have made the diagnosis and dealt with her ride.

Instead, it sounds like all of you were more interested in the "OMG" aspect. OMG did you see her snort that? OMG... yes and OMG look at how she is acting. OMG, I will run upstairs to (why did you go upstairs again?) while you guys' sit with her. OMG, she is so impaired she doesn't know we are abusing her with the staples/cups. OMG, she doesn't even know her husban'd number. OMG. OMG. OMG.

Shame on all of you.

NurseBanana

179 Posts

Long story short, I had to report a registery LPN who was seen crushing, cutting, snorting, and then rubbing the residual powder on her gums by nearly an entire med floor. Most of her narc cards are missing several pills each. She was so intoxicated she could not stand at the cart and nearly fell over several times. She was escorted out and made the statement that she was already being investigated and was about to finish RN school. While waiting for the bosses to arrive some of the staff made it a game to shoot staples at her face and throw cups and tape at her, she was so impaired she didn't notice and just continued to look around the room we had her sit in. Her eyes were half closed and she would constantly fall asleep, while talking in a very slow and slurred speach! She couldn't even dial her phone to call her husband, someone had to dial for her...made we want to cry. I have never seen someone so completely intoxicated.

I feel bad that this nurse's promising career was cut short, I feel worse about her patients.

Sad day for nursing.

:sniff:

Promising career??? I don't THINK so!!

Katie5

1,459 Posts

You may not have ended someone's career but you handled it most improperly.

If you did not contribute to the problem; you are not part of the problem or you cannot solve the problem, then you have no business being there. What was it, your colleagues had to offer?

No pity for you from here.Yes, you're right, you played a role in her demise and not a very good one either!

I'll retract these statements later.Right now, it stays.

CCT27

2 Posts

That is NOT a sad day for nursing. You did not end her career, she did. You probably saved her life and the lives of innocent patients. What took you so long is my question. Your knowlege of the circumstances provides you with some culpability in this situation. The sad day for nurses are the staff abusing an impaired individual. How cruel.

CrunchRN, ADN, RN

4,530 Posts

Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

Someone said y'all ought to be ashamed and I think that person is so wrong. All this second guessing and criticism is misplaced.

The OP followed policy and the fact is she has stated numerous times she was in with the bosses giving statements when the bad behavior by staff went on. Can't some of you read simple english? How many times must she state this?

She could not control every aspect of what was going on. She did the best she could, she followed policy, and that is all there is to it.

The other nurse desperately needs help, but she also had a hand in bringing this on herself. In a perfect world things may have occurred differently, but the OP played the hand she was dealt.

The 2nd guessing and critique by her fellow nurses makes me sick.:mad:

Specializes in ER, TRAUMA, MED-SURG.
First, there was no excuse for the staff to treat her like they did. Granted, this woman was impaired, but have some compassion. No one knows what private hell this woman may have been through that contributed to her becoming addicted. The staff needs to investigated and disciplined too, as I wonder how they themselves treat impaired patients.

If she was this impaired, she should have been escorted to the ER for an assessment. What happens if she goes home and dies of a drug overdose?

But don't feel bad and feel you ended someone's career. The LPN ended her career. She may have a chance to get it back if she successfully completes a many year long program for impaired nurses administered by the BON.

U didn't end her career, u helped to keep her from killing any number of people if she had driven herself.

Anne

Someone ended their career all by their own grown up selves. This either will or won't be a wake up call that her number one priority now MUST be getting clean. I hope she can get herself admitted to a long term treatment program of some sort so she can come to terms with how her choices to date have affected her ability to create the life she wants and so she can then make better choices in the future. I also hope that she will one day be able to reflect back on this experience and feel genuine gratitude for it having played out as it did BEFORE someone else got hurt.

As for the co-workers' actions...the circumstances are a poor excuse to justify their mistreatment of her. It brings to mind that scene in the movie It's A Wonderful Life where the druggist, who 'lost his mind' because George wasn't there to keep him from accidentally poisoning the sick kid, comes into the tavern and the bartender squirts seltzer all over him and all the patrons think it's a riot. Or that famous Shirley Jackson short story The Lottery...do otherwise good decent people, in order to remain as such, need to have a periodic outlet for all their tendencies toward cruelty that lie bubbling just beneath the surface???

No wonder this story gives so many of us the creeps.

I feel awful everytime I see that part in "It's a Wonderful life." It's so sad how some people can be so cruel.

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