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.
No you didn't end her career, she did that all by herself. You did the right thing! Very sad but now hopefully she'll get the help she so desperately needs. Even sadder are the people that threw things at her. I hope they were disciplined as well.
Shooting staples or tossing other items at someone while they are defenseless is inexcusable. I wonder...what do they do to patients that cannot defend themselves?
I don't understand why the police were not called and this nurse taken to the ER then arrested as she should have been. Were the patient's ok? Did they take care to make sure the people she was giving meds to were ok as she obviously was in no shape to follow the 5 R's. Did the facility demand a drug test? Did they call the BON and did YOU call the BON. You are not off the hook. As a fellow nurse, it is your duty to also notify the BON with what happened. You can't assume your employer did. It sounds as if they are going to want to cover this up before any family members find out what was caring for their loved one. This lady should have been taken to jail. I don't understand why people want to take away the consequences for us addicts. If we never have consequences to our behavior we will NEVER quit. I think that's what people don't understand. You can't love us well. We will kill ourselves while you watch. Give us consequences like jail, losing our license, things like that will get our attention. SOMEONE has to protect the patients. If your employer doesn't turn her in and you don't turn her in, she WILL go to other facilities and do this again. I did.
Southernbeegirl: With all respect, you are so very wrong. We don't take people to jail for being sick. She does need to have her license taken away immediately so that she cannot work as a nurse and then, depending what state this is, she'll have to decide if she wants to get treatment or not.
Southernbeegirl: With all respect, you are so very wrong. We don't take people to jail for being sick. She does need to have her license taken away immediately so that she cannot work as a nurse and then, depending what state this is, she'll have to decide if she wants to get treatment or not.
I think the issue re: jail was that she was stealing meds. That part of the situation IS illegal.
I think the issue re: jail was that she was stealing meds. That part of the situation IS illegal.
There are several issues. Yes, the police should have, could have, been called, the nurse arrested. The administrators failed in their responsibility to their patients and families, to their staff, including the nurse. to the nurse; to her husband; to the general public. The administrators opened themselves to a suit, by her husband and the public, had she been injured on the way home, had a respiratory/cardiac arrest or injured someone else.
And employees act in a manner they believe they can. This case is over run with errors and failure on the part of everyone.
Southernbeegirl: With all respect, you are so very wrong. We don't take people to jail for being sick. She does need to have her license taken away immediately so that she cannot work as a nurse and then, depending what state this is, she'll have to decide if she wants to get treatment or not.
No, I am not wrong. I also speak from experience. I am lucky that I was never taken to jail but I darned well should have been, and so should this nurse. She broke the law, many laws probably - stealing narcotics from work is a serious offense. Just because she is an addict does not give her carte blanche to break the law. This incident was obviously a severe one and she should have been taken to jail. It is up to her to get treatment and repair her life. This is what I mean about taking our consequences away from us (the addicts). We break the law but people want to "save" us. If someone robbed your mother's medicine in the parking lot of the drug store would you want that person in jail? What she did was no different. We don't take people to jail for being sick, but we do take them to jail for breaking the law. This may seem harsh to some but come on guys...stop making excuses for us! You can call it diverting or what ever nice sounding name you can think of but the/ truth remains that we are breaking the law. Going to jail could be the thing that we need to change our lives. But ultimately, it protects the patient from US.
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.
Srlsy....if she wansn't in the room when the other co workers were doing this...how is she to blame?
Was this a LTC center? I can see this played out. If night shift you might have one house super a few nurses and a bunch more CNAs. Were they nurses and CNAs throwing the stuff? I would investigate that and write them up. The were wrong.
As far as the nurse...Agency or not, I would have called my DON and or the ADM and then called the police. I would have also called the agency and told them we need to speak with a supervisor or their DON. She was stealing drugs. As far as calling the BON, our DON normally would do this. I would consider calling the paramedics after calling the police. I'm no addictions specialist or haven't dealt with someone riding a high like that..who know what could have happend with her. I have my own patients to deal with and adding one more...no way.
For those of you who want to penalize this nurse for her addiction...SHAME ON YOU! So far there has been no proof given that this nurse was stealing narcotics or was in fact impaired due to drugs. No lab work was done, she was placed in a situation where others could demean her, spread gossip and confuse the issue. The only ones who should have been involved in this incident were the direct charge nurse and the supervisor. By not investigating the cause of the apparent impairment there is no, I repeat, no proof that she was actually impaired. If your facility does not address this type of incident with written policy then it is in violation of federal standards.
Allowing other staff members' access to her in this situation was incomprehensible. You will be lucky if she doesn't sue your facility for assault, abuse and false imprisonment, let alone slander. The actions of the co-workers if true are very troubling. This is another side of the old story that nurses shoot their wounded. How sad to have such a trusted profession prey upon their own. People, if the nurse is an addict, this is a fatal disease that can not be managed without treatment.
It's time for all nurses to understand that addiction is a DISEASE not a lack of morals or will power. Diseases need to be treated, not made fun of or become the object of ridicule. And while there are guidelines in every state about reporting such incidents to the BON you will find that investigations are lengthy and IF she is an addict this nurse is vulnerable to serious consequences of the disease process, mainly overdosing or suicide after such an incident. Forget the career, what about the nurse? Treat the nurse and the career will be salvageable. For those of you who think no nurse should ever work again after being diagnosed as an addict I hope I never have to rely upon you for care for me or my family. Give me the rehabilitated nurse who is being monitored. At least I know that nurse is safe, knows the disease and would never take advantage of another nurse or patient being accused of impairment.
Specializes in acute care med/surg, LTC, orthopedics.
Forget the career, what about the nurse?
Forget the nurse, what about the patients she endangered?
Sorry, no amount of reasoning will convince me that this scenario, along with many others of its kind, couldn't have turned deadly for the dependent, vulnerable patient which we nurses swore to protect. Would you feel sorry for her, then?
For those of you who want to penalize this nurse for her addiction...SHAME ON YOU! So far there has been no proof given that this nurse was stealing narcotics or was in fact impaired due to drugs. No lab work was done, she was placed in a situation where others could demean her, spread gossip and confuse the issue. The only ones who should have been involved in this incident were the direct charge nurse and the supervisor. By not investigating the cause of the apparent impairment there is no, I repeat, no proof that she was actually impaired. If your facility does not address this type of incident with written policy then it is in violation of federal standards.
Allowing other staff members’ access to her in this situation was incomprehensible. You will be lucky if she doesn't sue your facility for assault, abuse and false imprisonment, let alone slander. The actions of the co-workers if true are very troubling. This is another side of the old story that nurses shoot their wounded. How sad to have such a trusted profession prey upon their own. People, if the nurse is an addict, this is a fatal disease that can not be managed without treatment.
It's time for all nurses to understand that addiction is a DISEASE not a lack of morals or will power. Diseases need to be treated, not made fun of or become the object of ridicule. And while there are guidelines in every state about reporting such incidents to the BON you will find that investigations are lengthy and IF she is an addict this nurse is vulnerable to serious consequences of the disease process, mainly overdosing or suicide after such an incident. Forget the career, what about the nurse? Treat the nurse and the career will be salvageable. For those of you who think no nurse should ever work again after being diagnosed as an addict I hope I never have to rely upon you for care for me or my family. Give me the rehabilitated nurse who is being monitored. At least I know that nurse is safe, knows the disease and would never take advantage of another nurse or patient being accused of impairment.
So....why would she have been snorting something at the nurses med cart and them rubbing her gums...Please give us all the other reasons she could have been doing this and then appearing to be intoxicated after those action. I'm sure they might have investigated it farther and checked what meds were punched out and "given" It is soooooo easy to divert in a LTC with a demented elderly patient's meds.
Addiction is a disease in my eyes. I've had family members that battled it and lost the battle. Addiction isn't a criminal act, but what the addict has done sometimes becomes a criminal act. That is what should be punished, not forgotten just because it was part of the disease process.
As far as the labs...LOLOL. We had a nurse who was legally prescribed vicodin. The only thing about that was that is wasn't enough to fix her need so she stole them...what would lab test prove?
janice o. lvn
11 Posts
No you didn't end her career, she did that all by herself. You did the right thing! Very sad but now hopefully she'll get the help she so desperately needs. Even sadder are the people that threw things at her. I hope they were disciplined as well.