under the influence at work/sleeping on the job

[cafenurse1112]

I have a co-worker that is 20 weeks pregnant and on all kinds of drugs: Lortab, Neurontin, Ambien just to name a few. She takes them at work, falls asleep at the desk, I think she is dangerous. I spoke with the ER director who told me that they are prescribed and she cannot do anything about it. I spoke with HR who inferred that I have something against this person, which I do not and I should stay out of it. Ok, I am venting but I am afraid that she is going to hurt someone and then what?:uhoh21:

[sereneintexas]

"I think this needs to be told to the Board in the OP's state and I think the OP has liability for not reporting it."

I'm sorry Vito, what did I miss? What does "OP" stand for?

The problem is not just in health care it's everywhere, people are afraid to do the right thing for fear of offending someone. Of course, I understand this since there are so many folks who have no earthly idea what it means to take responsibility for their own behavior.

I'm afraid I work for the most sorry of facilities. Not only do some of the nurses and MHA sleep on the job, many on them come in at various times, leave early, leave the facility during their shifts, bring laptops, DVD players etc.

Nurses are careless with narcotics/keys and one even came in drunk one morning and as far as we could tell, inspite of all the write ups little if anything is done about any of this. Of course, they did manage to keep the drunk one away from the patients, but if she was disciplined no one heard a word about it. She was at work the next day, everyone acting like nothing happened.

[cafenurse1112]

serene, OP means original poster. Ghillbert, I already told my boss that I would meet with her and HR but not with this co-worker. They way she runs her mouth, anything said in the meeting will be all over the ER within 2 days and I will not have it or be a part of the drama anymore. Everyone already knows about the meeting with HR, she told everyone while getting people to fill out papers for her. If I was to call the board, heck if anyone was to call the board, everyone would assume it was me and the false calls in on me would start. I will wait to see what HR will do first

[cafenurse1112]

here is a recap of the meeting: I met with 2 members of HR, they listened to everything ( the sleeping on the job, the meds, her talking to everyone in the department, getting the statements from people, leaving the dept and leaving the pts unwatched, the using of hospital equipment for herself). They watched the video and then thanked me for coming foward with the info. I told them I was worried about her and what was happenning to the pts and what would happen to the hospital if someone got hurt. I gave them examples of pt incidents that have occurred. In the end, I was told to just continue to report the incidents, following chain of command and that if I had any concerns, call them directly. She is NOT being fired, NOT being suspended. I was told that they weren't too concerned because she is going out on maternity soon.