Hi everyone! I really need to get this off my chest and get some responses back on your opinion of the problem.
I was off work for 3 1/2 months for some personal problems. When I returned to work, I am not allowed to work nights or be mandated. Soo, the hospital I work at said this is a disability. So I had my MD fill out the paper work which included a detailed summary of my problem. I just got back into the swing of things, and now I have a major problem.
I was working evening shift, and it was really busy on my med-surg unit. Patient A asked for a pain pill, and so did patient B. I knew it wasn't time for patient B's pain pill, but I went into the med room to get patient A a pill. I got into Pyxis, our computer system for medication distribution, scrolled down to my patient and selected Vicodin ES. When the drawer opened, I removed one pill, opened it, and placed it in the cup, but the cup tipped and the pill was ont he floor. SInce the drawer was still open, I accidently hit cancel all meds, which cancels my action and makes the machine still think that theres the original number of pills in there. In my case, there were four, I took one but it fell, so now theres three, but since I hit cancel all meds, the machine thought it had four still. My nurses aide came into the room and told me that pt C was climbing out of bed again, and pt D was coughing so hard she was throwing up. I was now in a hurry to go help her out, so i put the dropped pill in my pocket until I could call pharmacy and figure out how to fix the problem in the pyxis machine. I created a discrepancy because I still had to remove a pill and the true number was different from the machines number.
The night just got worse from that point. I spent a good part of my night on the phone, with every ones family members, three different doctors on different patients, attempting to keep my Houdini in bed, etc etc etc you all know how it goes. I totally forgot about that pill!!!
The next day, I go to work, and I get called to HR. I'm instantly placed into a state of panic, what did I do wrong, did I get a serious complaint against me (I had a pt not happy with me the week before), was I being sued, I mean a million things were going thru my mind. I practically ran to the other side of the building to get to HR. When I got there, I was out of breath and scared to death to hear what was going on. When they told me it was over this discrepancy, my mind went totally blank. I didn't remember what I did with the pill, and I didn't have it on my person. Since I didn't know exactly what happened to the pill, and I didn't have it to prove that I didn't take it, They placed me on administrative leave of absence, unpaid. They told me that I could get either probation or I could be let go. I got hysterical. I had to call my mom to come get me, I was so upset that I couldn't function. My manager had to stay with me as long as I was in the building, which was embarrasing. I took an extra nerve pill while waiting for my mom to come get me. I just sat there and cried, telling her over and over that I didn't take it, I would rather die than risk my job. I love my job, and I've been with the company for six years now.
When my mom got me home, I took my managers advice and checked my uniform from the day before. My mom was a witness. We checked all the pockets. I had a shirt that has double slit patch pockets on the front. I always use the pockets closest to my body, never the ones further out. We found the pill in the front pocket. I was so happy that I cried. My anxiety medicine had kicked in,and I remembered the entire incident from the night before. I immediately called the hospital, requesting to talk to the head lady in HR. I explained to her what had happened, and she told me that its fishy since just an hour and half ago, I didn't know what happened to it. But its the truth. I'll swear on a Bible, I'll give hair sample for drug testing, whatever they want. I'm not a drug abuser, never have been. And the thought that they are suspicous of that makes me upset, but I can see where they are coming from. Its been over a week since this happened. Its been more than five days. I still haven't heard anything yet. The waiting is killing me. Just the thought that I could lose my job is driving me insane. Has anyone else dealt with anything like this before, what came of it, or does anyone have any suggestions for me? I could really use all the support I can get at this point. Thanks
Hi everyone! I really need to get this off my chest and get some responses back on your opinion of the problem.