Narcotic missing

[Mbarbour]

I counted my narcs with oncoming nurse and I have a narcotic missing. I am upset because I have no clue what happened to it ? Will I be fired ? Or worse ?

[JadedCPN, BSN, RN]

There's no way for strangers on the internet to know if you will be fired for this or not. However it is fair to say that a missing narcotic is a fairl big deal, especially if it can not be accounted for in any way once the discrepancy is discovered.

[Mbarbour]

I don't know what happened to it ? I might have punched it by error or something.

[brownbook]

When you and the on coming nurse found the discrepancy what happened next?

Do you use a Pixis or paper log? You should not have gone home until the discrepancy was corrected. If you were unable to figure out why a narcotic was missing your charge nurse or supervisor should have been notified and an incident report written up.

So a discrepancy was found and what ???? it wasn't rectified, no one was notified, and you went home?

[verene, MSN]

Well what did you do when you noticed the discrepancy during count? Did you notify whomever needed to be notified and track down what happened to it?

I recently had a narc count off when I came on shift. The other nurse and I double-checked all documentation, called the Nurse Supervisor and the Admin-on-call per policy and relayed our findings and where we suspected the count had gone off based on the documentation we could find. Once that was done the other nurse was able to leave and the supervisor took over the investigation and ultimately figured out where it got off and what happened - everything worked out okay in the end and no one lost their jobs or was even punished, but it was a lot of phone calls and paperwork.

If you noticed the discrepancy and left with out doing anything about it, there is definitely a chance it will come back to bite some one - likely you.

[morte, LPN, LVN]

Home work?

[brownbook]

Home work?

That would be nice, I hope you're right.

[psu_213, BSN, RN]

That would be nice, I hope you're right.

This is actually a good, real life critical thinking question. Either it actually is a homework question, or the OP is going through this in real life. If the latter is true, then it should have been a home work question.

[Guest219794]

It kind of depends on the circumstances. For example, if you have a history of missing narcotics, a series of warnings, and there is video of you crushing and snorting it, then yes, you are going to encounter difficulties.

Otherwise, it depends on the circumstances and your supervisors.

Either way, good luck.

[calinurse60]

Having an off narc count is always a big deal, and nobody leaves until it's resolved or an admin takes over the investigation.

[Red07]

If you have a clean urine test you should be fine. I am sure it is not a big deal and you wont get fired. But just know that if it happens alot, they will open up a case on you

[Alex_RN, BSN]

My old job was a mix of paper and computer charting and access to controlled substances was electronic and traceable. Plus, there were cameras in the med room. There would be an increasingly thorough audit until the discrepancy was resolved. Typically, someone logged a med in the wrong clipboard or forgot to chart it. Usually, walking back the inventory and comparing it to patient charts who had orders for the missing drug took care of it. Discrepancies were always resolved within 20 minutes at the most. I imagine in a fully electronic environment, it would be easier and faster to resolve. We never had any missing drugs stay missing.