Hello all!!! If anyone remembers a post I posted previously about the nurse that wore sandals to work, well, let me tell you she has done something else VERY STUPID!!!
This happened about 1 week ago, she laid a 1/2 Vicodin on the medicine cart that a student brought in that was not in a labeled medicine bottle actually it was in a Seroquel bottle. She laid it up there because she at the time was unsure as to what type of pill it was the student just told her it was a Vicodin. Well anyway, she layedit up there and forgot about it, the next night the RN supervisor asked her what happened to it and she told her where she layed it, and she went back to get it and guess what?! It wasn't there surprise, surprise. Well, she decided that someone might had put it in the sharps container, which is what should have been done with it anyway. So she donned a pair of gloves and was getting ready to stick her hand down in the container and I saw her and alerted the RN, she told her absolutely not to do this. Well, about 15 minutes later I was back over in the area she was at and I noticed a plastic bag layed there and I asked her what she was gonna do and she said , " I am going to dump the sharps out and look for the pill". I said, surely not and I alerted the RN supervisor again and she came over and said time and time again that she wished she didn't do this and she kept saying I'll be careful, I'll be careful. The RN was visibly getting upset. She finally just grabbed the sharps container after it was about 1/2 emptied out and said STOP!!! The nurse said I gotta find that pill. The RN said it was not that important and she wasn't even sure if that is where the pill was or not. Can you believe that?! Later that night the RN asked me to write up what I saw that way there was a "paper trail" and then the RN made the nurse write herself up for the incident. The nurse became very upset and has tried to start WWIII with her getting all the other nurses on her side. The place I work at is a state facility and the nurse is a state merit employee and it is just about impossible to get rid of one. I just wonder where this nurse got her license, a cracker jack box? Just thought I would see what everyone's feelings were on this. I think it is just plain stupid!!! I mean think of all the diseases!!!!
Specializes in jack of all trades, master of none.
So, the STUDENT brought a 1/2 tab of vicodin in a Seroquel bottle, and gave it to the nurse to hold for her???? And the nurse freaks out b/c she can't find the 1/2 tab of vicodin? Sounds waaaay too suspicious for me. Are the student & the nurse friends, outside of the hospital, by any chance????
Oh, & the thing with the sharps container is just plain STUPID... I don't know of any nurse in their right mind that would be so STUPID!!!!! Lost pill or not....
Wow, sounds like we work at the same place...I mean some of the nurses I work with just don't stop and think before they act on something. As far as the sandal thing, this past summer you would be suprised at what some of the employee's wore to work, you would think it was a fashion show going on or something. I have to admit, it didn't look very professional.
I send people home to change shoes, if they show up in sandals or other inappropriate clothing. If I can read the Ziggy cartoon on your underwear through your scrub pants, it's do-over time --
We had a similar situation at a hospital where I was working as the Quality Director. A nurse claimed that she had accidentally discarded a full vial of Versed into the sharps container. She wasn't a stellar performer, but our general feeling was that she was honest and dependable. Gossip quickly started that she had diverted the Versed and was a major druggie. Our HR policy was weak on requiring a drug test, and the HR director said not to test her. The CNO, the Infection Control Nurse, the Safety Officer and myself all donned our PPE and took the sharps container out into the parking lot near where the biohazard bins were and cut it open on a big piece of thick plastic. Sure enough, there was the Versed. We even sent it out for testing, which was quite expensive, but worth it to preserve the nurse's reputation.
The CNO and nurse manager were very open with the staff about what had happened, which was good for everyone and took away any doubt about what had happened.
We discard pills in the sharps container all the time. If we have to cut one in half or the patient ends up refusing pills we've already poured. I guess it is a hazard though since so many people seem to be willing to put their hands in a sharps container.
We discard pills in the sharps container all the time. If we have to cut one in half or the patient ends up refusing pills we've already poured. I guess it is a hazard though since so many people seem to be willing to put their hands in a sharps container.
steph
Seroquel is an antipsychotic medication. Apparently they had a bottle labeled "Seroquel" and supposedly had the 1/2 Vicodin in that bottle at one time.
I'd like to know who's name was on the label, if the bottle existed. I mean not personally know the name...but was it the student's name, a patient's name, or someone from outside the facility....just who?
Seroquel is an antipsychotic medication. Apparently they had a bottle labeled "Seroquel" and supposedly had the 1/2 Vicodin in that bottle at one time.
I'd like to know who's name was on the label, if the bottle existed. I mean not personally know the name...but was it the student's name, a patient's name, or someone from outside the facility....just who?
Oh - thanks. I thought it was a type of bottle. :chuckle
The whole story is confusing to me. I can't believe that much fuss would be made over 1/2 a Vicodin. So glad to work where I do. I've never encountered anything like the hysteria described here.
Oh - thanks. I thought it was a type of bottle. :chuckle
The whole story is confusing to me. I can't believe that much fuss would be made over 1/2 a Vicodin. So glad to work where I do. I've never encountered anything like the hysteria described here.
Our policy is that wasted meds go into the sink. The waste must be witnessed at the time it is done, of course. NOTHING except sharps should go into the sharps container. This practice encourages the action you witnessed and is not safe. Next time it could be a visitor or patient going after a pill the patient refused at bedside. Always waste in the sink.
Kitty cat-- I think this is great to hear that someone was actually trying to preserve that nurses reputation!!! It is comendable that someone would go to such lengths and expense.
I am not at all surprised to hear that someone would go through a sharps container to prove their story. Diverting drugs is such an issue with nursing but to feel as though you are not trusted and that you have to do that to prove yourself shows....well, I just know I would not want to work in that sort of environment if I felt that way.
I send people home to change shoes, if they show up in sandals or other inappropriate clothing. If I can read the Ziggy cartoon on your underwear through your scrub pants, it's do-over time --
We had a similar situation at a hospital where I was working as the Quality Director. A nurse claimed that she had accidentally discarded a full vial of Versed into the sharps container. She wasn't a stellar performer, but our general feeling was that she was honest and dependable. Gossip quickly started that she had diverted the Versed and was a major druggie. Our HR policy was weak on requiring a drug test, and the HR director said not to test her. The CNO, the Infection Control Nurse, the Safety Officer and myself all donned our PPE and took the sharps container out into the parking lot near where the biohazard bins were and cut it open on a big piece of thick plastic. Sure enough, there was the Versed. We even sent it out for testing, which was quite expensive, but worth it to preserve the nurse's reputation.
The CNO and nurse manager were very open with the staff about what had happened, which was good for everyone and took away any doubt about what had happened.
:imbar 
TracyB,RN, RN
646 Posts
So, the STUDENT brought a 1/2 tab of vicodin in a Seroquel bottle, and gave it to the nurse to hold for her???? And the nurse freaks out b/c she can't find the 1/2 tab of vicodin? Sounds waaaay too suspicious for me. Are the student & the nurse friends, outside of the hospital, by any chance????
Oh, & the thing with the sharps container is just plain STUPID... I don't know of any nurse in their right mind that would be so STUPID!!!!! Lost pill or not....