Spervisor hid meds

Nurses Medications

Published

So I have an issue at work that I need some opinions on. I went into the dinning room to check on a potential choking situation that turned out to be fine. While doing so was asked by the aid to help a problematic resident with feeding. As I did I forgot to go back an lock the med room door that is off of the main nurses room. My supervisor came by and noticed the door unlocked and decided to take all of ones medication on me to prove a point. while doing so and not telling me til end of shift this resident did not receive his daily dose of blood pressure med. Does anyone else think this was very unprofessional by my supervisor and in turn puts the residents health at risk as her responsibility? I ubderstand that I should have not left the meds room unlocked and prepared to take full responsibility but instead of stealing the meds on me she should have followed protocol and wrote me up or suspended me. Am I not seeing the true point of her actions or does this fall into resident neglect. I did follow protocol per facility when a med is missing. Thanks for your thoughts.

Specializes in HH, Peds, Rehab, Clinical.

Taking the meds so that a resident did not receive what they needed was absolutely wrong. However, how did YOU go an entire shift and not notice that you never gave that resident any of their scheduled meds (I'm guessing they had more than just one BP pill due)

Mulan

2,228 Posts

So you treated it as a missing med when you couldn't find his meds? Am I reading that correctly? The reason he didn't get his meds is because they were "missing" (because she took them) not that you didn't know he needed them?

What is your status, are you a nurse? What is the status of your supervisor?

I really can't think of a good situation to do that in but it is entirely inappropriate in a health care setting. A few words for that type of behavior come to mind and none of them are positive.

I think I would write an incident report or occurrence screen to document what happened.

Just write the facts, exactly what happened, no opinions.

Karou

700 Posts

Specializes in Med-Surg.

I'm as curious as other posters what you did when/if you realized the resident didn't receive their scheduled medications. You acknowledged you should have locked the med room door already, what about your responsibility in the patient not receiving their medication?

That being said, your supervisor was really inappropriate. She contributed to a medication error (missing doses) and acted unprofessionally. She should have approached you first then done whatever action warranted (write up, whatever). Instead she tried to teach you a lesson in a dangerous way that caused a med error.

I would speak to this supervisor about the way she handled the situation. When filling out an incident report (for the med error) I would include her actions as those contributing to the error.

RschIVF40

1 Article; 59 Posts

I agree with what others have posted regarding this issue. And, not to berate you regarding the "forgetting to lock the med room", but that is a major issue, however, this certainly doesn't excuse your supervisor's behavior. That individual should have had better sense than to do what she did. Supervisors and Managers are supposed to "lead by example", not participate in making the situation even worse. Very, very poor decision-making on her part.

I am not exactly sure where you work, but if you are in a hospital then you should have a compliance department and should be able to contact that department anonymously, to submit a complaint against your supervisor for her behavior, along with submitting an incident report regarding the incident. Most hospitals I've worked at have also had a "no-retaliation" policy as well, meaning that once the situation is investigated, the supervisor is not allowed to retaliate against the employee for turning that supervisor in, for example, by giving that individual a bad performance evaluation or by making things difficult for that employee.

Best Wishes

Specializes in HH, Peds, Rehab, Clinical.

When I did rehab nursing, the med room was always locked, you needed the keys each and every time---and that door shut fast too, LOL! The administrator would routinely come around and push the locks closed on the med carts when they were unlocked--well during the day when he was in =)

Im with BuckybadgerRN.... How did u not know??? Not to excuse your supervisor's behavior, but ​how did you go a whole shift not realizing you haven't given the meds. I've seen this a bunch.... I'm guessing the idea was for you to realize you didn't have the meds and go to the supervisor and tell her what you did, she wouldve scolded you, then gave them back to you, and you would've gone on and given the meds...... Looks like her plan backfired at the patients expense when you never came back to get the meds.

Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
Im with BuckybadgerRN.... How did u not know??? Not to excuse your supervisor's behavior, but ​how did you go a whole shift not realizing you haven't given the meds. I've seen this a bunch.... I'm guessing the idea was for you to realize you didn't have the meds and go to the supervisor and tell her what you did, she wouldve scolded you, then gave them back to you, and you would've gone on and given the meds...... Looks like her plan backfired at the patients expense when you never came back to get the meds.

It sure did backfire.

I would to hear more from the OP in terms when the meds went missing.

I'm just from the school of thought that even in an overstuffed cart, you can still tell when someone's meds are missing.

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