Taking expired OTC meds home from workplace

Flatline, BSN, RN · Feb 10, 2017

Yes, very much so. This would be one of those "crimes of moral turpitude" that are so famously put in the NPA.

AliNajaCat · Feb 10, 2017

Yes, because it's very possible that the phcy can send back expired meds for a credit, or get a tax credit for donating them to an overseas charity.

That's called "theft," and she'd better stop doing it stat.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Feb 12, 2017

Moved to the Patient Medications forum for more responses.

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Feb 13, 2017

Where I'm from it's called "unauthorized removal of drugs from the workplace" and can get one's license put on probation, suspended, or even revoked depending on how serious the theft was. It's not worth it.

Elladora · Feb 18, 2017

Where I used to work the company set them out to take home. They paid for them, so it was their money, not the patients.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Feb 20, 2017

Was just wondering...An LVN that works at the nursing home with me takes home the expired OTC meds. Is there any transgressions regarding this?

Seems like stealing to me.

Nalon1 RN/EMT-P, BSN, RN · Mar 23, 2017

What does the management say? If they said it is OK (and I would get it in writing), then fine.

If she is just doing it, then it could be considered theft.

I worked at a Occ-Med clinic for several years. We had a lot of OTC meds that would expire and my boss told me to dispose of them.

I asked if she cared how I disposed of them, and she said she did not care what I did with them, so long as it was legal. They were trash as far as she was concerned, but knew she was not supposed to throw them away in the regular trash or flush them down the toilet.

I just typed up a form for her to sign saying that it was OK for me to take expired OTC medications out of the facility to dispose of properly.

Whatever I did not use, need, or was a year past the expiration date, I brought to the hospital affiliated with the clinic for them to dispose of.

Cream and sugar LPN · Mar 23, 2017

Where I used to work the company set them out to take home. They paid for them, so it was their money, not the patients.

I say trust no one.

i personally would never walk out of any nursing job with medications. Not even if it was gift wrapped and had my name on it.