I am a new nurse. I had a massively hectic night shift and we were rushing from drug cabinet to drug cabinet with only one set of keys. I gave a patient 10mg (2x5mg) diazepams as prescribed. Sometimes, if a medication strip is finished I just stuff it into my pocket. Now, I have emptied my pockets to do my laundry and found what I thought was an empty strip actually has one tiny tablet on it! Or at least I assume that is why it is in my pocket?
We do not keep diazepam in our controlled drugs cupboard so there is no register of it. It is kept in a bedside locker with a patient label on it like all the other meds. Though the pharmacy do keep track of when they are running out.
What should I do? I have a few days off and now they are going to be ruined by stress. What if someone saw me do this?
If I own up, I will look so suspicious, they know I have social anxiety so I will look like I am taking it for anxiety!!!
Please, advise me. Destroy the tablet or phone work and get written up or suspended?
If it is a mistake, then you do the right thing by returning it. It is better to be fired for telling the truth, than to be fired fo covering up a mistake.
It's not like the pill is missing and can't be found. You have the pill so taking it back should not be a big deal. Now if the pill comes up and missing and they drug test you. YOU ARE SCREWED and I would imagine you can waive your license good bye. This should be a no brainer decision but your deceptive attitude makes it appear like you are hiding something or trying to get away with something.
If you hide what happened, you'll look and feel guilty, regardless of the truth. It'll end up being something out of Poe or Dostoevsky, where your mind won't let you stop brooding about it until you end up incriminating yourself or confessing.
From what you've said, you haven't done anything wrong yet, but if you don't contact your employer about this, you will be doing something wrong, regardless of your motivation. The cover-up will get you in much more trouble than the "crime."
I left work with a percocet and i went back and we returned it back because it wasnt opened or anything. No one said a thing about it. Just bring it back.
Specializes in Neuroscience/Neuro-surgery/Med-Surgical/.
I'm going to have to leave it and pray I get away with it. I can't be drug tested if I take prescription temazepam (to reduce the insomnia from starting my SSRI for above-mentioned social anxiety). I'll show up positive on a drugs test and lose my job. I feel awful. Thank god there was only one
Bad, bad idea to think you can pray and get away with it......
Call your manager and explain what happened, and return it.
If you are that worried about drug testing, take your bottle of temazapam with you as proof your on it...never ever ever cover up something like that it will bite you in the butt and hard.
@hotflashion Yes, it's not often I get to cite Poe and Dostoevsky in a nursing thread. And my father told me that English degree I pursued during my first round of college would never be useful in real life....
Wow so true what everyone said here. Definitely don't try to hide it and think that you can get away with it. Your managers may never know, pharmacy may never know, but YOU will always know. So true on the Poe reference.
That being said we once had a nurse who took a vial of morphine home and went on vacation for a week, brought it back in when she returned home and did laundry, nothing happened, it was just a mistake.
I left clinicals with an ampule of Dilaudid when I was a STUDENT! I was so nervous I felt nauseated. I called my instructor at home. She was very nice about it and went back with me to return it. It didn't end up being that big of a deal.
And my father told me that English degree I pursued during my first round of college would never be useful in real life.... 
melodie04
12 Posts
If it is a mistake, then you do the right thing by returning it. It is better to be fired for telling the truth, than to be fired fo covering up a mistake.