HRCRN

Also I want to add, there would be no reason for pharmacy to audit this nurse for her behavior. She withdraws the medication, she scans it into the chart. The only suspicious thing is that the patient says they didn’t take anything.

Of course I don’t want to put someone’s career in jeopardy, on the other hand it really upsets me to think about someone possibly stealing from patients. IV medication crosses a line for me because IF this nurse is using these medications that definitely indicates a higher level of abuse. I don’t think anyone would argue that if someone is shooting heroine they have the same level of addiction as someone who takes the occasional hydrocodone for back pain. If you’ve already achieved that level of tolerance you’re going to continue to escalate. I really don’t know what the right thing to do is, that’s why I’m asking for advice. I know that this pattern of behavior is odd, I trust my gut and it doesn’t come from a place of judgment. I want there to be an investigation, but I’m also not naive enough to think that if this nurse is not stealing medication that her career and license would be safe after an investigation. I know that a suspicion alone could ruin her career.

Hi all, I’m not even sure if I’m posting in the right thread. I made this account so I could make this post, because I’m so torn up about how to deal with my suspicions of a coworker diverting narcotics. I am a relatively new RN with 3 years of experience and this nurse has been a mentor to me throughout my career. She is kind, does a wonderful job, has over 20 years of experience and just received a prestigious achievement award at our hospital. I strongly suspect she is stealing opiates from patients. We work on a busy med-surg unit where 99% of staff works 12 hour shifts. This nurse is one of the few who, because she works part time and has a lot of seniority, has been grandfathered in to 8 hour shifts. So there have been multiple occasions where I take some of her patients at 1500. A few months ago I started to notice something unusual. After getting report from her and going in to see my new patient for meds and assessments, I would ask them about pain and tell them I saw on the chart that they had taken oral opiates earlier In the day, and ask if they needed more. They would swear up and down that they hadn’t been taking anything, or anything stronger than Tylenol, for pain. But there it was in the chart scanned in as administered. I trusted that the patients were with it and telling the truth, and it always made sense what they were saying because they looked great and didn’t have pain. It didn’t happen every time, of course, but it happened 4 or 5 times to the point where I noticed the pattern. Other things that stood out to me were that often the opiates documented as administered would be the ONLY time it looked like the patient received them during their stay-so one would think that the patient would be in extra pain and would remember taking something but instead they are emphatically denying both taking the meds and having any pain. I believe that this nurse is just scanning the meds in as if they are administered while in the room giving AM meds to the patient, but then pocketing the pain meds. The fact that they are always scanned at the same time as the morning med pass fits with this. Ok so I was feeling like, this is just a strong suspicion, this has no real basis, and this nurse has NEVER been impaired at work so who am I to meddle when I have no real proof? Then a few weeks ago I saw a couple times she did it with IV Dilaudid. I don’t know if she has been taking IV opiates for a long time and I just didn’t see it or if this is new but I saw it twice in a week and for me this just crosses a line and really makes me very concerned. I called the anonymous third party reporting line last week and started to file a report, but halfway through I chickened out because I thought, do I owe it to her to confront her and give her the opportunity to self report? I really like her as a coworker and friend, she has a kid she just sent to college—it just feels so wrong for me to tattle on her! On the other hand, I cannot afford to be retaliated against at work and I have no idea what would happen or where it would go if I just talked to her about it, especially because I have no real evidence. She’s not my superior or anything but working there as long as she has I honestly don’t know who might come to her aid at my expense and I have to protect myself. However, on the phone call they informed me that although it’s technically anonymous my name may come out in the course of an investigation. Which would be horrible but I think it’s unlikely in this case. And that’s truly all I want is for someone to look closely at it and do an investigation. I’m not saying I know exactly what’s going on. I’ve only told my husband about this and he’s tired of hearing me go back and forth...it’s time to make a decision and stick to it. What do I do?