sunny1973

This morning I went to work expecting to take a drug test. However, things were surprisingly quiet. The nursing director spoke with me at the beginning of my shift, explaning why she was asking for statements. I told her, "Honestly, I've always been concerned about the narcotics count & have never really studied the actual pills." She stated that all the other nurses have said the same thing & that this is a good lesson to learn early in one's career. Later in the morning, a co-worker said "federal investigators" were downstairs, but we never saw them. I noticed supervisors occasionally making an appearance to see if the med room door was locked & the narcotics were safely locked away. I'm sure there will be more to come..... JailRN, I'm with you- why aren't we using unit dose packages? Hopefully this event will promt the facility to modernize. I've been thinking about the serious implications of this case. It's not just about stealing, or using drugs. We may have been giving ineffective drugs (or God know what was in those tablets) to many patients. Patients may have suffered with unnecessary pain or worse, adverse drug reactions/interactions. It reminds me of the pharmacist who was recently found to be diluting chemotherapy treatments for extra cash.

I've been an RN just over 1 year now. A supervisor at the Rehab center where I work has just asked me to write a statement - I worked on a unit for a few hours the other night & apparently it was discovered someone was stealing Demerol. We routinely count narcotics when arriving on a unit & when leaving at the end of a shift. It seems someone has been replacing the demerol tabs with another similar-looking pill. I didn't notice a difference in pills at the times I counted narcotics (although they certainly could have been different). So, I did write a statement that I was working that unit at specific hours, on a specific date & that I counted narcotics with another nurse at the appropriate times. Afterward, my supervisor said there will be an investigation. Even though I've done nothing wrong, I still feel nervous about "the investigation". Did I do the right thing by writing a statement? Can anyone tell me what is involved in this type of investigation?