Question about wasting narcotics

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This may seem like a simple set of questions, but I have to ask them anyway:

When wasting narcotics, there has to be a witness that is a licensed medical professional correct? Does the witness have to have the same license as the person wasting the medication? For example, can a RN waste narcotics in front of a respiratory therapist? The lowest licensed medical professional I can think of is an LPN? Do the narcotic wasting rules differ between states? Thanks for your time.

Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.

In our ED we don't have LPNs and docs don't have pyxis access. I would imagine that I cannot waste with RT, but I'm not sure on that.

We do have a pharmacist assigned to our unit (Pham. D.). I know she can clear narc discrepencies with us, restock narcs, count narcs, etc. Not sure if she can waste with us...I will have to ask her!

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Specializes in Hospice, LTC, Rehab, Home Health.

It depends also on the setting, in hospice inpatient unit we waste with another nurse. In the homes the meds are wasted by the nurse in the presence of a family member, POA, etc. and both sign the disposal form.

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Specializes in PICU.

Agree with the setting... when we are on transport, our only coworker is an RT, so yes, we will waste our narcotics with them.

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