Recently, a nurse resigned instead of submitting to a drug test. The nurse was under suspicion for diverting. What do you think? Should a refusal and resignation be considered an admission of guilt and reported to the BON? Shouldn't a nurse, who is responsible for people's lives, live under the same rules as drivers?
A friend of mine used to be a DNS of a small hospital and had to deal with a woman who called hundreds of scripts for narcotics in order to divert before they caught her. The woman's own husband died of a narcotic OD. Not only did my friend insist on a drug test, but she tried very hard to get the government to bring criminal charges. She said it was very difficult to get that to happen, although the gal did get sanctioned by the BON, finally.
The union representing my hospital fights very hard each contract to forbid random drug testing. They give up on PTO accrual rates, and other stuff, but dig their heels in on random testing. Personally, I feel like random testing is the best deterrent, as obnoxious as it would be to have to submit to one.
Are we not doing enough to avoid and deter drug use in our profession, allowing problems to grow until they cause harm? Are drug using nurses often being allowed to quietly resign and move on to the next job? Waiting for a person develop an addiction is like waiting for a major accident to put in a stop sign on a busy corner.
