RN impaired at work

[Momma1RN]

I work at a small hospital with an RN with 20+ years seniority on the floor. From what I've heard, she's been reported and suspended numerous times for showing up intoxicated at work. She consistently leaves the floor for an hour or more at a time, rarely is in her patients rooms, does not give her medications on time or at all, etc. managers like her because she fills in 4 hour holes when they need coverage. This morning she showed up slurring her words, swearing loudly and overall belligerent. I reported it to the nurse supervisor who, along with our manager, came to "assess", FOUR hours later. Both coming to the conclusion she was perfectly fine. I'm being made to feel guilty and am completely discouraged and disheartened by the whole situation. She needs help, and her patients are not safe if she is impaired. Any advice?

[Momma1RN, MSN, RN, APRN]

And it would be on the charge nurse not to say, "could we talk in the other room for a moment" if the nurse was swearing, slurring, whatever-ing in full view of patients and visitors.

If you go out socially, people are known to drink alcohol. And yes, I can imagine at some point someone is intoxicated. But going out and work are 2 different things.

That "someone who knows her personally" said she has a "problem with alcohol" is just gossip. We do NOT know what our personal friend's troubles may be. It is an assumption.

And the alcohol that was drinking in her car (which is troubling in that she was driving--but no one thought to call the cops) was AFTER her shift.

No one really has any idea what ails this nurse. And I can not stress enough that for everyone to keep on adding fuel to the fire is wrong on a number of levels.

What would happen if next week, you become the enabler and beer buddy who goes out socially with this person, and stands by and just watches her make poor choices? And everyone just continues to gossip and carry on. And then the week after that you are any number of other issues that make you a poor nurse.....

And wouldn't ya'll feel horrible if in fact this nurse is a diabetic? Or has a mental illness?

And yet, your charge nurse did nothing about this? And allowed it to continue so ya'll could gossip and speculate even more?

Again, no one has any clue what ails this nurse. However, any intervention to minimize the impact of her behavior was not immediately employed. And in fact, she was allowed to work for the entire shift before management came in. There is something just so wrong about that, as well.

And equally as interesting, let's let the new nurse make the complaint....then when the chips fall, it will fall on her. Awesome. Just what you need is to be sued for slander.

Get malpractice insurance, take your observations to your charge nurse. If patient harm, then pursue it more diligently. But be very, very careful on your assumptions.

I agree. I really do. This particular person WAS in charge on this day. It is what it is at this point. I did what I thought was right. End of story. If administration deemed that she was appropriate then what else can I do? I'm trying to just go to work and do my job. I have malpractice and I would be surprised if I was accused of slander, but hey anything is possible I guess.

Thanks for everyone's replies, I appreciate it!