scared sick....literally....need some advice here stat!

[sasha2lady]

Ok,long story short we have a much older nurse at work who recently returned after a surgery. She has always been slow and unable to stand on her own...but now something is different. I along with 5 other nurses on various shifts have noticed how this nurse's mind is not right. She has been really confused, doesnt seem to know where she is or what to do. She didnt know how to do a tb test, an IM injection, she left meds laying in several rooms (we are not allowed to do that) and the meds that I found were incorrect..luckily the pt had not taken them. Ive followed behind her and found that people with IV's had been unhooked from the IVF's they were in dire need of (one had a BUN of 88)...when I asked her about the IV's she had no idea what I was talking about. She gives report to the oncoming shift using the old reports she finds...whether it be from the night before, the day before or the week prior. She doesn't know what meds are....she thought fosamax was for anxiety. The list goes on. The supervisors all are aware of this. I feel so uncomfortable following her. I feel in my gut she is going to seriously hurt or even kill a pt on accident because she can't do this job anymore. Instead of dealing with this....the supervisors have given her extra shifts to work. I feel physically sick about it. The last thing I want is to end up in a lawsuit or something or go in behind her and find a pt dead because she gave or didnt give them what they were due. My stomach burns like fire and churns when I have to go in to work knowing what I might walk into. Its already a mess to the n'th degree every other time I work and this makes it worse. I dont know what to do. The supervisors and administration have not listened to any of the nurses who have brought this to their attention so what is to be done now? This nurse will soon be 80 years old by the way. I dont know if the signs Im seeing are early dementia or parkinsons or if its medication related for her. I also noticed her hands shake really bad and uncontrollably. When I say shake....I dont mean like a little tremor...I mean a shaking like when you are shaking a bag of flour or something.

HElp!

[JMomBaby]

:redlight:I agree with peaches, please contact your board of nursing today, here is where you can find the phone number for your local board:

https://www.ncsbn.org/contactbon.htm

[Merlyn]

Documentation is your friend. Incident reports. Every time you find something fill one out and keep a copy. This is a dangerous set of cirucumstances. And from what you have done, nothing is going to be done until something is in writing.

You owe it to the patients, the staff, and yourself.

You have done everything humanly possible.As stated above the best thing for you to do is document.

Something is going to happen. Your documentation will show that you tried. I can't think of why they do not investigate. You have to stand by and let this happen. It is Hell,to stand by. You are a good nurse or else you would not care. Courage, Sweet Soul. We understand.