Second guessing myself....

I am not yet a nurse but I would have felt like you did and maybe offered her money to buy the meds. Can you lose your job over this?

I don't have any advice but I hope everything works out.

I could lose my job. Jobs are not guaranteed and if my director feels like it's worth terminating me then ya I'll lose my job. Honestly I'd be devastated as I LOVE MY JOB and enjoy going to work... I'm an honest person and that's why I want to tell her what happened- even if it puts my job on the line.

I suggest that you keep it to yourself and don't do it again. It's a fairly minor thing that could be blown up into something major. By telling your supervisor, you're obligating her to act or be "in" on the inappropriate behavior.

I wouldn't tell anyone. Don't do it again. You never know. If patient claims she has a reaction to it, etc...

Keep it to yourself, don't let it happen again, and in the future, if a patient tells you they can not afford their medication, then you need to have conversation with social work to go and see this patient so that arrangements can be made.

There are any number of patients who know that "I can't afford my medication" means that the nurse has to do something about that. Which means they stay longer until social work can get to them. Which means that they can get their medications for free. Which is low on their priority list.

I would be more concerned that this patient could come back with an exacerbation, and say "welllll I TOLD the nurse I couldn't afford my medication!!"

It is a duty to act statement. Otherwise, I wouldn't open a can of worms with your manager. Learn and move on.

I am always one to be upfront and honest, but I would let this one go. Just don't EVER do this again. If there is an issue in the future for a patient involve your dept. social worker.

I've felt the same way in the same situation. However, you shouldn't have done what you did. There are huge potential liabilities in it.

It is a learning experience as well.

We can't help every patient who can't afford things, ourselves, no matter how deserving they are or how much we want to help. That's what the social worker is for. Also, there are lots of free and reduced-price medication programs that can be very helpful. You could collect this information to inform future patients. Often, too, hospitals can give one day's-worth of meds to help a patient until she can get to the pharmacy. See if your hospital does such things.

Warm hugs for being such a caring nurse! It's complicated, isn't it?

Aside from possible loss of job or other adverse reactions, my cynicism would keep me from giving a patient meds or (money to buy meds). I guess I have worked the ER's for too long.

Thank you ALL for your input. This was in the emergency department at a small hospital. We don't contact social workers is people say they can't afford meds, the local grocery store pharmacy provides antibiotics free for those without insurance.

Hi Jules, I DO realize that it is not in my scope to dispense meds, it was a total lapse in judgement and a mistake I will not make again. When I worked med-surg, we would give the patients any of the inhalers or creams that they had been using. In the ED we can also give the bactroban or silvadene creams that we open for the patient to them when they leave. At night sometimes, we (the RN) dispenses a 8pk of Tylenol 4s to hold the patient's pain over until a pharmacy opens- the T4s are ordered by the doc as a nursing order... I'm definitely going to look into if all this is legit or not. I know that me giving a recently discharged patient some ibuprofen (or anything for that matter) is not ok though and will NEVER do that again...

Your intent was golden & is a true representation of why nurses are the most trusted profession.... but as is so often the case, bureaucratic rules "for the common good" are often a barrier to doing the right thing. According to Kohlberg, you have a very highly developed capability for moral reasoning, but that doesn't fly very well in legal circles.