Settlement and final order

Thanks for the reply. Also, they are saying I put someone's psychosocial welfare at risk by administering dilaudid to someone on a PCA...it was ordered and on the MAR and the pt requested the extra dose because it was a higher dose that controlled their pain better and they weren't currently using their PCA...is this not ok?? Other nurses had been doing it for weeks for this pt.

Well where I used to work when I worked on a medical floor if the pt was ON a PCA they weren't supposed to get separate IVP doses but you're saying the PT wasn't currently on a PCA at the time? Either way... if nothing bad happened with the patient it seems rediculous that this would be something they would discipline you for but I have seen some stupid things people were disciplined for. They may not have had a lawyer though and you do so I'm hoping your lawyer can give you some direction as to where to go from here. I would also think that if the other nurses were doing it too that should be taken into consideration. Are they going to discipline all of them? And pharmacy too for profiling it? What does your lawyer say?

The pt was on a PCA, however, she never pushed the button. Also, these extra doses of dilaudid were on the MAR for or that had a lot of pain and were typically a larger dose than the PCA dose, so this pt preferred to get a larger dose every 2 hours, vs a small dose every ten min. There is no order to not give it when on a PCA or anything. Also, the only reason all of this got brought up is because pharmacy flagged me for giving more dilaudid than the other nurses that month...that led to an investigation, which led to them believing I diverted, looking into my charting and deciding they had evidence of this stuff instead of the diversion, when I wouldn't admit to anything I didn't do. No other nurses are in trouble...my lawyer believes they think I diverted but can't prove it so they will punish me this way then...still waiting to hewr from her today, as I haven't gotten to discuss this settlement agreement with her.

I don't know. I'm starting to believe someone had it out for me. All I hope is that I can keep my current job.

Well for my hospital the right practice would have been to alert the provider that they had two separate routes for pain control. Usually if you have the PCA that should be your only source for short acting pain control. I have seen them on a long acting pain medication with the PCA but that's it. But doctors change their minds all the time..

So you have to pay a fine and do some hours of education but then it's done. I'm assuming that's all your punishment was? You have no idea how worse it could be lol.