Wasted Meds Without a Witness

Nurses Career Support

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Specializes in Medical Legal Consultant.

My supervisor called me in because I had wasted medications without a witness present. Our unit is so big and it is difficult to find a second person to witness the waste.

As a nurse, we are responsible for following our facility's policies and procedures to the letter. That means you need to find someone to witness the waste. Wasting medication without a witness is against the facility's policies and procedures and could be grounds for termination as well as your being reported to the Board of Nursing. Wasting medication without a witness creates suspicion that you are taking the medication. Even if you are not using it, Boards then look to see if you are selling it. Don't place yourself in this no win situation. If you were somewhere that is not conducive to protecting your license, look elsewhere. You can always get another job but you can't get another license.

I did this 37 years ago as a new GPN. I dropped 2 Phenobarbital 15 mg on the floor! I was never taught anything about this. I was devastated! My charge nurse basically told me she'd picked them up and gave them! Wow ! Really, I thought. But now in hindsight, I should have?! I should have brought them to nursing station and have another nurse watch to flush them. This was 1980. That's what we did back them. Nursing instructors please, review this in class. I obviously wasn't the first and won't be the last.

In this day and age of extreme short staffing, I find it hard to believe that there is no other way to witness waste than to take another nurse away from their own job tasks to watch a nurse waste narcs. Electronic dispensing machines have been around for decades. EMR's have been around for many years. Electronic med carts have been around for many years. It's difficult for me to believe that there is no way to electronically monitor a nurse wasting a medication. Video camera surveillance in a med room could provide an "eye" to witness waste.

Specializes in Medical Legal Consultant.

What a great idea. You would be surprised how creative nurses are when taking meds. They will put saline in the syringe. Use Tylenol tabs for Norco etc. Maybe they can be sent back to pharmacy.

To the nurse who submitted this question:

I strongly advise waiting until the sun sets, the cows come home, etc., for a witness if you have to. Stand right there at the machine and wait. Use your phone to call the charge nurse, your manager, your director, the supervisor....whoever you have to.

Too many employers rely on nurses wanting to do right for the patient (provide the pain medication as quickly as possible) knowing full well that their staffing plans do not accommodate both following policy and treating the patient in the best manner possible. That's on them. Never, ever let their desires to have the best of both worlds translate into you feeling that you should do something you can't defend.

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