Stealing drugs!! what's your opinion?????

LilgirlRN, ADN, RN · Dec 18, 2003

You'll be in my thoughts Bail. Try not to worry too much and have a happy holiday season :) If you need to vent, feel free to PM me. Not that I can help, but I will be glad to listen :))

Big Bab's · Dec 19, 2003

Bail, I'll just say that Lilgirl and Lemonhead said EVERYTHING I would have...Be very careful and know that you are in my thoughts and prayers....keep us posted!

Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN · Dec 19, 2003

Originally posted by cyberkat
Lemonhead, my hat is off to you. Not just for the courage it took to post your story for all here to see, but also for the gracious and intelligent way you reply to detractors.

I truly wish you the best and hope things will work out for you in the future.

I certainly agree.

Lemonhead · Dec 19, 2003

Bail--you are definately in my thoughts--please keep us posted on how it all goes--it can get really confusing and the "fear factor" can be totally overwhelming, so just do whatever you can to stay levelheaded--I know it's hard, but it could make a huge difference right now.

Thanks to all of you again for the support--we are all just so glad to have people actually listen and be interested! It's a learning experience for everyone! Thanks again! Lemon

sandyth · Dec 29, 2003

dont feel bad , my brother told me his wife had been stealing oxycontin 20 mg from a man every night and i reported it to their administrator (guess what she still has a job.... she a med-tech) and this is the second time shes been reported. Now i have possession of tubes of medicines with the pts names, room numbers and script numbers. So what do you do? Even has a drug book from the facility that says "DONT REMOVE FROM 3RD FLOOR" ADVICE?

Lemonhead · Dec 30, 2003

Wow---if she has this stuff in her possession, there shouldn't be any question--and they certainly shouldn't be ignoring it!! That's insanity and that facility is wide open for some of their own legal problems...why aren't they taking care of it? Even if she's not a "licensed" person, they should be doing something...that makes no sense, but I know it happens and sounds like a lot more than any of us know----have you ever confronted her? Just curious to what her response is...I don't know--it's a tough call, but if the facility won't do anything about it, the only thing to do next is report it yourself to the state hospital licensing association or pharmacy board....she sounds like she's in some deep trouble.....and her patients are in jeopardy....

TiffyRN, BSN, PhD · Dec 30, 2003

Wow, just read this thread in the last couple of days (it's LONG) and I'm so glad it's here. I have learned so much. I plan on visiting this rational recovery website to learn more. I don't have a problem but have heard the siren call of properly prescribed meds before so I stay very aware.

As for that nurse who was "tweeking" I don't know about meth specifically but I have a relative who uses pot regularly. He provides urine drug screens all the time as he is an IT contract worker changing jobs when contracts end. He claims to have never tested positive. Hey, he's even managed to stay employed during the Tech bust so I have to believe him. He claims there are all kinds of methods, I just don't care to hear about them.

I also know a little about the Intervention for Nurses in Florida. I had a school friend who got caught up in that. I thought she was clean and I didn't work with her so I don't know how she was a work but she was reported for "diverting". She adamently denied everything and provided multiple clean urine samples. She claims she was caught in a system that had no way out for someone who was truly innocent and that every Doctor (Psychologist or Psychiatrist) told her she didn't have a problem with drugs but with anxiety from the whole monitoring process. Her AA/NA group wouldn't ease off her because she wouldn't admit she was an addict (the drug she was reported for was phenergan BTW), her caseworker wouldn't release her because of the same reason. After fighting with them for over a year, she quit nursing, met a man and moved to Alaska. I think her problem was she wouldn't comply with THEIR program. I qualify all this by saying I'm pretty gullible and she might have had an addiction problem, all the information I had on this was what I heard from her but it did make me suspicious of how helpful the BON really wants to be as I had been led to believe in nursing school.

Lemonhead · Dec 30, 2003

I'm really glad you posted the story of your friend, because people need to understand that not everyone in these programs is "guilty as charged"....there are truly nurses that are swept up into the nightmare via anonymous reports, trivial mistakes or by making a seemingly innocent statement that leads to charges---and the options are NIL--either comply or lose the license. The more they fight, the more they are blackballed, the more they deny, the more they are labeled---it does happen and that's why I want to see nurses educated on standing up for themselves and understanding the laws and the importance of seeking legal advice when they've been falsely accused of something rather than caving via intimidation and manipulation---I WAS guilty as charged---as a result of that, I've been in contact with nurses in state programs that were NOT--and I believe them because I've seen a great deal of corruptness in our state agencies and our justice system---Not everyone is the "bad apple" that they are accused of being and it could happen to anyone--and once you are caught up in the nightmare, you are not released until you admit to something you really didn't do and play a game to satisfy the board---it's a dangerously screwed up system folks and really does happen. I CANNOT imagine going through that--and they wonder why there's a nursing shortage...hmmmm

Trixxy, LPN · Dec 30, 2003

Great thread..very educational.

I worked with a dynamite nurse that was accused of stealing narcs...authorities said she was signing out the meds but not giving them. To add injury to insult, the administration of the company I worked for, used her as a warning to other nurses, by telling everyone what they thought she was doing. Sadly, it ruined her carreer.

Although I have zero tolerance for a nurse that comes to work drunk or stoned, I also truly believe that counceling should be made available before termination.

sic and tired · Jan 4, 2004

It doesn't take much Let's face it Nurses are intelligent beings or we wouldn't have made it through nursing school For many nurses, I believe the statistics are currently 1 in 7 according to the CDC, addiction is a difficult problem. And as nurses we are taught what drugs do. So the occasional ache and pain that started things off with prescriptions from physicians can grow in those with addiction issues and quickly passes into doing things that we normally would not do. The difficulty is that no other nurses understand this and we tend to enable each other until we get real sick, and then when something happens and intervention of some kind occurs, NURSES EAT THEIR YOUNG Even though we might have covered for the hung over, or the nurse that is having more problems than the rest of us, once it is found out that addiciton is present, we tend to ostracize and find reasons why not to like the person. Of course none of us ever did that to another nurse who was diagnosed with diabetes and might have behaved strangely for that. Hopefully what happens is that the intervention results in treatment and then monitoring by the BON so that the patients are assured safe care. The problem is not usually the nurses in the monitoring programs though. We know those are addicts. It is those who haven't been intervened upon yet, who we tend to enable to get sick because no one ever taught us much about addiction in our own profession.

teeituptom, BSN, RN · Jan 5, 2004

Hi

Hello sic and tired

What does nurses eating their young have to do with addicted nurses, thats 2 different topics. I have never enabled a nurse to become addicted, and I dont believe in rehabilitating addicted nurses either, get rid of them and I have always felt this way.

How can you even compare Diabetes to Addiction, there is no comparison. Addicts are addicts are addicts and always will be. Ban all addicts from nursing, let them go work for insurance companies pushing paperwork or something harmless.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Jan 5, 2004

Originally posted by teeituptom
Addicts are addicts are addicts and always will be.

I wholehearted agree with this statement. Even if that addict is no longer using drugs, they are still an addict IMHO.

However, I disagree with everything else you've said. But I've already stated my opinion here and allow you yours. :)