Taking home empty vials

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I may know the answer to this but would still like to ask it :p

What is your facility policy with regards taking home empty vials?

I mean, now that I am reading it, it sounds stupid, but just curious because maybe I am just an artist at heart. I would like to collect multiple vials (single-use vials) just for my personal art project.

I know in nursing school how some instructors would show use empty vials of medications from their work just for students to see. I don't even know how they go those things.

I have seen fellow students bring home an empty and cleaned out med vials for post-conference.

I have a collection of vial caps I use to decorate badge reels and stuff like that... I have literally asked folks in pharmacy to save them for me (so I get more variety than the meds I use). I ended up with more than I ever imagined (still have not used them all - years later).

I don't know about the vials though. All of ours go in the sharps - controlled substance or not. But I rarely use little vials, more commonly bigger (20-30mL vials).

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Specializes in Critical care.

Put it in your pocket and bring it home.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
What is your facility policy with regards taking home empty vials?
At the last facility where I worked, empty vials were to be disposed of in a special black container to comply with local hazardous waste regulations.
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Not worth the risks. Be creative and find another way. Use other small glass bottles and hard, create/recreate the labels. Play around with it. Use a photo of the actual vials and collage it or cut them up and glue to a bottle at home. Have some fun with blending your nursing brain and your artist's brain.

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Specializes in RETIRED Cath Lab/Cardiology/Radiology.

Agree with

1. it's probably not acceptable (ethically and policy-wise) to just take home

2. facility will prolly not allow you to take some home, if you ask

3. that said, it doesn't hurt to ask but

4. be prepared to come up with an alternate plan for your art projects.

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Put it in your pocket and bring it home.

You are joking, right? I once popped a mint into my mouth while leaving the med room (stupid of me) and immediately two nurses, friends, politely requested I stick out my tongue. I cannot imagine pocketing a drug vial.

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I think many facilities would have a problem with this in the era of barcode scanning. If you possess an empty vial, it's easy to scan a med as given that you never gave.

Maybe there's no hanky panky and it's just a legitimately empty vial. In that case, I don't see where it's stealing to take home an empty vial.

Just to cover yourself, OP, you really should ask a Supervisor, your Manager, Pharmacist, somebody in authority. Get it in writing from one or two of these folks that's it's ok if you can.

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It may or may not be technically stealing, but I think it's a really bad idea. If for any reason you were pulled over, your home was searched, whatever, where's your proof that those vials were empty when you got them? Imagine how dumb that would sound to a cop--"I collect empty vials for art projects!". (I'm not saying your art is dumb, I'm saying the excuse would sound dumb.) Even if you never took vials that had been used for controlled substances, they would be for prescription medications... and cops would simply look at that and think "drug paraphernalia" and ask for details later. This may sound farfetched (though it's not, really, especially if you had them in your car), but if there's a reason it could be questioned, why do it?

Our instructors in nursing school told us a student a few years back had put a syringe of NS in her pocket and forgot about it, was pulled over on the way home, and the cops claimed it was drug paraphernalia. Put the fear of god in all of us.

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You can go online and buy anything you want including empty vials. You can buy a baby gorilla's left kidney at half price on Black Friday if you want while shopping online, why risk taking vials? Come on man. Not only can you get fired, but no one in the USA will hire you in their hospital again. Go to alibaba.com I am sure someone in China is making them.

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Specializes in Oncology.

Our instructors in nursing school told us a student a few years back had put a syringe of NS in her pocket and forgot about it, was pulled over on the way home, and the cops claimed it was drug paraphernalia. Put the fear of god in all of us.

Now that sounds like nursing school folklore.

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Now that sounds like nursing school folklore.

The cops can claim anything to resemble drug paraphernalia. Syringes, hemostats, tubing, etc.

Would depend on the cop's mood and the driver's record.

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