Teacher offering Ativan scripts....?

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I am in second year of nursing school and during our orientation a teacher (he happens to be an N.P.) offered his help in providing anti-anxiety medication for testing purposes. He mentioned something along the lines of "It has worked tremendously well for other students... amazing turn around". He can teach very well, but I can't stand how he/the program itself, have decided to handle certain issues 'at hand'. Right now, I feel like I have been pushed around and I'm not sure who to go to (other than a lawyer). I am going to post another topic that is related to what I have had to deal with in previous semesters, but I wanted to really address this ativan issue. Is this more than weird? As in.. illegal? Seems the position of power and the sense of 'showing off' is rather obvious.. to me anyway. I'm looking for other opinions that can see it from the outside in (as I'm already biased)!

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This does seem wierd and like an abuse of power. Medications should not be prescribed for "test anxiety". It is certainly an ethical issues and could quite possibly be a legal issue. This seems like a touchy subject so proceed with caution and take sure you cover yourself so nothing turns out to bite you

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I wonder if his superiors at the school are aware of this. I agree that it sounds like at least an ethical issue and probably also a legal one (esp. if he's talking about schedule meds like Ativan). I am a psych CNS/psychotherapist, and I am always v. cautious and aware, when I am teaching, that I am not there to provide psychotherapy to any of the students, and careful to observe that professional boundary. This sounds highly inappropriate to me.

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My instructor told us he once had a student tell him he had to take xanax before the tests (this instructors tests are freakin HARD) the instructor said.... you better not be coming on campus with anything like that in you're system, that's being 'impaired', and if admin found out there would be a drug screen and potential consequences if it were positive. so yeah, this definetly sounds inappropriate to say the least.

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

I believe the Dean or Administration needs to know about this. Could end up being an issue for the school. Agree with above post that being impaired is not how we should practice

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My instructor told us he once had a student tell him he had to take xanax before the tests (this instructors tests are freakin HARD) the instructor said.... you better not be coming on campus with anything like that in you're system that's being 'impaired', and if admin found out there would be a drug screen and potential consequences if it were positive. so yeah, this definetly sounds inappropriate to say the least.[/quote']

In this situation, wouldn't the legal prescription prevent any action against the student?

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
I am in second year of nursing school and during our orientation a teacher (he happens to be an N.P.) offered his help in providing anti-anxiety medication for testing purposes. He mentioned something along the lines of "It has worked tremendously well for other students... amazing turn around". He can teach very well but I can't stand how he/the program itself, have decided to handle certain issues 'at hand'. Right now, I feel like I have been pushed around and I'm not sure who to go to (other than a lawyer). I am going to post another topic that is related to what I have had to deal with in previous semesters, but I wanted to really address this ativan issue. Is this more than weird? As in.. illegal? Seems the position of power and the sense of 'showing off' is rather obvious.. to me anyway. I'm looking for other opinions that can see it from the outside in (as I'm already biased)![/quote']

This is totally inappropriate that he, as someone who has no relationship with you as a patient, offered to write you a script for a psychoactive med. I say go to the dean.

However, I'm not sure what you mean by being 'pushed around.' What the heck is a lawyer go to do for you (other than take a bunch of money from your back account)?

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That is a concern... I don't want to be manipulated to be on 'the attack'.... but to even bring it up, at orientation is shady. My guess is the reasoning is to get better results on the NCLEX - I don't think this is exactly the holistic approach that is being preached.

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This is very odd and raises a red flag. He is basically telling people do not manage your own stress, take a pill. He'll the students will be so used to medicating their pre test jitters that once they are a nurse in a stressful situation he will have handicapped them because they will not know how to deal with it w/o anti anxiety meds. Not to mention people can become very addicted.

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Specializes in ER trauma, ICU - trauma, neuro surgical.

I also read that you feel like you have been pushed around and that you are going to start another thread about other issues that you have had in previous semesters. I don't know exactly what the guy said and in what context he was speaking. To be brutal, it sounds to me like you are fishing for something because you have been pushed around. You also said that you can't stand how he and the program handle certain situations. So, you can't stand some of things he does and you have had previous issues in the program. This wouldn't happen to be some type of revenge, would it? When a student says they have had multiple issues with the program in the past or they don't like the teacher, there is usually more to the story. Accusing an instructor of handing out prescriptions to a controlled substance..hmm....the pushed around thing...is this a vendetta? I am curious to exactly what he said word for word. I have a hard time believing he said " if you want a prescription for ativan, come to me and I will give you one for your test anxiety." And the previous issues in the program, who knows what they are...you want to talk to someone other than a lawyer because you feel like you have been pushed around. I guess you want someone to pay for something. Are you sure that you being "pushed around" has absolutely no fault on your part? It was everyone else and you did everything by the book, on time, with no mistakes? It was all them?

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Specializes in critical care.

If this was in orientation, I wonder what the context was. I could see someone saying, "Nursing school can produce a large amount of anxiety and if you need something like ativan to help you get through, come see me." That wouldn't be such a terrible thing to say. IDK. I can't imagine this guy just handing out free scripts to just anyone. Anyone who has taken any basic class in college probably knows that taking a test while impaired is going to harm your function on the test, not help it. I don't mean to question what you're saying, OP, but maybe you could share the context of how he said it? Because it seems like there is more to this.

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Specializes in Pain, critical care, administration, med.

He is totally inappropriate and it's an abuse of his script writing. You need to report this immediately and take it as far as you need to. This may even be reportable to yu board of nursing. Good luck sounds like he needs some other type of psych meds himself!

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