Upset!!! write up and patients marijuana

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i recently was written up for going to see a patient who is on dialysis, has hypertension, and is schizophrenic. he had a marijuana plant growing in his home and i reported this to my clinical manager along with the md. the md confronted the patient about it and the patient denied it. my clinical manager wrote me up because she said that i should not have told the doctor because now he has threatened to sue. my rationale was that it could affect some of his 20 medicines that he was on. of course he denied it. do you think this was right???? i'm upset.

thanks!:nurse:

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I don't think you were out of line for reporting it. I believe more from the perspective of legally protecting yourself. If there is an illegal drug at a patient's home, you don't need to be in there period. I was at a patient's house once who was known to have some rowdy family members. Several minutes after I walked in the door there was a raid by police from two states. I quickly identified who I was and what I was doing there. You need to protect yourself. Actually, you probably LEGALLY had an obligation to report any illegal activity just as you have a legal obliagation to report abuse. Let us know what happens. I wouldn't let this ride.

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Thank you soooooooooooo much for the input. Didn't think I was crazy!!!!

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.
my rationale was that it could affect some of his 20 medicines that he was on.

that would be my rationale for reporting it, too.

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Thanks soooo much!

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

I have a different perspective.

First of all, when you enter someone else's home you are a GUEST---not judge and jury. While you have every right to be concerned about interactions between the medications your patient is taking, you do not have the right to violate his personal privacy. You cannot assume that having a pot plant in his house automatically means that he smokes (although it's probably a pretty safe bet). In the meantime, you have exposed him to the possibility of legal action AND betrayed his trust in one fell swoop......I don't blame him in the least for being upset.

If the presence of the plant truly makes you feel that you are personally endangered, you should have explained the issue to your clinical manager and requested to be assigned elsewhere. No nurse should go into a home situation where they feel threatened. However, it would have been better had you confided your concerns to your supervisor, rather than take it upon yourself to determine how your patient should conduct his life. But, that's just me.

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Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.

I have to agree with Marla. You are in his home and if he does smoke marijuana that is his decision whether it be right or wrong. I do think it's definately wrong but he has to live with the consequences. Whether or not that plant exists is not going to stop him if he is smoking it. He'll get it else where or probably has more somewhere else anyway. One plant is hardly a supply. I try not to pay attention to anything in the home other than the patient. If you feel uncomfortable you have every right to refuse to see that patient. But one plant in the home and if he's not smoking it while you're there then I would just report it to your director and forget it. I counsel diabetics with foot and leg wounds all the time. If I go back and they are drinking a regular coke I will say something like "Gee that's not on your diet but hey it's your leg and you're an adult but just remember to try to learn to like diet coke", and then let it go. You have to let them be responsible for their own adult choices.

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Specializes in LTAC.
I have a different perspective.

First of all, when you enter someone else's home you are a GUEST---not judge and jury. While you have every right to be concerned about interactions between the medications your patient is taking, you do not have the right to violate his personal privacy. You cannot assume that having a pot plant in his house automatically means that he smokes (although it's probably a pretty safe bet). In the meantime, you have exposed him to the possibility of legal action AND betrayed his trust in one fell swoop......I don't blame him in the least for being upset.

If the presence of the plant truly makes you feel that you are personally endangered, you should have explained the issue to your clinical manager and requested to be assigned elsewhere. No nurse should go into a home situation where they feel threatened. However, it would have been better had you confided your concerns to your supervisor, rather than take it upon yourself to determine how your patient should conduct his life. But, that's just me.

With all due respect, I have to disagree. We are talking about Marajuana (an illegal drug), not alcohol (a legal drug). Cops arrest people all the time for "possession", they don't have to see the person using it. If drugs are in your possession (house, car, pocket, etc), it is illegal.

Entering a person's home as a home care nurse, you are not a guest. You are a professional there to provide a service. It is your professional obligation to report illegal activity.

I do, however agree that it would have probably been best to go to your superviser first to express your concerns, then let him/her decide how best to handle the situation with the physician.

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I have a different perspective.

First of all, when you enter someone else's home you are a GUEST---not judge and jury. While you have every right to be concerned about interactions between the medications your patient is taking, you do not have the right to violate his personal privacy. You cannot assume that having a pot plant in his house automatically means that he smokes (although it's probably a pretty safe bet). In the meantime, you have exposed him to the possibility of legal action AND betrayed his trust in one fell swoop......I don't blame him in the least for being upset.

If the presence of the plant truly makes you feel that you are personally endangered, you should have explained the issue to your clinical manager and requested to be assigned elsewhere. No nurse should go into a home situation where they feel threatened. However, it would have been better had you confided your concerns to your supervisor, rather than take it upon yourself to determine how your patient should conduct his life. But, that's just me.

How does reporting an illigal drug is violeting this pt's privacy? The nurse observed it in his home, and has every obligation to report it. Not reporting it could put this nurse, as well as all of her agency in the very, very hot sit.If the pothead cared anything about his privacy, he'd put it away. IMHO nurse did absolutely the right thing. Report it and then get out. What if there was an illigal weapon in that home? What if there was a minor or an elderly with s/s of an abuse? Are we supposed to let the potheads dictate how we should and should not practice in order not be judgemenal and hurt their feeeeeeeeelings? Please...give me a break.

To the OP:Check your p/p manual first. I'd fight this "write up" tooth and nail. They should thank you for letting them know first, and not calling 911. They are just a bunch of cowerdly, and looks like incompitent whimps, who are not concerned about their staff welfare and safety in the field. If you can't get anywhere in your organization (if it were me) I'd let State DOH look into it. No way I'd let this bunch of corporate moronic bafoons trash my record like this:angryfire

Anyway, just one man's opinion. What's yours?

Paps

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

Excuse me.........are we nurses here, or did I just stumble onto allcops.com??

What, exactly, was the OP trying to accomplish by reporting her patient's marijuana plant? This isn't about 'feeeeeeeeelings', as someone sneered in another post; this is about good old-fashioned compliance, a concept which has long bred distrust between patients and healthcare providers, and feeds the public's perception of us as controlling and judgmental.

The inference here, of course, is that pot-smokers (alcoholics/overeaters/drug addicts/fill in the blank) are morally inferior to other patients, and therefore deserve to be exposed in order to force them to straighten up and fly right. It's no different from the sort of thing we've all seen when a relative of an obese patient---under the guise of being 'helpful'---rats him out to the family physician: "Oh, Dr. Smith, John ate an entire half-gallon of ice cream last week, and you should see all the empty bags of chips he hid under the front seat of the car!":rolleyes:

Again, I say that this action was an invasion of privacy, and that having a single pot plant is most certainly not on the same level as child or elder abuse. Let's have some perspective here, please........and in the meantime, I will pray that I never need a home health nurse, because while I don't have any wacky-weed growing in my house, I do have asthma, and the fact that I share my home with five cats and a dog is something I'd prefer my doctor didn't know about.:angryfire

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I once found crack vials in a pts jacket pocket, which fell out when I moved the jacket. Does that count?

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Specializes in Stroke Seizure/LTC/SNF/LTAC.

I live in CA, and MEDICAL marijuana is legal. It is occasionally "prescribed" to a person with cancer or other severe pain. Perhaps the pt. was one of those?

Even though I am against the use of marijuana, I doubt if I would have reported a single plant.

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