Vitamins are a controlled substance?

[Volley88]

I have been working on my own in a Med/Surg unit for a few months now. During my orientation I noticed that pulling any sort of PO vitamins from the pyxis requires an initial count and sometimes results in a drug discrepancy. My senior nurses tells me not reportable to the DEA and only worth if its morphine, dilaudid, ativan, etc.

I have asked my coworkers why do we still have the count vitamins, but I keep getting difference responses. Do any of you have an idea why would we have to do a beginning count for vitamins?

[Orca, ADN, ASN, RN]

I worked on a unit where everything was dispensed from a Pyxis, and everything had a count. The main value for the non-narcotics was to let the pharmacy know when they needed to refill.

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

I have asked my coworkers why do we still have the count vitamins, but I keep getting difference responses. Do any of you have an idea why would we have to do a beginning count for vitamins?

It's not uncommon for them to want counts of non-controlled drugs that staff might help themselves to: nicotine patches/lozenges, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, Phenergan, Mylanta, Imodium, Zanaflex, diphenhydramine...

My facility does that for certain meds. They also like to rotate what we have to count: one month it may be nicotine lozenges; the next month it's Zofran.

[RNJenn47201]

I worked on a unit where everything was dispensed from a Pyxis, and everything had a count. The main value for the non-narcotics was to let the pharmacy know when they needed to refill.

I work in LTC and we have certain medications "stocked" in a Pyxis for new orders, etc. We have to count everything for the same reason the previous poster listed. The count is used so pharmacy knows who the meds are used for and when they need restocked.

[morte, LPN, LVN]

For years my former workplace also had an employee health drawer in the Pyxis with Tylenol, Mylanta, Motrin, and a couple of other OTC medications that could be pulled for staff use.

However, the director of pharmacy put an end to the practice about three years ago, citing, "the employees are using the hospital's Pyxis as their personal drugstore."

Unless he was paying, it was none of his business.

[heron, ASN, RN]

Unless he was paying, it was none of his business.

He may not have been paying for employee stock, but as dept head he's responsible for controlling his budget. I don't necessarily agree with his decision, but it was his to make.

[K9lover, ASN, RN]

I noticed this as well when I worked acute care; given they are not controlled drugs the general consensus, I was told, was that the hospital thinks the nurses' will remember they forgot an AM vitamin and pop one or take a Tamiflu if they feel something going on. I suppose that does occur, as a new grad I was feeling nauseated one night and my preceptor offered me an IM Compazine, this was maybe 20 years ago and only time I did that.

Dang that Compazine took care of nausea but I did not know my meds yet and felt a gigantic wave of fatigue such that another RN covered my patients so I could lay down. Obviously this was 'back in the day', I knew nurses on nocs who would alleviate their hangovers with a liter of NS and such so I can see why they count everything although the acuity of patient population has gone up so much in the last 20 years there would not be time for this even at 0300. These were the days when patients stayed in the hospital 3 days for a simple chole or appy...

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Unless he was paying, it was none of his business.

He may not have been paying for employee stock, but as dept head he's responsible for controlling his budget. I don't necessarily agree with his decision, but it was his to make.

Actually, it was a 'she' (not that it matters). The director of pharmacy to whom I referred in my previous post was a youngish female in her early 30s when she decided to discontinue employee health OTC medication offerings to nursing staff.

[heron, ASN, RN]

Actually, it was a 'she' (not that it matters). The director of pharmacy to whom I referred in my previous post was a youngish female in her early 30s when time she decided to discontinue employee health OTC medication offerings to nursing staff.

Either way, although I think it was a dumb decision, it was still hers to make if those meds were being charged to her budget.

Time was, hospital employees got all kinds of free or low cost service as a "professional courtesy". Those times are long gone.

[NurseSpeedy, ADN, LPN, RN]

I'm thinking it's a way to monitor for theft. I had one hospital about 10 years ago that had me count EVERY single med that I pulled from the pixis. Med pass took forever-for me. The hospital staff nurses did not have to do this process.