Wasting Narcotics

jnks · Nov 6, 2008

I don't think she has the right to be ****** at you, but as someone w/ just 3 months in, narcotics wasting is MUCH MORE LAX than I expected it to be, and it seems like everything is more lax than it was in school. Cutting corners can get you in trouble and she should understand that you might refuse. In the future, I would not tell someone "she knows better," I would try to say something more neutral like "I don't feel comfortable with that." Then she can just ask someone else who will. It can feel condescending for the experienced nurses to be talked to like that by someone brand new. To be honest, I have drawn up pain meds after the pt called the nurse's station to ask for it, thrown away the vial, and then had the pt refuse. I asked another nurse to waste and neither one of us blinked. I find out who I trust and I am more critical with new people. If there were off counts or something else suspicious, I would obviously be a lot more stringent.

twinmommaRN08 · Nov 6, 2008

I have never been in your position (thank the Lord), and maybe I don't have room to talk because I have not worked as a nurse yet, but I wouldn't do that either.

I applaud you for standing your ground and doing what's right.

I know that in the real world it may not be feasible to always do things the textbook way, BUT I'm not signing for any waste that I did not witness--hate it or love it.

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · Nov 7, 2008

I got a few nurses mad at me because at one place I worked, I followed a very sloppy nurse who always forgot to sign off his meds. They'd just sign off on the count, but I insisted on writing the count as I found it, let the chips fall where they may. Good thing, too, because it turns out that one night the sloppy nurse double-dosed one of the residents with percocet.

Patient was OK, but we never would've found the error if I hadn't insisted on counting and calling the nurse to find out why we had a discrepancy.