Wasting Procedures

[JMH]

Hi -

I am looking for some general information on proper methods to "waste" a narcotic. I am aware that most hospitals typically require a witness to the wasting, but would like to know more about appropriate methods of wasting. Can anybody help?

Thanks.

[louloubell1]

Ever wonder what the effect of those drugs that get wasted down the sink is doing to our water supply? When I was still in school we had an environmental scientist come to our public health class and give a lecture regarding this kind of thing. He spoke mostly about antibiotics that enter the water supply from flushing in the toilet and how they contribute to creating antibiotic resistant bacteria. I too waste injectibles down the sink, pills usually just put in the sharps container in the med room, but the water supply thing is just an interesting thought.....

[zambezi, BSN, RN]

We also have to have someone witness our narcotic wastes. If it is a small ammount of liquid, I pull it out of the vial and squirt it into the sharps container. If it is a bigger ammount of liquid, say a 50 cc bag ns with 500 mcg fentanyl, i cut it it open and pour it down the sink. For pills, if opened, i crush it up and pour it into the sharps container. If it is unopened, we can return it to our omnicell in a return bin, again with a witness signing off that we actually did it.

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

For pill wasting it is to be crushed to powder and flushed down the toilet with the wasting nurse and charge nurse watching. And they are always present.

Liquid meds are to be toilet flushed as well. One float nurse squirts the waste from pre-filled syringes in the floor (halls are carpeted). Yep, you can see where her popular spot for doing this is.

[blueeyes827]

Flushing down the commode or down the sink is how we get rid of narcotics. We also keep a log which is a law. I believe the rats will never die out because of all the things we flush down the commode or sink.

[Nurse Ratched, RN]

The one thing that interest me about this question is, how do you cite the source if using this "data" in a brief? I'm envisioning footnotes like, "It was the consensus of (insert screen names here) from allnurses.com that narcs are wasted in sinks or commodes.")

To answer the original question, we drop single pills down the sink. Same for squirting liquids. Larger volumes of pills (like when we waste narcs people bring in that they are not prescibed when they leave) get flushed. The most effective way is to flush and dump the pills mid-flush or sometimes the pills or capsules congregate in the bottom of the toilet. Personally, I feel like anyone who wants to fish drugs out of the commode must need/want them pretty bad, so I'm not sure I'd begrudge them. Occasionally you will see a new person dump narcs in the sharps box, which will cause environmental services to have a kaniption.