What is my legal and Ethical Obligation?

[tripletsgranny1]

While on another nursing unit the other night, I witnessed a RN calling in a prescription for another nurse. Nurse #1 asked nurse #2 to call in a refill for her. Nurse #2 requested her birthdate, drug and dosage needed. She then called the prescription in to a local pharmacy under the name of a doctor that practices on that unit. The doctor was not present and had not been there all evening. These nurses seemed very comfortable with this transaction.

Where do I stand as a witness? By doing this in front of me, have they pulled me into the crime?

[CapeCodMermaid, RN]

We are not attorneys so we can not give legal advice on this site. I'd not get involved in it if I were you. Crime seems to be an overstatement. Maybe the doctor knows that this is a common practice and doesn't care.

[Double-Helix, BSN, RN]

Was the nurse calling in a valid refill for a prescription for a patient written by that doctor? If so, that's probably perfectly legal. Many states allow nurses to call in prescriptions for doctors and it happens frequently in doctor's offices.

Was the nurse calling in a valid prescription refill for the other nurse written by that doctor? This is probably also legal although possibly unethical to be doing it during work time.

If the nurse was calling in a false prescription, ie, one the doctor had never written, then that would mean the nurses is prescribing meds without legal rights to do so. You would need to consult an attorney regarding your legal obligations in this situation.

Ethically, you have no obligations, but the question is what you are comfortable doing/not doing. Are you sure that this practice is illegal/unethical? If you're not, you might be better of just letting it go. If you feel something needs to be done, you could send an anonymous letter to the director of the department, advising her of the practice. Honestly from what you discribed, it doesn't sound like the nurses were doing anything wrong.

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

Since you are not involved, I vote stay out of it.

[netglow, ASN, RN]

You just don't know who talked to who. The nurse could have already talked her s/s over with a doc pal, eg something like sinus infection, etc. and the doc might have said sure, go ahead and get xxx. That would need someone else to call it in. Docs do it for other docs and nurses all the time, and there is no exam.

And, I'll add that if what I said was the case, then wow, are you gonna be unpopular fast with all levels where you work if you were wrong about the situation and reported these people.

[leslie :-D]

you have no obligations, because you simply do not know the full story.

as advised, stay out of it.:)

leslie

[Laurie52]

If all that the nurse was doing was calling for a refill on a legit script, then she could have just called herself. She was having the second nurse call for a script that had not been oked by her doctor. I don't have to be an attorney to know this is illegal. I also find it hard to believe that no one thinks this is ethical. Think Edmund Burke.

[EMT-newbie]

I did a quick read and various states have provisions for for this if there are standing orders from the MD. Reading the original story this could also be a verbal order that you wouldn't know about?

For my personal learning, am I right in assuming that if this is not a patient of mine that I should not be reading their chart even if to second guess what I think is some kind of violation?

[psu_213, BSN, RN]

If all that the nurse was doing was calling for a refill on a legit script, then she could have just called herself. She was having the second nurse call for a script that had not been oked by her doctor. I don't have to be an attorney to know this is illegal. I also find it hard to believe that no one thinks this is ethical. Think Edmund Burke.

If nurse A had nurse B call in an Rx. without any knowlege or involvement of the doctor (i.e. without the doctor knowing about it or approving it) then, yes, we have a big ethical issue. The problem is, the OP does not know all of the circumstances regarding the incident, and that is why, I believe, most people say not to get involved.

The OP could end up in a very ugly situation with the coworks if she confronts nurses A and B. You could, potentially, speak to the doctor (if you have a good relationship with him). Probably best to stay out of it altogether though.

[psu_213, BSN, RN]

One other thing I just thought of...please illuminate me if you know about this: If a doc gives a verbal order, they still have to cosign later, even though the nurse had to write the order. If a nurse calls in an Rx for a doc, are they made aware that a script was called in under their name? Do they have to go through some kind a process to verify or "cosign" the order phoned in to the pharmacy by the RN? Just curious.

[jesskidding, LPN]

If all that the nurse was doing was calling for a refill on a legit script, then she could have just called herself. She was having the second nurse call for a script that had not been oked by her doctor. I don't have to be an attorney to know this is illegal. I also find it hard to believe that no one thinks this is ethical. Think Edmund Burke.

The OP didn't give many details, so we really don't know much about the situation. If fact, if this is all the OP knows about the situation then I think they may be over-reacting. Without more details I couldn't give any advice on what to do.

But, with the information I do have, I say stay out of it.

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

Keep out of it. Say NOTHING to ANYONE. MYOB because you really don't know all the details. MOVE ON.