What is the strangest thing you have caught patients and/or their family members attempting to steal from your place of work?
We've lost a lot of tympanic thermometers, sphygmomanometers, pulse oximeters throughout the years, linens commonly vanish, and last winter someone made it into our change-room (i.e. a closet with a coat rack and tiny lockers) on our unit and stole the evening shift staff's winter coats. *Sniffles* I miss my winter coat
But this week... This week, I caught a patient's adult daughter trying to steal our brand new bladder scanner (which costs over $20,000). This thing is huge and connected to a large apparatus on wheels, yet she was wheeling it towards the elevator with such confidence and ease. When staff members attempted to address the situation it was quite a Winona Ryder moment.
In home health we get supply hoarders. You bring a 2 week supply of dressings and when you come back 1 day later they claim to be out and they need more. My favorite was the patient who "ran out" of tape, all of their electric cords had been neatly taped down with bandage tape.
We had someone steal a glass bottle of morphine right off the pole after their family member passed away. The patient passed away, the nurse took a break while the family had time with the patient. When the nurse came back the morphine bottle was gone.
Maybe sell it on E-bay - I get a lot of stuff on E-Bay for my Zombie Apocalypse kit.
I'd be more interested in buying a sword for the Zombie Apocolypse. Personally I really don't care if the zombies are retaining urine so a bladder scanner wouldn't be high on my priority list of survival gear.
When I gave birth to my daughter my mom took EVERYTHING from my hospital room. Diapers, formula, blankets, pillows etc. When I did my maternity rotation last semester the nurses were complaining about a patient hoarding all of the diapers and I was like "oh, I thought it was normal to take all of the diapers before you get discharged." Also, whenever I went for a physical growing up my mom would take alcohol wipes, gauze, band-aids....whatever was in the drawer.
I tell my patients to take their water pitchers home. What's wrong with them taking that home? And really there's nothing wrong with taking a bedpan home either. It gets thrown away although that's gross.
When I work as an LDRP RN, I encourage my patients to take anything disposable with them at discharge. And if I am concerned that a family has limited resources, I provide them with extra diapers, formula (if not breastfeeding), wipes, maternity pads, etc. I had one family who was constantly "running out" of formula and diapers and asking for more. I asked them about it and the mom (an undocumented farm worker) stated she had no idea how she was going to afford to care for this kid. I brought in social services to get her set up with support, and sent her home with all the goodies her bags could carry.
I've never witnessed patients stealing things from the places I work, but I have heard many horror stories and it makes me sad. I always assume the best of people until proven otherwise, and I hate the idea that a patient would do something like that, when I am going above and beyond to care for them and meet their medical AND social needs.
The idea that a parent would steal narcotics from their sick kid is just. . . ugh. At least the people mentioned in the previous post who stole the bottle of morphine waited until their relative was deceased :/ What is WRONG with people?!?
Hmmm.. People will honestly steal anything they can get their hands on, regardless how germy, bloody, gross or useless (to them) it is. Also having something chained, locked, or glued down is nothing more than a challenge to said patients. If they really want it you won't stop them from stealing it..
One of our patients kept stealing ALL of the ketchup, mayo, and mustard packets.. I mean dumping them all into her purse. The lady stole large boxes worth of condiments.. She was told to stop several times during her stay. On her way out the door she did it again and was stopped by staff. She said it was how she "got by". Not sure what that means since she was one of our more well known wealthier patients.. Hope it helped her "survive" those hard times.
I knew an elderly person (not a patient, but someone a close friend's mother took care of in her old age, so I was around her a lot growing up) who was truly wealthy- I mean, .00001%, couldn't have spent all her money in her lifetime if she tried wealthy, and she stole petty things CONSTANTLY. Condiments, silverware, anything in a hotel room that wasn't nailed down. She also charged her friends "gas money" when her caregivers gave them all rides, even though she didn't pay the caregivers mileage.
She wasn't a bad person, it was just one of the early ways her dementia manifested. She had been very poor in her childhood, and as she declined, all the years of wealth were forgotten and she acted like someone living close to the edge. And she was furious whenever her treasures were discovered and returned. She really believed that she needed a thousand sugar packets and extra forks.
I've never seen pts or family members help themselves to anything more than a juice out of the fridge. However, if she is visiting someone in the hospital, my sister will lift every roll of plastic tape that she sees lying around.
Specializes in psych, addictions, hospice, education.
My hospital got lovely new furniture for the lobby. There was seldom staff in the lobby at night, unless walking through to the parking garage. One morning, most of the furniture was gone...
Oh man, we have had huge problems with theft where I work. Pretty much everything that can be stolen is bolted down, and even then it's not enough to deter some people. We have a huge meth problem in the community and getting your stuff stolen is kind of a way of life. Visitors know when shift changes are, so they constantly break into cars in the employee lot when they know no one will be out there.
The cops have busted people for selling our pulse oximeters and little tele boxes on Craigslist (the tele boxes don't really do anything unless they're on our unit and programmed into the central monitor system, I don't know what would compel someone to take them).
We've had a LOT of families steal fentanyl patches off of patients, to the point where we don't really even use them anymore. And a few of our commode buckets have mysteriously walked off... EWW.
But this week... This week, I caught a patient's adult daughter trying to steal our brand new bladder scanner (which costs over $20,000). This thing is huge and connected to a large apparatus on wheels, yet she was wheeling it towards the elevator with such confidence and ease.
Thank you. Thank you thank you thank you. The laugh out loud here is strong.
Mom2boysRN
218 Posts
In home health we get supply hoarders. You bring a 2 week supply of dressings and when you come back 1 day later they claim to be out and they need more. My favorite was the patient who "ran out" of tape, all of their electric cords had been neatly taped down with bandage tape.