Witnessed an RN stealing medication

[OzBound]

Until last week I have been working for the Department of Corrections and I quit due to so many horrible things taking place at the jail I worked for. Non documented medication errors ( an order was written for trazadone and the inmate was given thorazine for 4 days until they saw the error but still never documented it ) back dating physical exams that were over 14 days and so on.

However, the one that concerns me the most is when I first started there I was with one of the RN's and the director of nursing called her on the phone and when we left for the day, the director of nursing, who happened to be off that day drove up. The RN handed her an envelope full of flexeril in the parking lot that she had stolen from the stock medication in the pharmacy at work.

Any thoughts?

[LakesideRN]

If you know for sure that this is true, then it needs to be reported to TPAPN immediately. (Texas Peer Assistance Program for Nurses). They will determine if the nurse is chemically dependent, esure treatment, monitor & restrict the nurse for 2 years, and require random drug tests 2-4 times per month. Reporting to TPAPN fulfills your requiremnet to report to the BNE and speeds the process of intervention. Look up TPAPN on the net. Any further questions, e-mail me.

[OzBound]

Again, my answer is this...Jolie. I said she told me that the administrator had no problem with this on occasion. I like to think about things and get advice before I simply run and do things.

[Vito Andolini]

You can't prove anything now, unless you can get a confession or the episode was caught on tape. You are no longer there. You are asking for a world of trouble to come down on your head if you report it now. You could always talk to an attorney.

You probably could not have proven anything even at the time.

This type of behavior is probably rampant throughout the Nursing department and probably happens every day, it sounds like. You will really be swimming upstream to try to buck the way things are done. I know it rubs you the wrong way, goes against your conscience, and is shocking that those who work in a correctional facility are actually criminals themselves, it sounds like. Welcome to Life.

Leave it alone and get on with your life. Or do what the attorney says to do.