Is it your job to be the moral conscience of your floor/unit/clinic?
A nurse recently wrote, “I caught a co-nurse slipping drugs into pocket for personal use. What should I do?
I prefer the gray answer of “it depends.” If he or she is taking Lipitor, Zyrtec, or a Z pak, I would let it go. If, however, they’re taking narcotics, that’s a different story. The nurse may need help, but not from you.
Tell the supervisor what you saw then leave it alone. It’s a problem that affects the individual, his or her patients, co-workers and family.
Am I too simplistic?
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July 14th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
Definitely if it is narcotics you have to report it to your manager. You can’t ignore something like that.
July 16th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Ultimately, our number one responsibility as nurses is to be our patient’s advocate. If a fellow nurse is “taking” or “borrowing” medications from a patient, it certainly does impact that patient’s well-being, and the nurse needs to be confronted about how his/her behavior may be affecting patients. Depending on your relationship with the nurse in question, your time/status in the organization, your own self-confidence, etc., you may choose to first confront the other nurse directly or immediately take it to your supervisor. Of course, taking narcotics is typically a much more serious offense and in most cases, hospitals have specific policies/procedures about how such a situation should be handled. Bottom line, don’t sit with this worry by yourself. Your supervisor is there to assist you in just this type of situation. Utilize him or her!
July 18th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
I agree – you need to talk to your supervisor about this right away. My only exception is if she might have put them in her pocket b/c she had to take care of an emergency first, and didn’t want to loose them before giving to the patient (not a good habit, but in an emergency, I could understand). Narcotics – you probably won’t know if it was a zyrtec or vicodin, but drug abuse is too common in this profession I’m sad to say. Either way, the pt is being hurt by not receiving the medication and the nurse is “stealing” from both the hospital and patient. I assure you, no hospital would support that.
July 20th, 2007 at 11:22 am
If indeed a nurse is taking drugs from the unit, it must be reported. Taking drugs whether they are narcotics or not is stealing. These kinds of activities contribute to the costs of healthcare. Personally I would confront the nurse and indicate that I noticed she put some medications in her pocket. I would ask if she was rushed or had an emergency that I could help with so that the drugs could be delivered to the correct patient in a timely fashion. Depending upon this response, I would either a)assist her with patient care as needed, or, b) tell her that I must report her actions to the supervisor. Although confronting the nurse and reporting to the supervisor may be difficult things to do, it is necessary to take these actions in cases of drug theft.
August 16th, 2007 at 10:19 am
Did you see her slip the drugs into her pocket and then into her work bag? I think everytime I work I have medication in my pockets. Granted, a majority of the time they are in the bags that pharmacy sends them up in, but I clean out all my patients bins as I go through them and stuff that needs to be sent back to pharmacy, gets stuffed in my pocket. However, if you know for a fact tha she is taking them home, or even taking them at work, definitely report it. Ultimately, someone is going to be charged for that medication, so she is stealing.
August 28th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
I think no matter what you must first confront the nurse and tell her what you saw. And then you must report it to the supervisor. If you see it and say nothing you too are guilty