Advice??

[Localsun77]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Indiana

I was called into work and told that I was being placed on suspension pending termination for some narcotics not accounted for. I've been a nurse for 14 years and take great pride in providing excellent care, I was shocked and lost for words sitting there. I have always put my patients needs first and had an instance where I have a dose of morphine IV but had forgot to scan it. The oncoming nurse gave the patient morphine and the daughter had said that I just gave it earlier. I tried to correct the matter but emailing my supervisor and taking a new syringe out and this time I left the syringe in the drawer which was found by an oncoming nurse. The unit I work on is insanely busy and I'm not using that for an excuse but it is. I had another patient that was receiving 3mg every 2 hours and he set his alarm too it. We ran out multiple times and pharmacy had to restock us. When the record was printed off from pharmacy it showed that 3m dilaudid was unaccounted for and I'm pretty sure that I scanned him. I told them that I wanted a drug test which was negative, they did. It want to give me a drug test at first. I figured though I'm probably already fired but I have 14 years vested in this place and never an issue before so now I am concerned about other implications and I don't feel like I have anyone to talk too. I would appreciate any advice.

 

[Zigner]

Advice about what?

 

[Proserpina]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Indiana

I was called into work and told that I was being placed on suspension pending termination for some narcotics not accounted for. I've been a nurse for 14 years and take great pride in providing excellent care, I was shocked and lost for words sitting there. I have always put my patients needs first and had an instance where I have a dose of morphine IV but had forgot to scan it. The oncoming nurse gave the patient morphine and the daughter had said that I just gave it earlier. I tried to correct the matter but emailing my supervisor and taking a new syringe out and this time I left the syringe in the drawer which was found by an oncoming nurse. The unit I work on is insanely busy and I'm not using that for an excuse but it is. I had another patient that was receiving 3mg every 2 hours and he set his alarm too it. We ran out multiple times and pharmacy had to restock us. When the record was printed off from pharmacy it showed that 3m dilaudid was unaccounted for and I'm pretty sure that I scanned him. I told them that I wanted a drug test which was negative, they did. It want to give me a drug test at first. I figured though I'm probably already fired but I have 14 years vested in this place and never an issue before so now I am concerned about other implications and I don't feel like I have anyone to talk too. I would appreciate any advice.

Even if a blood test is clean, your employer is well within their rights to fire you - proof or no proof.

(Unless you are union or have a CBA or other enforceable contract)

If anything, terminating your employment is about the only thing they can do in terms of their liability.

 

[TheGeekess]

Even if a blood test is clean, your employer is well within their rights to fire you - proof or no proof.

(Unless you are union or have a CBA or other enforceable contract)

If anything, terminating your employment is about the only thing they can do in terms of their liability.

Well, they'll also report it to the State Board of Nursing. Then OP gets to deal with the consequences of that.

 

[ecmst12]

Yeah I would be a heck of a lot more worried about my license if I were her.

On the one hand, it is definitely true that a lot of facilities are giving nurses unsafe patient loads which leads to errors like these, because they are more focused on the bottom line than patient care. On the other hand, only you are responsible for the care you provide and practicing within the scope of your license. A friend of mine just quit her job because her employer was giving her more patients than she felt she could safely care for, and she was worried about her license. If you were being given more patients than you could provide care for, it was up to you to refuse, report, or even quit. If you accept the work, you're responsible for performing to the standard of care.

 

[commentator]

For some reason, this story does not "scan" well to me. It just doesn't hang together, you know? I would have a very hard time with it if I were a supervisor, and would not, as it pours here find it terribly believable if I were looking at it from an unemployment point of view. Incidentally, if you are fired, you should file immediately for unemployment benefits. If you are out of work for more than a few days on any type of unpaid leave, you should file for unemployment benefits. This will make them move one way or another. If they are really so horribly short-staffed and your story is in any way believable I'd suspect they'll quickly put you back to work.

 

[Localsun77]

For some reason, this story does not "scan" well to me. It just doesn't hang together, you know? I would have a very hard time with it if I were a supervisor, and would not, as it pours here find it terribly believable if I were looking at it from an unemployment point of view. Incidentally, if you are fired, you should file immediately for unemployment benefits. If you are out of work for more than a few days on any type of unpaid leave, you should file for unemployment benefits. This will make them move one way or another. If they are really so horribly short-staffed and your story is in any way believable I'd suspect they'll quickly put you back to work.

Thanks for the reply, I was talking to my supervisor yesterday and she said they're might be a way to go back in and show that I gave the medication with her or senior management present, she tells Mrs that she don't think that I diverted anything but on the same token she told everyone on the unit I resigned. I thought if I resigned that would help me to be able to get it behind me and move on. I am now thinking I should of let them fire me?

 

[commentator]

As far as unemployment is concerned, if the employer fires you, they must have a valid misconduct reason to fire you or you'll be approved to draw benefits. (This, of course is a bad thing for the business, as it eventually costs them money.) If there's really no proof, no validation to their suspicions and accusations that you misused or stole drugs, then they can still legally fire you, but they'd have to present their reasons and their proofs to unemployment to show that they had a good misconduct reason to keep you from being approved to draw benefits.

Without compelling evidence, they'll likely lose and you'll be approved to draw while you are looking for another job. If you are completely innocent and are totally falsely accused, you should take them to the mat and make them show what they've got. That's the best way to "put it behind you" as you say. But if you quit, there's still always the chance they'll report you, or tell future employers that you quit while under investigation, which doesn't sound too good, there's always the reason that you quit which will follow you as much or more than a claim for unemployment after an unvalidated firing. Myself, if I were innocent as a baby, would persist in proving that, if they wanted to fire me, they did not have a valid misconduct reason to do so. I'd demand to see what evidence they had against me, and the best way to do that would be through an unemployment hearing. So no, I'd go on and let them fire me if they would.

 

[ajkroy]

OP isn't a freshly-graduated nurse. It isn't just "forgetting" to scan. It is a misplaced syringe and (if I read it correctly) two different Schedule II drugs are actually missing. Why was the syringe in the drawer? That is the part that doesn't make sense to me. This could mean several things, including the nurse taking the drugs, the nurse selling the drugs, the nurse just simply not documenting drug administration (which could lead to patient overdose), or someone else sees that the nurse is unable to do her job and is stealing during her shift (unlikely if they have Pyxis or similar drug control system). Any of these reasons is enough to report to the Board.