The Reality of Propofol Abuse

I got fired for suggesting to the supervisor that she

get a drug screen on one of the charge nurses.  

Her behavior was agitated and she had that

typical "drug sweat."  I too, have been there

when nurses got caught...more than once!

She changed out a PCA pump of Dilaudid and

walked out with the waste.  I was the one that

got fired without notice...after earning two (2)

"Quality Performer" employee evaluations.

In retrospect...I didn't take into account that they were lovers,

and that the hospital would support them in their illegal effort

to get rid of me, without due process.  

I was totally railroaded in a kangaroo preceding!

What that teaches the other nurses it to “keep your head down

and do NOT report…if you want to keep your job.

I'm suing Pro Se and am in appeals because apparently

the courts want to see medicine continue to carve out huge

profits on Wall Street and continue to drive up the cost of medicine

    ...at ANY cost!

I have worked with nurses that I have later found out were abusing drugs.  What concerned me most is that these were nurses that I worked closely with and I had NO suspicion of any of them.  

It certainly made me doubt my powers of observation and insight.  In fact I had believed that these particular nurses were better equipped at handling on-the-job stress than I was.

They appeared to be better employees than I was.  Less griping and complaining, always cool under pressure, never missed a day.

Lynn, thanks for sharing your story. It is hard to know how to react in every given situation.

I have personally dealt with people in the healthcare field and drug use. My first experience was with a very intelligent RN who was aquiring meds for his addicted, and equally intelligent spouse. The second time involved my witnesses a waste and the RN taking it (the waste), saying, 'there's not much here', and drinking it in front of me. I'm the new nurse in the facility, but already see how the politics work, and am terrified to let anyone know, for fear of retaliation. But, as this nurse was caught in the mitts of missing morphine, I gained the strength to seek out and report it (late). Well, she admitted taking it, but said,'what was the big deal, it was only 5ml', (the first med) and left voluntarily. I got a 3 day suspension for NOT reporting in a timely manner. So, now I work very differently with all counted and over ridden meds and never afraid to tell my story.