Posted on 05/17/2002 9:13:34 PM PDT by Libloather
Nurse charged in swap of drug
5-16-02
By AMY WOLFFORD, Staff Writer News & Record
GREENSBORO -- A Wesley Long registered nurse has been accused of removing the painkiller Demerol from syringes and replacing it with saline before it was delivered to patients, court records state.
Donnetta Cooke Glick, 29, of 2033 Edgewood Ave. in Burlington, has been suspended until the N.C. Board of Nursing reviews her case, said Doug Allred, a spokesman with the Moses Cone Health System, which operates Wesley Long Hospital.
Glick was accused Monday of embezzling controlled substances on Feb. 12 and Feb. 15 in the transitional care unit, where she had been working, Guilford County court records state. She declined to comment.
Allred would not discuss the case, saying it was under investigation. Nor did he give figures on how many Moses Cone Health System employees had been investigated in recent years.
"Given the number of nurses we have -- more than 2,000 -- we feel we have a pretty good record when it comes to this," Allred said. "It's just a very small problem."
Criminal charges were brought by the State Bureau of Investigation. Neither the investigating agent nor any SBI supervisors were available Wednesday for comment.
Across North Carolina, there are more than 113,000 licensed practical and registered nurses. Each year the N.C. Board of Nursing investigates 800 to 850 for questionable conduct, including improper use of prescription drugs.
"That is a common complaint, unfortunately," said Donna Mooney, director of discipline for the state board. "There are some substance-abuse issues because nurses have access to medication due to their jobs."
There are no national statistics on how many of the country's 2.6 million registered nurses have been investigated for similar conduct, said Kathy Apple, executive director of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing in Chicago.
"I think it's a commonly held belief that health professionals have a higher percentage of addiction, particularly because they have higher access to medications," Apple said. "Chemical dependency in nursing is written about a lot.
"But the percentage of nurses who violate the Nurse Practice Act percentage-wise is very low. The majority of nurses are very safe."
Apple also said she didn't expect any adverse effects in any patient who may have been injected with saline rather than Demerol.
"It's not going to do anything. It's harmless," Apple said of saline injections. "The issue is you're still in pain."
Mooney did not know when the N.C. Board of Nursing would rule on Glick's case. Glick has been released from police custody on a written promise to return to court.
Liberteens are gonna have a cow over this...
It would appear that less than 1% of the total number are investigated each year. However, over a number of years this becomes a cummulative number. I have personal knowledge that stress health professionals are subjected to (trauma they deal with daily, death, hours worked [16 hour days in many cases], etc.) plus the availability of medication adds to the problem. But I think the cummulative affect of nurses addicted to meds is a higher number than the medical community would have us believe.
It maybe neat to find out how many are smoking pot or crack...
Keep in mind that the woman making this statement is executive director of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing. She says the only harm done is that the patient is still in pain. Well, not quite. Because that patient will complain to staff that he is still in pain and the medication is not working. This will be communicated to his attending physician who will either increase his dosage or switch to a more potent analgesic. When this new order is carried out, it may well be too high a dose for this patient, triggering a potentially life-threatening episode. And that's only the beginning of the problems created by these junkies posing as nurses. Can you say "wrongful death?" I knew that you could.
My wife just delivered, and she had an epidural. Initially, due to placement, the effect was not substantial, and she was, shall we say..painful?. The anesthesiologist repositioned, after several additional doses, to finally get the desired effect (no pain). Had the anesthesiologist been delivering saline rather than the local and fentenyl, I KNOW my wife would have grabbed her neck and choked the air out of her throat. So, it is not merely saline, with no harm, the nurse who siphons off the demerol and replaces with saline is in real danger of her life! :-)
I think this is a good idea, for the protection of patients. I am a nurse, and the extreme vulnerability of patients is a valid reason for extreme caution.
Now, if my state would only do the same thing in regard to DOCTORS...
She was finally caught during her injection process in the bathroom.
It may be a commonly held belief, but I doubt much of a fact. This is assuming Nurses are basically unethical or untrustworthy. At the beginning & end of a shift, the narcotics are counted & signed off on. If a descrepancy is found, the Med Nurse from the previous shift will not want to leave until she is sure it is not her butt out there on the line with her name on an Incident Report.
When a patient is given a narcotic, it is also signed by 2 nurses (also true when a narc is "wasted"). When I do meds, I don't trust anyone to sign the book later.....it could be the Virgin Mary RN or Jesus Christ RN. It's not that I trust them....I don't want to have to explain those blank spaces to the DEA if they come a knockin'.
Of course, every hospital has a history of a professional (or 2 or maybe 3) pilfering the narcs. Every floor has a story. It happens, there are bad apples in the barrel. However, it is not because of the availability of the narcs, it is because they are addicts. Make it known that if you are caught pilfering, you will be punished to the fullest extent of the law. You will lose your license permanently. If you need or desire treatment, you can get it in jail. Not only have you violated the law, you have denied treatment to a patient in need.
Perhaps addiction is a "disease." But an addict is where he/she is today because of the choices he/she made in life. An addiction is the culmination of life's choices.
"But the percentage of nurses who violate the Nurse Practice Act percentage-wise is very low. The majority of nurses are very safe."
Safe? I prefer the terms Professional, Educated, Honest, Trustworthy, Degreed individuals who bust their butts above & beyond to provide the very best care for all patients. (I alsways hated the term "Nurse's Training," made me feal like a trained seal.)
Was passing a kidney stone once. Sent up for an IVP with order from the ER MD for morphine 5 mg IV at patient's option. As the contrast media for the IVP was given, the initial dose wore off, leaving me in agony. The nurse refused to honor my call for the morphine, and had the temerity to suggest that I was a junkie! I got up off the table, put my hands around his throat and gave him a simple choice. His IQ immediately doubled and he made exactly the right decision.
Don't you mean the DNS? Why would the DEA get involved with a nursing floor med tally?
BTW, great post!
The DEA in effect enforces the Controlled Substance Act. If the DEA showed up at the hospital it would indeed be a "worst-case scenario." But it has happened in some places. Knowing it has happened (not for an addict stealing the narcs, but for drug rings operating out of hospital pharmacies) serves as an incentive to follow policy & procedure to the letter. It is the same with charting---chart as if every legal whore was looking over your shoulder.
That is exactly what I am talking about. :-) Switching meds is not innocuous. It makes the patient...shall we say...irate??
In addition to signing off narcotics by two nurses counting them at the beginning and ending of all three shifts, in our facility if there is a discrepancy, the nurse on whose shift it occurred does NOT leave the hospital until it's found. Any nurse suspected of ANY narcotics pilfering can, in our facility, be held by security until the police arrive. Even one pill, one dose. A urine and blood test can be demanded, and must be given or the nurse is immediately fired, on the spot. So in addition to his/her problems with the law, they have no job and an extremely bad reference.
In our community, no nurses that I have ever heard of have been involved in narcotics, but I do know of two doctors and an EMT.
Any nurse who would say such a thing to you does not deserve the title. That's cruel and unthinkable.
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