Do nurses steal medication?

The drugs are often due to a habit, or they may find their way onto the black market. Most often, nursing home employees steal prescription drugs from the people supposedly in their care. These steps are motivated by addiction or by an intent to sell the pills for profit.

What to do if you see a nurse stealing drugs?

Report the situation to a supervisor or the nurse’s employer immediately. Then, contact your state BON (or state licensing authority) and file a complaint. If you are unsure whether a nurse has done something that should be reported, contact the state BON for assistance.

How do you tell if a nurse is diverting drugs?

Signs of diversion

1. stealing syringes or vials.
2. under-dosing patients.
3. replacing controlled substances with another product, such as saline.
4. taking PRN medications from patients or pulling duplicate doses.
5. creating false verbal orders.
6. failing to waste or document waste, or raiding sharps containers.

What percentage of nurses divert drugs?

Have you ever worked with a colleague who diverted drugs to feed an addiction? Chances are you have, though you may not have known it, since drug diversion and addiction are often very secretive issues. Most estimates put nurses’ drug and alcohol misuse at around 6\% to 10\%, or about one in 10 nurses.

How nurses get caught diverting drugs?

Nurses may divert drugs by using false documentation, such as a medication doses not actually administered to the patient and instead used by the nurse. Theft of diverted controlled substances can occur from a medication dispensary, narcotic cabinet, or pharmacy.

What to do if a nurse is diverting drugs?

When an employee is found to have diverted controlled substances, human resources (HR) professionals, along with senior nursing leadership, work with the employee to conduct weekly random drug screens, engage him or her in mandatory counseling services via the employee-assistance program, and relocate him or her to a …

How common is drug diversion in healthcare?

Opioid – Drug Diversion in Healthcare​ In 2017, an estimated 18 million people misused a prescription medication at least once in the prior year (NIDA). All healthcare settings are vulnerable to diversion (Protenus, 2017).

What to do if you suspect a nurse is diverting drugs?

If the person suspected of diverting is a nurse, pharmacist, physician, or other licensed healthcare professional: Report the healthcare worker to their professional licensure board within your state, such as the state Board of Nursing, Board of Pharmacy, or Medical Board.

What is the most commonly diverted drug?

Fentanyl — one of the most potent opioids — is the most commonly diverted drug, and is the lead opioid in causing deaths due to opioid overdoses. Diversion of opioids in injectable and oral forms is seen across all levels of an organization, from chiefs to frontline staff, and across all clinical disciplines.

How can hospitals prevent drug diversion?

Prevention methods. There are a number of things you can do in your practice to prevent medication diversion from occurring: provide thorough care, use patient medication agreements, protect your prescriptions, work with local pharmacists, involve your staff and play by the rules.

Do doctors steal drugs meant for patients?

But “only a fraction of those who are diverting drugs are ever caught.” The federal government estimates one in 10 healthcare workers experience substance use disorder. There is rising concern that medical professionals are stealing powerful opioid pain medications meant for their patients.

Did a nurse steal painkillers from her cancer patients?

But police say she also helped herself to their pain medication. Milwaukee affiliate WITI launched an investigation into nurses stealing drugs. They uncovered court documents revealing allegations of one nurse actually taking pills from her cancer patients — even after they died.

What happened to the nurse who stole fentanyl from a hospital?

Last year, a nurse at Parker Adventist Hospital in Denver was sentenced to 44 months in federal prison after she stole fentanyl from her facility’s intensive care unit, replacing doses of medication with saline. In that case, the hospital’s automated drug inventory system identified the theft.

Is drug theft in hospitals ‘accelerating’?

He published a study in the Journal of Hospital Medicine last year warning that drug theft in U.S. hospitals appears to be “accelerating.” The DEA told NPR it investigated roughly 3,600 cases of alleged drug theft at healthcare facilities over the last five years, including 280 cases so far in 2020.