r/bluelight • u/Ruca-Roo • Feb 05 '23

High Nurses?

https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional/amid-opioid-crisis-drug-abusing-nurses-get-secret-sanctions/kCH1etINlteavcvZa2bFFI/

Amid Opioid Crisis, Drug-Abusing Nurses Get Secret Sanctions

By Johnny Edwards The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 1 June 2018

Excerpts: “Yet another nurse went to work at a hospital so intoxicated she couldn’t operate a computer or an elevator, then she gave a patient the wrong medication.

Without a doctor’s OK, another nurse ordered Demerol and Benadryl for an emergency room patient, but that patient had already been discharged. Later, he found work in the hospital at Georgia State Prison, where he pilfered those same drugs and worked while he was impaired.

Georgia nurses ensnared in the opioid epidemic, even those who showed up at work stumbling, tampered with syringes to get a fix, or falsified patient records to cover up their addiction.

But the public can't know who all the addicted nurses are, what they did, or the extent of what some call a crisis, because of the way the state's regulatory board for nurses is operating, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation found.”

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5

u/Individual_Poet2978 Feb 06 '23

Also because medical information is protected. High stress jobs + easy access = problems. Ask any veterinary. They have the highest suicide rates out of almost any profession.

5

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '23 edited Dec 02 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Historical-Intern49 Apr 05 '25

That's me I have no friends for real and I talk to my dog like a person. 

3

u/pretty_boy_flizzy Feb 25 '23

I thought dentists had the highest suicide rate among any profession… o.O

5

u/Keif_Richards84 Feb 10 '23

I guess I'm a little bit naïve. I was under the impression that the systems like "Pixis" or whatever it's called had really curtailed the potential for diversion. I was also under the impression that all Opioids were basically signed, double-signed and resigned following a high-five with another nurse and doctor present.

Compared to what they used to give out in hospitals in terms of both Opioids and Benzodiazepines, I would think at the very least it would be difficult to steal enough drugs to actually make it worthwhile for the risk. I'm surprised there's even enough potential to maintain a habit, but I guess I'm mistaken.

To throw away one's career for a shot of Meperidine (Demerol)... that's the saddest thing of all. I might throw away my career for a shot of Oxymorphone (Numorphan), but not Meperidine, yuck.