Hi everyone. I'm hoping I can get some support and maybe an answer to the situation I'm currently in. I'm a brand new nurse, and I've currently been employed by a Home Agency as a Private Duty RN. The patient we are working with has 24/7 nursing care provided by RN's and LPN's. We administer her medication, which also includes Morphine Sulfate (which is kept in a locked box) Every time a dose of morphine was used, we wrote the amount and signed inside the Medication Count log as well as the administration record sheet. Part of this count records the amount in the bottle, the amount being administered, and the amount left in the bottle. This serves as our med count of the controlled substance. I worked with her on Friday 7-3 and kept record of all medication and administration of the morphine and signed off for 3 pm at the end of my shift. The next girl administered the proper amount of morphine, stated the correct amount was in the bottle no problems etc.. and signed her signature for her morphine administration at 4pm. Please keep in mind that this is a homecare case- and the agency did not even provide us with a bound medication count book- it was a half-ass binder that the nurses put together just to have record. So the weekend goes by, and I return Sunday morning for my 7-3p shift. The nurse I was relieving was rushed to get out, and the patient was laying in the hospital bed (completely raised) with both side rails up and urine was seeping through onto her comforter. My priority was to get the patient safe at that moment, so I took 10 minutes to clean her up etc... I then go to count the meds for 8am, and the morphine sulfate was missing about 6ml's. The first thing I did was call my supervisor and inform them of the disc., I called the patient's health care proxy as well as her Doctor to inform them of the potential medication error/med diversion that I came upon. I was scared that the patient received 5ml's of Morphine instead of the 5mg's that her 0.25ml dose is made up of. Her resp. were fine, and there was no sign of opiate overdose etc. The supervisor then called the nurse I relieved, and she stated "yes I knew it was short, and I forgot to tell the on-coming nurse" But this girl has even signed off with her signature at 0600 stating there amount that there was suppose to be, not the actual amount of morphine inside the bottle. So my supervisor starts an "investigation" of the med loss, and suspends everyone (including myself) until the matter is handled. I was not given grounds for suspension and have called several times, but no return phone calls have been made to me. The brief explanation I received was along the lines of "two nurses have to double check the med count and sign each time", which I can understand. But we are alone with this woman all day, and there isn't a second RN around to account for it. I always track the last shifts morphine usage amount and ensure that it matches up to the recorded amount being in the bottle. I did research online about this, and Yes- two nurses have to sign for narcotics.. but this was only applying to Accredidations of Long Term Care Facilities and Hospitals. I would just like some opinions on the matter, I thought I was doing the right thing by reporting the discrepancy but then got suspeneded.... I'm upset, this is my first nursing job and I'm heartbroken.
