- Jurisdiction
- North Carolina
I'm an RN in N.C. and I received an email yesterday from my floor manager that my employment is terminated. On February 12th I pulled an order for IV Ativan to give a patient. I had a witness waste the un-needed portion of the med with me (to do this, we prep the med in our handheld devices called PSS0, then, when we administer the med to the patient, we only have to scan the patient, not the med again). When I administered the med to the patient, I forgot to scan the patient's barcode on his wristband with the PSS. Flash forward to March 9th when I requested a personal leave of absence to travel to Maine to help my ailing Dad. The request got approved for leave after a required class that I was scheduled to take on March13th. I then received a message from my manager to meet with her concerning a med error. I was unaware of any med errors and asked her what it was about. She said it was ativan and we'd discuss it during our meeting. I met with her on March 13th where she related the error to me.. that ativan was pulled from the pyxis, but no record of it being administered was recorded. She accused me of givng it to the wrong patient because there was another patient that same shift who's girlfriend kept asking for Ativan for him, I told her I would have to get an order from the Dr., however, once the girlfriend left the patient's room, the patient calmed down and I didn't see any need to bother the Dr.for an Ativan order. I relayed all this info to the oncoming nurse and made a note in my nursing notes for that patient. However, my manager insists I gave the patient with the girlfriend the Ativan by mistake. She also said that there was no record of the Ativan being administered. This Ativan incident happend Feb. 12th, over a month ago, yet wasn't brought to my attention until I asked for personal leave. I had plans to head to Maine Wednesday, then got a message from my manager on Wednesday that I need to go in and meet with her again about the med error and do a drug screening on Thursday and that my leave would not start until after Thursday. I replied that I had just submitted a drug screening the week ) as I was searching for a day job (of which she was aware) and that I'd release the results to her...and reiterated why I did not give the ativan to the wrong patient and that I was already on my way to Maine. I also stated that It absurd to think I injected myself with IV Ativan. I also asked why it took over a month to bring this to my attention... it had not been brought to my attention until I requested personal leave. She stated the reason for termination was non-compliance for not complying with the drug screening.
What can I do? At this point, I don't even want to go back to that job, but I don't want to have a termination on my record. At one point, my manager threatened reporting this to the Board of Nursing.
What can I do? At this point, I don't even want to go back to that job, but I don't want to have a termination on my record. At one point, my manager threatened reporting this to the Board of Nursing.
