Nurses Under Pressure May Use Drugs Intended for Patients
Addiction and drug abuse take an ugly toll on American lives, destroying people’s health, families, and the careers they’ve spent years building. In Harnett County, North Carolina, a hospice nurse and her husband face criminal charges for stealing her patients’ prescription medications — a mistake that means she’ll need to vigorously defend her professional license in order to keep it.
The impact of the North Carolina nurse’s missteps on her career is yet to be determined. But any medical professional accused of stealing prescription medication from their patients is likely to face harsh scrutiny from their state’s licensing board, which might elect to suspend or even revoke the person’s license. The Professional License Defense Team at the LLF National Law Firm understands the perils of addiction and helps nurses put the accusations against them in context, presenting a full and nuanced picture to their licensing board so they can keep their license (or restore it) and get back to work. Call our team today at 888-535-3686 to talk about your case or send us a message.
Stealing Opioids from Dying Patients
Employees of Liberty Home Health and Hospice in Dunn, NC, use an app to enter prescription refill requests for their patients with local pharmacies. Normally, a family member picks up the medications when they’re ready and brings them home to the patient. In Dunn, however, Juana Hull and her husband, Robert Wayne Hull, conspired to pick up the medications themselves — and keep them for their own use.
Local law enforcement officials estimate the couple stole nearly 200 doses of oxycodone — a medication intended to alleviate the suffering of hospice patients — over a period of less than four months.
What drove Hull, a registered nurse, to either concoct or at least participate in such a scheme is unknown. However, the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and American Nurses Association estimate that roughly 10 percent of healthcare workers struggle with drug abuse.
The reasons a nurse might turn to opioids speak to fundamental problems in the American healthcare system: staffing shortages put excessive strain on healthcare personnel, creating a culture of long hours filled with life-and-death crises that should be managed by larger teams. Early in their careers, many nurses in these high-pressure jobs endure low pay and high monthly student loan payments.
It’s no wonder they’re stressed, anxious, and burned out. And it’s no wonder they turn to opioids and other drugs that are so close at hand to help them through.
Help for Nurses: Save Yourself, Protect Your Career
Nurses and other healthcare professionals dealing with drug addiction should seek help right away. The National Council of State Boards of Nursing maintains a comprehensive list of resources for their members (it’s open to non-members as well), and there are addiction treatment centers in every state that could be a troubled nurse’s best hope.
They’ll also need to take steps to protect their professional license, which is likely to be under threat in these situations. At the LLF National Law Firm, our Professional License Defense Team works with nurses across the country, helping them navigate board investigations, hearings, and adjudications. We can help you, too. Reach out today and let’s get started. Call us at 888-535-3686, or send us a message online.