Let me preface this by saying: I FELL SORRY FOR YOU. Your glory days are coming to an end. The time of easy access to drugs, at least in a hospital, is slowly changing. Yes, believe it or not coming in to score an easy Percocet script is becoming a little harder these days.
Now I know a lot of you aren't exactly rocket scientists, so let me explain it to you.
1)With the advent of electronic medical records, we are able to see if you have been at other hospitals in our system to try and score narcs. Its all there in clear type, accessible as you soon as you give us your name. Most of you don't know which hospitals are affiliated with each other, so you don't realize we can look you up.
2)There is now a statewide system in which all narcotic prescriptions are tracked. All prescriptions written are required to be reported. All MDs, NPs, including those who work in ERs have access to this system. We know if you have been prescribed narcs last week.
3)Many of you are very dumb, in that you tell us you were at so and so hospital about this same problem. Of course, then we are going to ask your permission to review those records from the other hospital. Nowadays, this is very easy to do, often can be done right on our computers. If you refuse permission, forget any kind of prescription.
4)Most ERs require photo IDs at triage these days. There are policies in place that MDs will refuse to write you a narcotic prescription if you don't have an ID.
5)Many hospitals/ERs are developing policies in which they refuse to give narcotic prescriptions to those with chronic pain. They will not replace lost, stolen, expired prescriptions.
Alas, life becomes rougher for the drug seeker...
Sincerely,
madness the nurse
I wish our docs would utilize more of this stuff instead of just giving in to the bullying. The few that do are gold in my book, though. LOVE IT when they confront the fake ass seeker patients about all the oxys and somas they've been prescribed in the last month when they've claimed they don't take any home meds. It's like watching an episode of Perry Mason.
ReplyDeleteWhat's bad is when they review all this information and STILL give them Perkies. "I only gave him 10, and not 20!!"
ReplyDeleteSadly, the drug seekers have made it harder for the truly stricken as well.
ReplyDeleteWhat sucks is the true people in pain have it hardest and hardest now because of them! I am a pain patient and I hate taking the pain meds, but I don't want to live in pain to.
ReplyDeleteThere have been times were my pain meds were not helping and I couldn't take the pain any more so I went to the ER like my pain doctor told me to. Well the ER doctors are afraid to help me, I am not there to get more meds, I am there to get help to bring down my pain so my meds would work. I bring in all my meds to show the ER doc I have meds but the break though pain is killing me. Still they are afraid to help me. After I start bitching about it and telling them to call my pain doc then they help me. Again I am not there to get more, just to relief my pain so my meds to work. Trust me I have enough pain meds to do it myself, but I would rather have a doc do it! Here is what I am on Kadian 120mg. X2 day, Morphine Sulfate IMM Rel 15mg 2 every 8 hours Norco 10mg no more then 10 a day so like I said I have enough to do it myself! Its because of the drug seekers I go though this! I might only go 2 to 3 times a year but its a pain in the ass to play the game with the doc and nurses!
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DeleteYou need to find different alternatives to manage your pain. I get that you need all these drugs to help you but you're just setting yourself up for a lifetime of dependency on these drugs. there are other alternatives, I.e. Acupuncture, you just gotta keep an open mind
DeleteIf you hate taking them then don't. There are better ways to manage your pain.
DeleteI keep seeing these middle aged women who abuse their pain meds saying "I hate having to take these 80mg oxys 4h prn".
Then don't take them. If you're taking them when you don't want to, its called an addiction.
PS: Untreated pain IS bad. But it is not the "hardest" by a long shot.
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ReplyDeleteI’ve found a great product to help with medication management that I’d like to pass on. This is an all-inclusive system. Not only does it organize and store, but it’s been proven to improve health outcomes by ensuring the appropriate use of medication and reducing the risks of avoidable side effects. No more pill boxes or zip-lock bags for your pills. Check it out at www.mymedbox.net
ReplyDeleteMedication Management is one of the highest priorities and health initiatives this year. Mayo Clinic, AHCA, and various clinical programs worldwide have set out to find a solution to the complex medication management weakness in the medical community. MyMedBox is the solution to transportation, organization, and cognitive impairments hindering their effective use.
miss madness....shame on you. i dont know what kinda nurse you are, but as an emergency room nurse of 16 yrs(and an independant duty navy corpsman(medic) with a marine battalion for 8 yrs b4 that, i cringe everytime i read or hear a nurse or doc talk about "drug seekers". yes, there are addicts that abuse the health care system to obtain narcotic medication by any means necessary and yes it pisses alot of health care professionals off, but to me, worse yet, it makes it extremely difficult for those with legitimate pain, be it chronic, or acute to receive adequate relief, and the worst, is that it jades those people charged with compassionately caring for those in pain or ill. u r NOT there to judge these people, and like uve heard 100 times im sure, until u walk a mile in someones shoes....i fell the most sorry for those that suffer from subjective conditions like migraines or fibromyalgia, where theres no good diagnostic teest to show exactly whats going on or how much pain theyre in. maybe their pain is a 10/10 TO them(remember being taught about subjective pain in school)and maybe they have no insurance or make just enough money to not qualify for government programs, but not enough to afford primary care, or cant take off their crappy job to sit 8 hrs at the health dept, so they have to "bother" u to take care of something that maybe able to be taken care of fairly easily had they had those things, and maybe their "chronic pain" meds just arent working because theyre nauseated, or have exacerbated it and its 2300 and the doctors closed so u have to "put up with " their drug seeking behavior so maybe they can sleep tonight or be able to take care of their kids in the morning or go to that crappy job. and while i understand the need for the priscription monitoring system to weed out fraud and the like, it should not be used as a measuring stick for ALL patients that come in that may require pain medication, thats a really slippery slope to step off onto, pain was made the fifth vital sign for a reason...that reason being that many doctors and nurses werent properly evaluating/assessing it to begin with, dismissing patients complaints, and documenting the like and the regulatory boards recognized that and tried to institute policy to change it. i think its funny as hell when JHACO comes to audit a hospital and sees nurses and docs NOT doing the right thing, and for me personally...id rather get "played" by the occasional drug seeker, than to not medicate and care for a legitimate pain patient, and treat them as i would want myself or my family to be treated, and hey as a "veteran" innercity(i dont know y u even put that, wtf diference does that make unless ur stating it to further show ur profiling of so called "drug seekers')nurse, maybe you should consider getting some additional training with reguard to why you should become a nurse to begin with, and maybe the difference between drug seeking, drug addiction, and narcotic tolerance.
ReplyDeleteiolanthe stokes RN, CEN, TNCC, CCRN
Very well said!!! I am also a nurse. I have worked ED, ICU and PACU.... Pain Management is a huge part of Nursing!
DeleteI too applaud you!!!👏👏👏 I am a chronic pain patient ,and I know what it's like to be treated like a drug seeker. I'm even documented in my town. I was miss-diagnosed for 3 years, and at times treated so poorly that I'd cry buckets of tears once I'd left the E.R .
DeleteThank you for speaking up for those of us "drug seekers" who have absolutely visited the ER seeking pain medication ,so that our pain might be treated.
I too applaud you!!!👏👏👏 I am a chronic pain patient ,and I know what it's like to be treated like a drug seeker. I'm even documented in my town. I was miss-diagnosed for 3 years, and at times treated so poorly that I'd cry buckets of tears once I'd left the E.R .
DeleteThank you for speaking up for those of us "drug seekers" who have absolutely visited the ER seeking pain medication ,so that our pain might be treated.
Seriously.... You need to quit nursing. You are not doing anyone any favors nursing with such a bad attitude. Why not help these people instead of bad mouthing them? If your in a place where you now think the worst of people then you HAVE to leave nursing. Shame on you.
ReplyDeleteFrom a nurse who has had a traumatic experience in which I and the rest of my fellow nurses were taken hostage at gunpoint by a drug seeker, I can tell you it's gotten out of control. Luckily no one was hurt, but have you ever given morphine to a man pointing a gun at your face? And then tried to save his life when security managed to shoot him in the chest to protect you? We nurses do the most we can for EVERYONE, REGARDLESS OF HOW WE ARE TREATED.
ReplyDeleteI've been an ER nurse for only 6 months, and it's not the patients who are truly in pain that have already taken a toll on me. It's the 10-20% of patients who fill up 80-90% of your time pushing their call lights, demanding morphine or dilaudid, changing their complaints from chest pain to back pain to abdominal pain in an effort to manipulate the doctors. They name their allergies as every medication except the pain medicine they want. And they suck out all the life you have left after you've been trying to keep up with too many patients for the past 10 hours straight with no break or lunch. Then they demand a sandwich, because with all that fake crying (literally they will make sobbing noises hunched over with no tears at all), they've gotten hungry. And they scream and cuss you out because, oh yes, that sandwich should be your number one priority now. Not that stroke patient or heart attack in the next room. If they are discharged, they COME BACK 30 MINUTES LATER. It makes my job a living hell because I care so damn much about all of my other patients. Am I a bad nurse by venting like this blogger does? I can't imagine keeping in frustration like that when you've been doing so for a whole shift with a smile on your face and being compassionate without so much as a thank you. When I do receive a heartfelt thanks or even a look of gratitude, I am revived for hours or even the rest of my day. But this is far and few in between.
For the patients truly in pain, I'm sorry these people make the doctors and nurses wary. I will try my very best to help you should you come to my ER, as I would anyone else.
Are you seriously comparing someone who held you up at gun point to the drug seekers who wait for a exam???? Because of judgmental nurses and docs i was never tested for infectins my wbc was so high when the third time going to the er with my primary referral i had to have a major hysterectomy begged for help but told i was a drug seeker. Thanks fyi there are pros and cons in every career you use stop bitching
DeleteI agree with the person who said you need to get out of nursing. You have no empathy or compassion for anyone. I'm sure you and your family have no drug problems or any problems of any kind so you can judge other people. If you were my nurse, I would go to another hospital. You need to quit your job. You are a danger and I mean that literally. You're dangerous. Plus, you are obviously not well educated as you can't seem to spell. GET OUT OF NURSING.
ReplyDeleteI can agree with many of the comments. I have pain in my leg due to arthritis gout pain. I've been taking Tramadol for pain for a year now and it's seems to stop working. I the pain gets to bad when no other meds work, I go to the E R, which I try not to go because doctors and nurses will think I'm drug seeking or something. When I go, I don't complain, they asks me what's my pain level, which it'll be around a 6 or 7 in pain. They'll give me a shot of Toradol and discharge me with the same meds I take at home, which I told them the Tramadol had stopped working. Sadly I will just deal with What I'm taking that does not work anymore because I'm scared of be judged or being looked at as a druggie.
ReplyDeleteWell nurse you need your ass beat. I can't believe doctors and a pathetic nurse like yourself can ever be in the medical field. There're real people out there in real pain and you people take it upon yourself and let real pain sufferers suffers because of what those drug addicts doing. I'm a chronic pain patient too and sometimes because of you doctors and nurses insecurity, I rather live in pain sometimes because I don't want to be named a drug seeker. I'm on pain meds now and hates it. If I had a choice I wouldn't take it but I don't have a choice because I'm always in pain. Besides judging people because of chronic pain, help them, otherwise why are you a nurse. It's ashamed how people like me and others here have to suffer with our pain. The DEA have real gotten to you'll but what they failed to realize, real sufferers means real pain. I feel sorry whoever comes to your hospital for help.
ReplyDeleteAll the people who said "get out of nursing!" are probably sitting in your ER waiting room right now, trying to think up some symptoms that will get them narcotics, and hoping to God they don't get you as their nurse!
ReplyDeleteGawd I hate drug seekers!
I agree with the people above who said that you should leave the profession of Nursing (and do not let the door hit you on the way out) because any caring and compassion you ever had is seriously gone now. Oh, and I gotta wonder how lazy you have to be to miss a grammatical error in the first line of your little missive.
ReplyDeleteSeeing this post has just made me really understand how some nurses like you think. I was sixteen when I suffered from chronic avascular necrosis in both knees, both hips, and an elbow. I came from a single mom with a brother and a sister and we all had good lives and lived comfortably. I was active in sports until one day my knee gave out while running. They determined at the hospital that it was due to the excessive amount of steroids needed to keep my airways open from extreme asthma I had to have over six surgeries on both knees but thankfully the hips and elbow started to heal on their own. I still live with chronic pain from this. After my surgeries I would get these painful flare ups where I was literally curled in a ball with tears rolling down my cheeks because my legs hurt so bad and I would have to go to the hospital for help because nothing we had would stop it. It eventually became routine and the hospital staff knew our situation and my diagnosis. Finally it subsided for about six months. After that it happened again one time, went to the hospital, all was good. The next day it hit me again after walking around. We went back to the same hospital, was basically yelled at by the nurse because I couldn't get out of the wheelchair on my own because it hurt so bad. The doctor comes in, says my pain is legit and all is great and then I ask him if he is giving me what they gave me the other day because that helped. He stopped, gave me a very dirty look and said that was a red flag for him and I was acting like a drug seeker. Once he said that, everything I or my mother said was turned around by him and the nurse so that I was the drug seeker. It got to the point where my mom said fuck this were leaving and the doctor told her she cant take me because he'll declare us 5150 because of how I was "acting". Had my grandmother not been there to literally hold my mom back I swear to this day she would have put him through the wall. Eventually he decides to stop his tirade about drug seekers and his horrible job and orders toradol and flexeril for me. Then about two minutes after that flings the discharge papers at us and tells us to have the nurse go over it with us. I went home feeling slightly better as the pain was starting to ease up, which of course just added fuel to their fire of the drug abuser side, and I went home only to suffer in pain for the next two days solid. The pain was so bad I prayed for the third time in my life for god to just end me because I couldn't take it. I remember lying in bed and not even being able to walk to the bathroom by myself. I was so scared of going back to the hospital because I felt they would act the same way and make me a psych patient and keep me after what that doctor said and did. I will never forget that doctors name as I have never been so miserable and scared in my whole life. Most nurses don't know what it is life to come into somewhere you did not want to be and have to ask for help, only to be harmed and literally yelled at because two people believe you are a drug seeker. The pain of knowing there is nothing I can do and that was my last resort and they just denied me, that was the worst pain of all. People come to the ER for help, some may be drug seekers, but when somebody comes into the ER with a history and you can physically see on MRI films what is wrong and to still be denied help was horrible. The ER is a last resort for many and when even they won't help you, you don't know what to do because the pain is overwhelming and your last resort just denied you help and told you to go home. I hope many people read this and remember this the next time they see somebody suffering.
ReplyDeleteWho is the dumb one? You don't "fell" sorry for anyone.
ReplyDeleteWhat a nasty piece of work you are! I bet you are one of those nurse's who judge everyone who comes in by their outward signs of wealth and the color of their skin. Your not a doctor, shut the f@#k up and answer the call light in room 15 nurse Ratchet!
ReplyDeleteThe nurses are stealing and diverting all the drugs for themselves. more nurses have been caught diverting drugs than any amount of patients that seek drugs. I happen to know for a fact there are many nurses who go into the nursing field just to get drugs more easily. Some people are in real pain and it is sad that they cannot get the relief they seek. If hospitals allowed more testing and procedures and weren't so ruled by quotas and bonuses this world would be a better place. the nurses are the ones to watch and it is probably makes them feel better about their own addiction to judge others.
ReplyDeleteYep, I'm a nurse of 17 years (ICU and er) and the moment u start asking for drugs I mark ur chart "toradol" with a post it note to let doc know not to give u anything else. We are all a well oiled machine and the gig is up. Don't go to the er for pain meds, idiots, you're not getting them
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Bitch..think youre hot shit and love to throw that power around do ya? Hope you have to suffer terrible pain and the dependency..then go through nightmare withdrawal because someone judged you
ReplyDeleteWow. This is concerning. Please leave the field. You've lost your compassion. As a nurse myself as well as a chronic pain sufferer, I am disgusted. Yes, there are drug seekers out there. There are also relief seekers, legit pain patients. And whether that pain is acute or chronic, it's real and nowhere in your job description does it say to use your judgement to decide otherwise. Give the meds and document. Don't try to bully people to keep them away from the hospital in case of emergency. Do your damn job. And again, leave the field. Your callousness is showing.
ReplyDeleteI have been on a PCA for 5 years now and never once changed dosage unless there’s a real medical reason like a bowel obstruction and I’ve had a nurse at home steal my leftover medication once my sister caught her in the act she immediately asked if anyone was home and when I answered no she made me give a urine sample for my kindney failure while she set up a new bag of medication that comes with special packaging to prevent tampering it wasn’t leaking when I received it the day prior and 10 minutes before she came I took it out to acclimate the temperature with no signs of leaking I really should of been suspicious because I gave a sample after my tpn was finished just 15 prior yet she made me do it again because she had to witness it even do she didn’t my sister came home early and saw her with a needle poke the bag and put it in a container while injecting her self with the medication she then told me that I needed a new bag and she didn’t know how long it will take along with asking if I did anything wrong apparently she denied everything and thank goddess that I didn’t take any blame considering nothing happened like this for years we demanded she never come back she already poked a whole in my pick line twice trying to remove a cap hit or mailbox and denied it even do he car shoes the same mark on the car and caught by camera along with her refusing to wear gloves while performing a dressing change and argued once because I had enough medication to not need a change of my PCA until the week later and she kept trying to convince myself and the whole medical team to send more out so she could change it because she wasn’t able to come next week even do other nurses could come out she got fired after showing my home care the texts and my sisters verifying what happened along with her doing this to others apparently don’t trust anyone especially nurses when it comes to drugs
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