2 Nurses Accused Of Withholding Medication At Nursing Home

Next time you're thinking of taking "shortcuts" with your demented/incapcitated patients, think about this:

2 Nurses Accused Of Withholding Medication At Nursing Home:"Two nurses who worked a Suwannee County nursing facility were arrested Wednesday, accused of several counts of neglect after an investigation found they withheld medication from elderly patients, according to the Florida Attorney General.

Ashley Dawn Fralick, 27, and Melissa Elaine Bowen, 30, were both employed at the Good Samaritan Center Nursing Facility located in Dowling Park.

"Knowing that elderly patients were denied essential medications is heartbreaking," Attorney General Bill McCollum said in a statement. "These victims rightly deserved and expected care and attention, but instead received neglect and abuse."
http://www.news4jax.com/news/10957371/detail.html

It's sad to say, but I think we'll be seeing a lot more cases like this as we are stretched thinner and thinner. Burnout or laziness can do strange things to a nurse's sense of ethics.

Sincerely,

Andrew Lopez, RN
Nursefriendly, Inc. A New Jersey Corporation.
38 Tattersall Drive, Mantua New Jersey 08051
http://www.4nursing.com info@nursefriendly.com ICQ #6116137, AOL “nursefriendly”
856-415-9617, (fax) 415-9618

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:frustrated: What the...... Only way I 'hold' meds is if the doctor writes an order, or the resident refuses the stuff (resident rights).

'Cat'

I would be afaid NOT to give a demented patient their medications!!!

I read that story today. I also wanted to know if those are nurses RNs or LPNs or CMA's who some people also call nurses.

The actions of these 2 nurses were unforgiveable. I personally do not care if their motivations were greed, laziness or addictio. Their actions place an undeserved shadow over all nurses. It is one thing to be stretched too thin and quite another to flasify documentation.

nurse1stik wrote:I would be afaid NOT to give a demented patient their medications!!!

Amen to that.

Of course, thank heavens for IM's, if the patient is reeeeally out of it.

'Cat'

I don't know what their motivation was, but they got caught and will be paying a high price for it.

Wouldn't suprise me if they went to jail for a few years.

I'm very much against criminalizing mistakes that nurses will make due to medication errors, missed symptoms/diagnoses, etc.

In this kind of case, they deserve what they get.

Sincerely,

Andrew Lopez, RN
Nursefriendly, Inc. A New Jersey Corporation.
38 Tattersall Drive, Mantua New Jersey 08051
http://www.nursefriendly.com info@nursefriendly.com ICQ #6116137, AOL “nursefriendly”
856-415-9617, (fax) 415-9618

150,000 + Nurse-Reviewed & Approved Nursing Links

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http://www.nursefriendly.com
http://www.nursingentrepreneurs.com
http://www.nursingexperts.com