This friend has been going through a lot of personal drama lately, and distancing herself from it by flinging headlong into a new relationship. Soon, she was leaving early nearly every shift to go be with that guy. She knew it irritated me, and she started lying about the reasons for leaving early: when she left it would be, "I want to get home so I can spend some time on the phone with my son," and then the next day it would be, "guess what I tried in bed with so-n-so last night." I let her know the dishonesty bothered me, and that I felt taken advantage of when she cut out early all the time without doing her share of the work. She knows what that's like after all, she used to complain about another of our coworkers doing it to her all the time. We came to a sort of truce that I would try not to get bent out of shape with her leaving early so much if she would agree to be the one to stay most of the time when school started for me and I needed to cut out and go sleep or study.
Then I noticed that she was making some pretty serious med errors. Not giving pills that were supposed to be given. Continually skipping the full narcotics sign out process. Leaving pills in residents' rooms as a rule, rather than an exception. Signing out treatments without regard to whether she'd done them or not. At this point my irritation gave way to concern for the residents. I had covered for her once, when I knew she had omitted an anxiety pill from a resident's night time pour. I felt sick about it afterward, and it still bothers me. Part of my job is to check through the records and audit where mistakes are happening. If I'm going to be taken seriously, and seen as fair, I need to do that process without regard to whose mistake I'm looking at. I need to be unbiased.
Then one night, she gave a resident double the dose of a narcotic he takes to help him sleep. I understood why she made the error; the dosage of the pill had changed, and she hadn't been paying close enough attention to catch that change; a week ago giving two of those pills (of a lower dose) would have been correct. She just wasn't paying attention anymore. That particular resident is younger, has problems but still has a sharp mind. He asked her why there was an extra pill that night, and she blew him off. Said to go ahead and take them, and she'd research it and come back later. She never came back. I don't know if she realized she'd made a mistake and didn't want to deal with it or just forgot; she was in a big hurry to get out the door that night, and left about 2 1/2 hours before the end of shift.
The resident came to me and explained what happened. I looked at the records and the pills that were left in the packages and knew right away what she'd done. At that point there was no question in my mind. I had to call our supervisor. I had to step forward and put the mistake out in the open. I confirmed the resident's suspicions that he'd been given the wrong dose, and let him know I was going to call my supervisor for advice. He said he had the supervisor's phone number in his cell, so we could just call together, right then, and that's what we did. We explained to my boss what had happened together. I think it helped re-establish some trust with the resident that not all of us med techs are flippant, irresponsible jackasses.
My frenemy was put on suspension for a week, then fired. At one point the managers were talking about the possibility of letting her stay on as a caregiver, even though they didn't want her to handle medications anymore. I don't know if they gave her that option in the end or not. The resident is fine.
My coworkers are treating me differently now. One of them, one I really like, has expressed in so many words that he thinks I should have covered for her, and is treating me coldly now when he used to be very friendly. Some are labeling me as the backstabbing bitch. Most aren't saying anything to me about the whole thing, but I'm sure they're talking about it amongst themselves. A couple have let me know, in their quiet way, that they agree with my actions.
