A recent FOX6 investigation shows Wisconsin nurses impaired by prescription narcotics are putting patients at risk.
Here are five things to know about the investigation and its findings.
1. After reviewing state discipline records, FOX6 found 104 Wisconsin nurses have been disciplined in the last two years for either stealing narcotics or being high or drunk on the job.
2. According to FOX6, a visiting nurse for a Milwaukee hospital stole pills from her cancer patients, and another nurse said she took eight Vicodins a day and would remove Fentanyl patches from patients' bodies.
3. In addition, a nurse at another Milwaukee hospital would shoot up at work with Fentanyl and Dilaudid. A nurse also removed morphine from vials and then, without using gloves, refilled them with water. According to FOX6, more than 40 patients were affected and five got bacterial infections. In one case, a patient died.
4. In response to the investigation, Steven Rush, a nurse and vice president of workforce and clinic practice at Wisconsin Hospital Association, told FOX6 that WHA is "proactively looking at this."
5. Mr. Rush also told the television station nurses aren't immune to the U.S. trend of skyrocketing abuse of prescription drugs, especially pain medicine and opiates, although he did admit they have more access.
6. According to the FOX6 report, nurses have access, but they also have a more difficult time now stealing drugs. Some hospitals don't allow them to touch a narcotic unless they use your fingerprint, and pharmacies and computerized machines routinely audit medicine cabinets, the report notes.
"That is stressed at the time of new hires, talking about this," Mr. Rush said, according to FOX6. "These are things that we are observing, not could observe."
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