Ritalingate

I generally try to keep the personnel politics out of this blog, just as I try to ignore them in real life, but, here they come. I was off one day last week, and made the mistake of looking at my phone after lunch. I had a missed call from one of my elementary schools, and I couldn't help but feel the need to check my voicemail. It was from Spitfire Diabetic's school, and her teacher had called me that morning (and apologized profusely for doing so when she discovered I was off) to let me know she'd been at the hospital the day prior. Concerned, I started listening to the voicemail only to discover it was another nurse covering for me: "Um...'ADD kid's' Ritalin is missing and I'm just wondering where you put it. The log says that you had it last and it's not in the cupboard..." and on and on it went. Annoyed, I called her back and was going to let her know that I put it back in the cupboard where it belongs, and instead was met with a long spiel about how she'd talked to our coordinator already, who said we'd have to re-examine our medication administration procedures, among other things. It was clear, by the tone of her voice, and what she was saying, that she didn't believe I put the medication back in the cabinet. I was frustrated and angry that someone - a co-worker - would have the audacity to seemingly accuse me of stealing Ritalin. I went home that afternoon to find two emails from the same co-worker, again repeating that she couldn't find the Ritalin, and that I was the last one to touch it.

 

I woke up early and went to search the medication cabinet to no avail. The coordinator made a call to the district office on my behalf letting them know a bottle of Ritalin was missing, and they told me I would need to inform the principal and assist her in reporting a "theft" to the police. I was still insulted by the whole ordeal, but moving on with my day when I pulled out another kid's medication at lunch time only to find the missing Ritalin bottle behind his in the same cubby. Eureka! Luckily this happened prior to any police report, and luckily for the co-worker, she was nowhere near me when I made the discovery. To say I was perturbed that she had a) basically accused me of stealing Ritalin, b) didn't see it herself when she had been giving the other kid his medicine, and c) blown it so out of proportion on my day off when it was something that could have waiting until the next day would be an understatement.

 

Like toileting His Majesty, there were some good take-home lessons from this nightmare. 1) Trust thyself. Of course I put the medication back in the cabinet. Granted, I put it in the wrong cubby, but that's a pretty honest and easy mistake to make. But I NEVER leave it out on the counter for someone to grab, the bottle is only ever in two places: my hands or the medicine cabinet. I would have saved myself a day of stress had I trusted myself a bit more. 2) It was very interesting to hear the reactions of others. The principal, my trusty health clerk, and the coordinator were along the lines of, "I have no doubt you put it back, and it's either lost in the medicine cabinet or someone stole it. You did nothing wrong, I believe you." The co-worker and site secretary's words went something more like this: "You signed off on it on Tuesday. It's missing Wednesday. What did you do with it?" Ouch - but at least I had the satisfaction of showing it was in fact in the medicine cabinet the entire time, just as I'd been insisting on.