the candy store

When in the hell are doctors going to step up and deal with the fact that far too many narcotics are being prescribed? Because they lack the courage as a group to deal with this problem, now the government is trying to step in and deal with it. Today the Obama administration announced plans today to force drug manufacturers to teach doctors about the safe use of narcotics. What a bunch of bullshit. Doctors already know exactly what they are doing when prescribing narcotics.

One good idea is to beef up prescription drug monitoring programs. In my state there is a data base that providers can access to see exactly how many scripts the patient has got in the last months.

Excuses I have heard doctors say about prescribing narcotics in ER: They just want to get rid of the patient. They don't want a confrontation. They don't want to be complained about. They figure they are only doing it once, no refills. The thing is every doctor thinks that and it goes on and on.

I hate participating in this as a nurse. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who the drug seekers are, especially the frequent flyers. It turns my stomach to give these people narcs. I honestly don't know how docs live with themselves around this issue. The whole thing is shameful.