Today was my first day back at work in a month - although to call it "work" would be a bit of a lie. Instead I'm on a two day course concerned with reading ECGs, this is easy for me as I spent eight years as an A+E nurse taking and reading perhaps 20 ECGs a day. So instead I caught up on some of the gossip from West Ham via my crewmate who is also on the course. However the most exciting bit of gossip came not from him, but instead from an old friend of mine.
The center in which this course is run, is also where the new trainee EMTs are trained, and I was surprised when I saw a receptionist from one of the hospitals that I worked in wearing the trainee "boiler-suit". When I asked her if there was any news from the hospital she told me of one of the sisters being sentenced for six months in prison!
When I was still working there, some Pethidine went missing, Pethidine is a "Controlled drug" as it is a powerful opioid, in America it is better known as Demerol and is often abused. When this drug went missing the sister in question blamed agency nurses - this apparently happened on a number of occasions and the police were eventually called in. It then transpired that this sister had been faking patient documentation in order to feed her habit. Now her marriage (to a policeman) has ended, her four children have been taken, she is spending the next six months in prison and she has lost her job.
The judge commented that although her friends had been witnesses to her good character, she tried to blame them as soon as she took the stand; also she had abused the trust given her by both patients and other staff.
Now if you had asked me which member of staff would have taken the the drugs, she wouldn't have even been on the list.
Just goes to show, you never know who to trust...