I Got Played!!!

While I was in nursing school doing clinicals, I could never understand how older, experienced nurses could be so cynical and cold towards their patients…especially concerning drug seekers.  When I did my synthesis in the emergency room, the nurses would flippantly say “Oh they are just here for pain meds…they don’t really hurt!!!”  It made me mad and I couldn’t quite understand it.  The nurses would tell me that I would understand one day…
For many weeks I was caring for a patient who was in spinal precautions.  He was experiencing a lot of pain and discomfort.  Because he was in the hospital for a long time, I established a relationship with him and his wife.  I was happy to see that he was getting better and it was getting closer to the time for them to be discharged. 
The patient and his wife were so sweet and were a joy to care for.  However, I got played big time.  One day I came into work and did not have this patient.  However, I was helping my co-worker care for them.  As I and my co-worker went into the room to roll the patient over, the nurse gave him his pain meds.  The patient then did something really weird.  He took his sheet up over his head.   Then we saw his hand go up to his mouth under the blanket.   My co-worker and I looked at each other and decided we needed to figure out what was going on.  The other nurse said she was going to do her assessment.  She pulled the sheet down from his head.  The patient kept his hand closed tight.  She assessed the patient but didn’t find anything.  We rolled the patient and left the room.  As we left I realized that I had forgotten my stethoscope in the room.  I turned around and headed back into the room.  As I entered I saw the patient hand something to his wife and the wife put it in her mouth and swallowed.  When they saw me they got a really guilty look on their face.  Apparently this patient had been cheeking his pain meds and his Xanax and given them to his wife. 
I felt so mad and betrayed.  I had been played the whole entire time.  It was at that moment that I knew how nurses can become so cynical towards their patients and how they have no trust for when a patient says they are in pain.  It was a sad lesson to learn for a naïve innocent new nurse.  Time to wake up to reality I guess.