Investigation: Addicted nurses steal patients' drugs

A statewide investigation by The News Leader discovered Zientek among 900 nurses publicly disciplined by the licensing board from 2007 to mid-2013 for drug theft and use at work. Key findings emerge from a yearlong examination of thousands of pages of public records, dozens of interviews with nurses and experts and days spent observing administrative hearings: •Across Virginia, scores of patients in pain during the last decade were denied necessary medication because a nurse was stealing it. •Employers struggle to catch nurses with drug problems, and when they find them don't always report the nurses to the state.