Has anyone ever screwed up passing out oral meds. I had an incident this summer that still rattles me. My clinical was in ortho neuro and it was my first clinical of the quarter. The med nurse asked me if I was handing out all of my meds, I said "yes". I go to lunch, come back, and look at the MAR. My instructor had already signed the med out for me...but on the WRONG date. I go and give the med following all of the six rights minus one. Turns out, the med nurse gave my patient's 7:00 med and then a half an hour later (written with remembering the sinking heart feeling when information was found out) I gave the same med. Luckily, it was only Pepcid, but it totally got me freaked that it could have been something that could have caused major problems for the pt. I couldn't help but get mad at both my instructor and the med nurse, but mostly I was just mad at myself for being too confident and just taking for granted that my instructor was correct when any good nurse would double check thoroughly. Any other students out there that has made any medication errors? One thing for sure, I WILL not take for granted anything regarding a patient's meds. My instructor decided to let it slide, since she felt she was partly at fault.

Thanks for those who reply.

PS. I hope you don't think I am a moron for posting this extremely shameful episode in my life. I assure you, I am not too stupid:)

No...I don't think you are stupid at all. I think you are a very concientious student that doesn't want to do wrong for her patients, and that's a good thing....

Good thing to notice......

:)

I admire the fact that you learned from it and took some of the responsibility on yourself....warrented or not.

Double check, double check, double.....

there are 3 kinds of nurses, those who have made a med error, those who are waiting to make a med error and those who lie!!!

Hmm, Jail Rn, I like that and will have to use that sometimes. Thanks

I did drop an ampule of demerol once during clinical (My instructor was making me nervous standing over me imagine that!) It broke, my instructor seemed annoyed that she had to find another nurse to open the narc cabinet and she helped me fill out a incident report. She never made me nervous again. I was so embarassed. But the end of the world did not happen that day. I realized the calmer you are your chance for error decreases.

One of the girls in my class has the benefit of a mother who went through the LPN program (we are ADN), and was relating the following story:

her mother made it through the whole program as the ONLY student who did NOT make a med error -- until the last week! In her program, students do NOT pass meds without the instructor checking them each and every time.

The moral of the story? Not ONE STUDENT IN THE PROGRAM HAS EVER MADE IT THROUGH WITHOUT A MED ERROR! Of course, all errors are caught by the clinical instructor because no meds are given without that instructor's okay. So, in effect, not ONE STUDENT IN the PROGRAM has ever GIVEN a wrong med!

Whether this applies to the ADN program or not I don't know, but just hearing that sure does humble a person!

Well I'm a RN student in the UK just going into my second year.

In my first year I have made two errors. The first was when drawing up an injection of a controlled drug - through nerves I dropped the ampoule and it smashed in the drug cupboard sink.

The second mistake I can't even believe to this day that I did. I was getting some pain medications for a child who'd had day surgery, unlocked the drugs cupboard and walked over to my mentor to get her to check the meds leaving the keys in the lock of the drugs trolley!! No-one on the ward spotted that the keys were still in the lock until a parent came over an hour later and told my mentor.

OMG, I was sooooooo mortified that I'd done something so stupid and potentially dangerous. I have no idea why I did it, but thank heavens it was in a non-acute setting and we only had 2 patients! I tell you, I'm never, ever going to make that mistake again!

Jude

When I first became a nurse, I gave a med to a resident I happened to see in his Geri Chair and I thought cool I'll catch him early and not struggle with giving his med while he is in bed. So I gave it and then went on and gave others their meds and then when I came to his room I got to his name and gave him his med...again! I realized what I was doing as the med was just being swallowed. I was freaked out!!! I called around and did all the appropriate paperwork. Nothing much became of it because the total dose given was like 50mg, and that particular resident was just lowered from 50mg at hs to 25. But that freaked me out and I totally watch what I'm doing now. I flag all my meds for the times to be given (HS, midnights) and when I give them I pull the flag back down. And I triple check everything!!! So don't feel bad we have all been there before!