How do you deal with mistakes

[LookForward]

Ive been working for a year, and one of the things I realize--and hard to admit--is I will make mistakes (which I already have)...

I recently made another one, which made me physically sick. It was a busy morning with a lot of calls. in the middle of all these, a transporter came..I ended up sending a pt to a swallow study before surgery....so the procedure was unnecessarily delayed. I was so mad at myself...

how do you deal with the mistakes you've made?

[0.adamantite]

I did something similar once. I send a patient to a small bowel follow-through while they were on aspiration precautions. The fluoroscopy people tried to get the patient to swallow the contrast. I didn't realize that this was going to happen, I assumed they would place an NG tube. It was a mistake on the doctor's part, my part, and the radiologist part. Nothing happened to the patient luckily.

Immediately after the mistakes I make, I need a few moments to re-group. Sometimes I will ask to take a 15 minute short break. It can be hard for me to go on with the rest of my shift, but I know I need to. Then afterwards I will sometimes talk to a mentor or do a review of what happened and figure out why, and what I can do to prevent it in the future. I report the mistake. I feel like a fool for a long time, but eventually I know I have to move on. It helps to keep my perspective that my job is just a part of my life, and doesn't define me or who I am. I have a family who loves me and activities outside of work that keep me occupied and give meaning to my life. I also carry my own malpractice insurance, which gives me peace of mind.

[Havin' A Party!, ASN, RN]

We all have to learn to not beat ourselves up for mistakes... which typically happen because of our environment.

Everyone's been imposed upon to do more and more and more... oftentimes with less and less resources. It's a formula for errors.

Actually, it's really a system prob.

Keep your head high. You're human. Anyone who dares to bash you has zero understanding of the current world of nursing.

Sadly, many believe it's only gonna worse over time.

And don't buy the notion that being computerized will make things better. All the time saved through technology will likely result in even greater demands and expectations that will exceed those time savings.

Moreover, the PC will make it much easier for management to discover all that nurses failed to do or to complete during their shifts.

Good luck!

[ArtClassRN, ADN, RN]

Don't worry, the more you make the easier they are to deal with!