I feel like the most incompetent nurse ever right now because of an incident that took place yesterday. I work on a Tele unit. I was on vacation for 12 days and yesterday was my first day back. I think that after being away for so long, everyone always takes a few hours to get back in the groove. Anyway, at the beginning of the shift I noticed that the section that I was assigned to had 2 empty beds and the other nurses had a full section, that means I was guaranteed at least 2 admissions. Now on a normal day I would have said something and asked for another patient so both me and the nurse beside me would have 4 patients each plus an admission. However because I was just coming back and I new the other nurses were tired, I said its no big deal, I'll do the 2 admissions.
Ok, so I got report, on one pt that we all knew because he was here for a week 2 wks ago, the night nurse told me that he was on a new "antibiotic" and it was running as we speak, I should take it down when it was finished so I agreed. After report and early morning assessment, I decided to go get all my patients' meds. I noticed the med in question (I forgot the name) and thought it did not look familiar. I made a mental note to look it up later before I administer it because it was due to be given at 2pm and it was only 8am. Also, there was none on the floor so I had to call the pharmacy to bring it up.
Anyway, the morning started to get busy, I had a transfer from the CCU, then I had another admission from the Cath Lab and to top it off they decided to discharge one of my other patients. I still had to do the other nursing duties such as administering meds, patient care, going to rounds and of course the regular dcumentations. In the midst of this, one of the pharmacists was making her rounds and I remembered the med so I went over to her and asked her if she could bring it up for me, she asked me what it was and I read it off the comp to her and she said sure, she would verify it and get it to me as soon as possibe and she did.
So now the empty bed where the discharged patient was had another patient coming up. This makes my 3rd admission! So now I'm getting overwhemed and the nurse beside me sees this and offered to do the admission paperwork for this new patient. I then went and administered the 2pm meds. I remember while administering the med, which I did not get to look up because now I'm overwhelmed, tired and hungry. I said him, "they're giving you a new antibiotic now?" and he said yes. I didn't think much of it also because this was the third dose he was receiving without any adverse reactions and he did not seem like anything was wrong with him. He was ambulating in the hallways and to the family room most of the day like he normally does. He also complained about the food and I ordered him something else. No reason for me to think something was wrong with him. No muscle pains, weakness,rashes, respiratory or cardiac distress at all.
Anyway, this morning, I'm off today, my nurse mgr calls and said the "antibiotic" was actually a paralytic used in the OR and the doctor who prescribed it prescribed it for the wrong patient. This med apparently should have never even been brought to my unit. Now this is going to be a peer reviewed case and she doesn't know what is going to happen with me and the other nurses who were involved in his care, the prescribing doctor and the pharmacists. I agree, I was wrong and I'm not making any excuses, I should have looked it up. I shouldn't have trusted what the night nurse said, not that she's a bad nurse, just that you never know. Thank God, the patient did not show any adverse reaction but I still feel lower than dirt right now.
