I am just beside myself tonight. I can't believe I made a medication error-I feel like such a failure! I am not even licensed yet and already I have tainted myself. I know many many nurses who have NEVER made an error-oh GOD!
It wasn't a HUGE error in the way it could have been, THANK GOD and I am not a dum dum- I was giving a prn morphine, 15mg. I gave my patient her dose. We have to get it out of our pyxis. I didn't even SEE the "other" morphine 15mg. We have FOUR- Morphine 15 mg (MS CONTIN) and Morphine 15 mg (MSIR). Same for the two 30 mg doses. I didn't even realize there was a difference. I know now that the difference is in how long the med takes to work-time released. I made the incident report and informed the patient who said "I don't care-it's a pain med". I didn't feel any better. I wanted so much to say for most of my career that I never made an error. I haven't even gotten my RN plan yet and already this. Please tell me I am not a horrible nurse. I really need some support.