Bullied for reporting a med error by another nurse

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lindseylpn

420 Posts

Where I work some people seem to be afraid or more likely they are too lazy to fill out an incident report for a med error. Our policy is to fill out an incident report as soon as the med error is discovered. We have bubble packs that are timed and dated so, it's easy to see when a med was missed. I'll come in and so and so will say "oh btw, there's an extra pill in the pack from a few days ago someone missed" Of course no one has filled out a report yet so, I'll do it. I've filled out incident reports on other nurses, med aides and myself. Med errors happen....

Occasionally we will find a loose pill in the med box that isn't in a bubble pack and just waste it without filling out a report, there's no telling when or if it was missed or just an extra pill got packed etc..

Where I work some people seem to be afraid or more likely they are too lazy to fill out an incident report for a med error. Our policy is to fill out an incident report as soon as the med error is discovered. We have bubble packs that are timed and dated so, it's easy to see when a med was missed. I'll come in and so and so will say "oh btw, there's an extra pill in the pack from a few days ago someone missed" Of course no one has filled out a report yet so, I'll do it. I've filled out incident reports on other nurses, med aides and myself. Med errors happen....

Occasionally we will find a loose pill in the med box that isn't in a bubble pack and just waste it without filling out a report, there's no telling when or if it was missed or just an extra pill got packed etc..

I know some hesitate to fill out incident reports for fear of punishment. Not all places use them to fix problems they'll just replace the Nurse instead.

StaffNurseMcS

12 Posts

right I didn't realise this post had got so huge. I guess i should clarify things.

Firstly thank you to all of you that said positive things :) and yes I forgot what name I was using haha

To the people calling me a snitch, The drug was a controlled drug transdermal patch and what was on my patient the day I went in certainly did not match the prescription sheet and there were adverse effects on my patient. Do I turn a blind eye to that? No I certainly can not. I take huge offence to being called nosy. My patient was given a double dose of what she was meant to have and i rectified the situation. When it comes to controlled drug errors it's pretty serious and has to be reported. May I also add my co-worker wasn't named in my incident report our reports are anon. so whoever told her the incident had been reported must have known she had done it. I didn't feel good about doing it I genuinely felt guilty. I previously turned a blind eye to an IV antibiotic error that could of potentially been quite bad if not caught and didn't report it, it was dealt with on the floor by myself and the case manager but theres only so many times that can happen without patient safety being seriously compromised.

Thankfully I now no longer work in that ward.

@CSARmedic you really have your priorities as a nurse all wrong if you see patient safety as an escape route for nurses.

StaffNurseMcS

12 Posts

No action was taken when it should have been one example was a patient fell in the morning shift this wasn't handed over to me in the late shift it wasn't documented the only reason I found out was when the dr told me to do neuro obs I asked why and was then told. The patient sustained a fracture. You would need to work in our ward to understand that management are the main issue in everything.

If you are bullied or shunned for reporting errors, you have a culture issue. I would ask to see your culture of safety scores and inquire is something is being done about it. How can things be fixed if no one knows about it? It's a rare case in a just culture that someone willfully makes an error. Usually there's a system issue involved. No one will report until the culture changes and that has to come from the top down.

Linka

33 Posts

Specializes in Stepdown telemetry, vascular nursing..

Yes, I have experience with your situation.

I was on nigh shift, I received report from a nurse (at bedside), and after a while I went in to do the patient's vital signs. Well, I noticed his food tray intact and about 5 different pills in a transparent pill cup on the food tray. I was wondering what to do, because on one hand I wish the patient had gotten his pills (coreg 25, lasix40 or something like that), but on the other hand I knew it would not be right for me to give them at this point. I consulted with the charge nurse and she told me to throw the pills away and fill out an incident report. Apparently, the same day the same nurse left a syringe with medication attached to the tubing for another patient.

Next day, the charge nurse went up to the nurse and scolded her for her actions, which was completely unprofessional. Of course, the nurse comes up to me and asks me what happened, and told me that the charge nurse scolded her etc; ugh :banghead: like can we just get over it and give me report? thanks. The nurse in question proceeds to tell me "she didn't know this was the place people went after each other", and "patient wanted to wait until finished eating and take his pills with food", and "next time I guess I can let my other patients fall but witness these ones take their pills" "I wish you can come to day shift and see how crazy it gets":nono:

We continued being cordial after that, and she ended up quitting.

It bugs when managers or charge nurses do not know how to act in these situations.

Mas Catoer

77 Posts

Specializes in General.

It raises a question on my side. It could probably be caused by the culture about patient safety hasn't yet well established in your department? Reporting error is a must. If you're then bullied yet the issued wasn't followed up then it is.

paroxetina

15 Posts

I'm confused, are you and StaffNurseMcS the same person??

I love when people post from an alternate account for privacy reasons, and then reply from the main account :)

paroxetina

15 Posts

It's a punitive process, no matter what management says.

This may be the case at your hospital, but not at mine. Unless there is a pattern of egregious errors without improvement, it is never punitive.

I hate finding med errors, because we are legally obligated to report them. I've had to report a few, and I've made a few myself. If it's something I can fix without reporting it, I try to....but if there is nothing you can do about it, you have no choice but to report it.

Ha! Our current manager always wants to be the good guy. Someone was just fired, and the next day the nurse called me and told me that management told her she was out of there because I had reported something she did, which is an outright lie. And there is nothing I can do about it. I work for a bunch of backstabbing witches. I'm sick thinking a single mother with kids to support thinks she lost her job because of ME.

Specializes in PICU, Pediatrics, Trauma.
Our hospital policy is that every med error must have an incident report completed. It is not a punitive process, but it is important that they be completed in order to improve our patient care processes.

This is true in theory, but it has come back to bite me in the butt on one occasion with one employer. I believe it is the right thing to do, but you need to be careful in how and what you say in the reports.

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