Reporting med errors...

Nurses Medications

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So I commited my first med error, I feel horrible and own up to it. I pushed glucagon via IV instead of I'm into a hypoglycemic patient. This error did not result in any adverse reactions to the patient. I reported this incident to my charge nurse and filed an incident report with risk management. As a result of this incident, I've been informed by my nurse mgr that I may be terminated and should know something by this Monday. So, I'm curious, how many of you nurses out there would fess up and report a med error if it meant possibly losing your job?

Specializes in Emergency Room, Trauma ICU.

I had a coworker who gave a bolus of heparin (500 mL) rather than a bolus of hespan...to a patient in the ICU who was on her way to surgery. Luckily the anesthesiologist noticed and didn't perform the surgery as she would have bled out immediately. This nurse didn't get fired.

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I am thinking about trying out nursing school a second time but it is so troublesome to realize that I am human and I will make a med error at some point jn my career.. it makes me feel like crap! I dont know how I would ever get over making one.. and I do make mistakes I will admit that I did something wrong whether I want to or not.. it just slips out! I wish I was perfect because I care so much about my patients and I have such a big heart I just dont know if I would ever forgive myself. How do you not second guess yourself and how do you not bring the stress home with you from work? I think to myself that there is a lot of fields of nursing out there for me to find my niche but every one of them requires that I pass out meds... feeling kinda freaked out over here! I am a med tech and I made one med error (giving meds to the wrong patient) which I felt so horrible for and I still do. But I got fired for it. I was giving meds to 50 patients twice in 8 hours being a med tech fresh out of school. So getting fired made me feel even more like crap and depressed and guilty! Any advice for self coping or on this topic? Ill take any suggestions

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Jl8708

i just want to tell you that you are not alone. I made a mistake with insulin today because of my inexperience, thankfully the patient was not hurt. I was such in a hurry that I was cutting corners.

all I can tell you is pray pray pray and tell someone you know about it. It helps instead of bottling it up inside.

This too will pass.

in a way I realized how I need to not cut corners and how I have to find another less hectic facility to train with. I can not train where I have to pass meds on 30 patients within 2 hours when I've only been a nurse for 3 months.

goodluck with you and I am always here if you need someone to talk to. ;)

Please do not hesitate.

we will get through this I promise you.

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Awwww! Thank you!:) I really appreciate it and that almost brought me to tears of joy knowing someone cares and understands and is supportive:) I just got accepted into a nursing school so I will put this behind me. I am just going to look forward to when I can work for a facility that delegates a reasonable amount of work to their workers (which is not a whole lot of places it seems). I am glad I joined this site that I can share my experiences with people who truly understand what it is like. I just want to get to the point where I am a competent and confident and efficient nurse that makes a big difference in people's lives (and I also love the science of it). It is what I always wanted to do.

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I reported myself for a med error 3 weeks ago. I almost immediately recognized the error (pt got maybe 30 cc's of another pt's antibiotic). I felt so awful. I had to report it to the charge nurse immediately. I felt like the lowest form of life on earth, especially knowing this pt was A&Ox3, and super-anxious about everything. It kicked my tail to walk in his room and tell him I'd screwed up. It was the worst feeling on the planet. He hugged me, reassured me, and made me feel semi-better. Chagrined and overly-anal from now on, but better.

Imagine my surprise to get pulled by our nurse liaison 3 weeks later to sign "paperwork". I imagined all sorts of things, but never the med error. It was a hard lesson learned, a horrible moment in nursing. I was given an essay to write. And the liaison said, "They know med errors are happening. I don't know why she's asking this of you."

I pulled my newest orientee last night when she walked by. I'd seen an odd bottle of abx hanging on a pt's IV pole. I pulled it down and showed it to my trainee, one who knew what I'd just been through. "What's the name on this bag?" She told me the pt's name on the bag, and I pointed out my snoring pt. Not the same pt. You can be honest in nursing, and you can get hurt by it.

I'll still be honest, and will still advocate for my pts. But when you're penalized for speaking up? It makes it a lot harder to do so in the future.

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I've only been a RN for 3 months and have made 2 errors. Missed a scheduled eye drop once and didn't give a scheduled, oral medications to a pt being discharged to home. Spoke with my manager about it and she said she had made more than one error. One involved giving the 20u of Humalog when the order was for 20u of Lantis. Far more mistakes are made than are reported...I've seen it. Until we are replaced by robots, errors will occur. And if robots do replace us, the robots will make mistakes. You should be fine.

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

I have made med errors and reported myself each time. My most recent was several weeks ago. I caught it immediately, called the pharmacist, called the MD, called my preceptor (I was on orientation) who then called the supervisor. Luckily the patient was alright. They did not terminate me, but I chose to leave that job. It was not a good fit.

I was always told in nursing school that nurses tell on themselves. And I take that very seriously. I'm not perfect, but my job doesn't come before someone's safety. I can never prevent every single med error; that is not in my control. But I can control what I do if it happens. If they choose to terminate me, okay, I can get another job and do better in the future.

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Specializes in Transitional Nursing.

If i knew ahead of time that I would lose my job and no harm came to the patient I think I would probably keep it to myself. Especially since reporting med errors shouldn't be punitive but a learning experience.

That being said, I wouldn't want to work for a facility that would handle things that way.

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
On 1/30/2019 at 10:11 AM, Glycerine82 said:

If i knew ahead of time that I would lose my job and no harm came to the patient I think I would probably keep it to myself. Especially since reporting med errors shouldn't be punitive but a learning experience.

That being said, I wouldn't want to work for a facility that would handle things that way.

Exactly. You don't want to work for a facility that treats you as expendible. So my advice to everyone out there: Do not cut corners when administering meds. Report every error, so that any ill effect can be promptly mitigated and any systems issue be identified and dealt with. You don't need to be infallible; it's not realistic. Just be conscientious and have integrity, so you can live with yourself, no matter what happens.

If a facility fires you for making an error, consider it a gift. The fallout for having a punitive error policy will lead to unreported and unmitigated errors and an eventual ruinous lawsuit. Leave them to it and don't look back.

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