Am i fully to blame for this or did my mentor act complacement.

[tinkerbell419]

I would be so grateful for anyone who answers this, because making me very stressed.

On my last placement in a childrens hospital, i made a medication error.

The child takes two meds both of which are the same colour. However one of them is actually for oral thrush and is to be given into the mouth on a foam stick. The other is by NG tube.

Now my mentor never bothered to tell me which one is which. In fact i didnt even know until i made the error, which i think is quite bad. Ive onyl ever seen the child have the ng tube medication, i didnt even know she had one which went in her mouth.

Anyway, i was pushin the oral thursh medication down the ng tube and her mom looked up at me and said "hang on a minute, that doesnt go down her tube, its for her mouth"

I stood there and said "oh no!, your got to be kidding me, im sorry i didnt even know what this stuff is, however its only for mouth thrush, it wont hurt her and it will just pass out of her, and she is due more later. I didnt tell my emtnor, i was frightened to death.

My mentor found out and was questioning me, i said im sorry i should have told you, but i was frightened, i dont want to be chucked off the course.

I now realise i must get over my fears and tell my mentor no matter what. I have learnt from what happened, and next time im only giving meds in the presence of another nurse.

But do you think my mentor is to blame in some respect???????

[rntim49]

Tinkerbell is obviously a troll, (dahhh I think the color was yellow dahhh) No-one is this ignorant pertaining to patient safety. It scares the stool out of me to think this may be legit. scream!!!!!

[singinRNwannabe]

I am in my last semester in my BSN program and would be horrified to even think of passing a med without personally knowing what it is and then verifying it. At my school, we can't pass meds without our clinical instructor standing right there.

If you were already an RN, you would be completely responsible, but if you ask me, personally I think that your instructor has to take some of the blame...

Let's say something really adverse happened, whose license would be at stake? Your instructors...you don't have one yet. So you would've probably gotten put out of school but meds are passed under the RN's license therefore, he would've been held responsible.

With that said, always know what you are passing to keep everyone safe; you, your RN, the patient, the hospital, etc.

Im glad nothing serious happened. We all make mistakes. Keep your head up, and see what you can learn about this situation and how to prevent it from happening again.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

i would be so grateful for anyone who answers this, because making me very stressed.

on my last placement in a childrens hospital, i made a medication error.

the child takes two meds both of which are the same colour. however one of them is actually for oral thrush and is to be given into the mouth on a foam stick. the other is by ng tube.

now my mentor never bothered to tell me which one is which. in fact i didnt even know until i made the error, which i think is quite bad. ive onyl ever seen the child have the ng tube medication, i didnt even know she had one which went in her mouth.

anyway, i was pushin the oral thursh medication down the ng tube and her mom looked up at me and said "hang on a minute, that doesnt go down her tube, its for her mouth"

i stood there and said "oh no!, your got to be kidding me, im sorry i didnt even know what this stuff is, however its only for mouth thrush, it wont hurt her and it will just pass out of her, and she is due more later. i didnt tell my emtnor, i was frightened to death.

my mentor found out and was questioning me, i said im sorry i should have told you, but i was frightened, i dont want to be chucked off the course.

i now realise i must get over my fears and tell my mentor no matter what. i have learnt from what happened, and next time im only giving meds in the presence of another nurse.

but do you think my mentor is to blame in some respect???????

if i understand correctly, you were giving meds without knowing the correct dose, route of administration and action. you were giving them by color? your mentor "never bothered to tell you which is which?" are you in a nursing program? because you're supposed to know what meds you're giving. the fact that you didn't know tells me that yes, your mentor may be too complacent. she should have quizzed you about those meds before allowing you near a patient. but you are to blame. no one else is responsible for the medications you give.

it also worries me that you made a med error, you knew you made the med error . . . and you didn't immediately seek out your mentor, tell her about the error and find out what you needed to do to ensure the patient's safety. it appears that you were more worried about "being chucked off the course" than mitigating any harm that might have come to the child because of your error.

at the risk of being accused of "eating my young," i don't think you should have passed your placement. .

[JMomBaby]

OP, please review the 5 rights of medication administration very, very carefully. Please. And remember, the worst thing that could possibly happen is that you choose to hide a medication error and the patient dies.

That is MUCH worse than being fired for admitting an error (which shouldn't happen anyway, not in any decent hospital) or being told with a stern look, "Don't do that again."

[VICEDRN, BSN, RN]

No. You and you alone are to blame. When you (eventually) administer medications under your own license, you will be responsible for the meds. It is imperative that you draw your own meds and know what you are administering. It is not uncommon in practice for an rn to dump medications and remix if she or he does not know what meds are in syringes,etc.Otherwise, the rn may ask the rn that pulled them to administer and chart the meds. On no planet should a nurse give meds she can not differentiate and has not personally drawn or seen drawn (say in a code). As for your story, it's disingenuous. How did the mother know the meds were wrong?

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

I agree: you are the one entirely responsible for this error. You are responsible for every medication you administer to the patient. "I don't know what I gave the patient" or "my mentor didn't tell me" will not fly in court or in front of the BON. Never give a med without knowing what it is. Never administer a pre-poured or pre-opened med (except in codes) because there is always the chance that nurse poured/opened the wrong meds.

If you weren't sure you should have talked to your mentor ASAP. Even if he raised his voice at you, it's still a far better outcome than the med error could have resulted in, both for you and for your patient. You're lucky in that the patient survived without harm. It could have been far worse.

As someone who has precepted, I have more respect for (and am less scared of) a preceptee that asks questions and seeks clarification--even if it's basic stuff they're asking about--than I do for those who act first and think later.

Hopefully this error won't result in your failing the class or being dismissed from your program. And hopefully you will learn from your mistake because luck won't always be there to save you. Or your patient.

[QEOLAdvocate]

Tinkerbell:

Most nursing programs require their students to look up their patient's meds and diagnosis the night before clinical, does your school not make you do that?

If your school doesn't make you do that then you should do yourself and all of your patients a huge favor and get a medication administration guide book such as Davis' Drug Handbook.

When I was in nursing school we were required to have a smartphone where we could download an aap called "nursing central" and it had 4 or 5 must have nursing guide books so we could look up drugs, diseases, and just about anything that we needed to refresh our memory.

The previous posters have already stated how serious your mistake was, please please learn from this error. I'm sure you have put in a lot of time and effort to get into your nursing program and since you were accepted into a professional school, please portray yourself as a professional.

If you get in trouble because you made an error, that is ok... a person learns by making mistakes, but don't let this mistake become a habit.

I really hope you will take everyone's advice and criticism to heart and reevaluate yourself.

--PedsOncHopeful

[locolorenzo22, BSN, RN]

YOU have a responsiblity to know what you are administering. NOT by color, by smell, by taste, etc. By what the drug name is, checking it against the MAR or medication orders, and then giving it as requested per the order. Doing anything else puts you at risk. If you do not check the order with the instructor, you should ALWAYS wait for them before giving meds. you also have a responsibility to fess up to your errors. Hopefully you learn from this, and become much more vigilant.

[sapphire18]

By taste!!:rotfl:

[crazytonurse]

I have not read but few comments, but I must say that you and you alone are responsible for this error. Your mentor should not have to hold your hand through basics such as the 6 rights of medicine administration and 3 checks especially if you were given the green light to administer meds alone, which allowed your mentor to believe that you would perform the most basics of this task. Therefore you are responsible for verify each and every medication you are given your patient, each and every time you give a med. Did you look at the MAR at all? What scares me the most is that the patients mother corrected you and instead of immediately coming forward you hid it. I'm sorry but I find it disgusting that instead of coming forward and taking responsibility, you are trying to pin this on your mentor. Wow..

[Merlyn]

Bottom line I never saw an order give yellow medicine for thrush. It would name the drug. First rule know the name of the drugs which you are giving. What they are for and by what route that you give them. Invest in a pocket drug book. Two medicine the same color the same form. you should have make the med cups. Is the kid alright most important. next time you will know. The incident scared the hell out of you . You wouldn't forget.

[Piglet08]

If this is not a troll post, which I think it is, I have to take issue with any responses that included "hopefully you won't get kicked out", because I hope anyone this ... well, words fail me. Can't be real.