Am I in big trouble?

[ThePrincessBride]

Long story short: Had a patient who was supposed to be getting surgery (both arms are broken). She was NPO. Dietary brought up a tray for her. I gave the patient the tray and helped her have a few bites. I totally had forgotten that she was NPO!

Needless to say, surgery was cancel and the RN was ticked at me (I'm a PCA). My unit has a habit of informing the nurse manager every little mistake I make (as well as everyone else's). Well this one was a big one. Should I email the nurse manager of my error before the RN does? Or wait to see what happens?

[hodgieRN]

not true, doctors may change the client diet more than once in a day. So the nurse is not to blame, the pca should just fess up, we all make mistakes

And the nurse should be aware of the fact the a tray was still ordered on a pt that was npo. I see it all the time...npo is ordered and the doc doesn't d/c the tray. It is the nurses job to cancel the tray if the doc doesn't do it b/c the NPO order supersedes everything else. It falls on the nurse who received the order at that time. If orders are changed all the time during the day, then the nurse is responsible for making sure an order happens or catching the orders that aren't supposed to happen. I still think two are to blame.