Another nurse got fired because of me.

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I discovered a pretty serious medication error last week, (Signed, but not given. Involving blood pressure.) and had to file an incident report. I called the resident's family per protocol. The resident's daughter told me something like, "Well, I'll take care of it. I can guarantee you this won't happen again!" Apparently she did, because I got to work today, and found out that the nurse had been fired. It's a tough economy, and I hate to see anyone lose their job right now. I know I had to do what I did, but I feel bad for this nurse. Anyone can forget to do something sometimes. How am I supposed to feel about this?

I was reported and written up for a med error by another nurse. Recently, in fact. The med error actually, was debatable and my supervisor said that it was more of a learning experience than anything. I accepted responsibility for my part. And, I wasn't the only one who made the same error. Interestingly enough, that same nurse also had trouble for refusing do check a residents blood glucose level. I'm not sure if she was written up for that error. But that was by far, more serious than the error I was written up for.

In another incident, I was very upset when a resident had fallen from a mechanical lift. There was two PSW's present when the accident occured. Apparently, one of the mechanical lift sling connectors had become loose and the resident fell through during a transfer from bed to the wheelchair. The family was very upset. Some of the registered staff had actually blamed one of the PSW's and had a "***** session" with that family member. Firstly, that kind of negativity is not therapeutic for the family. And it was not supportive of the PSW staff who work hard everyday. The connector became disconnected because the slings haven't been inspected in a long long time and they should have.

Are there better ways to handle a situation and inform the families without adding "fuel to the fire" to an already volatile situation?

Nurses are people. People do make mistakes. I am curious. What did you tell the family? Did you tell the family that it was a medication error and did you tell the family member who made the error? I would not have named names even if the family had asked. That decision should have been made by the facility admin and their lawyers. The nursing staff is a "team." Unfortunately, if one nurse looks bad, the whole team looks bad. What benefit would it have been to name the name of the Registered Staff that made a mistake? Although, I don't think that one medication error would be just cause to fire someone and perhaps she had made a few more errors. I'm just wondering why you gave them the name of the erroneous nurse knowing already that the family would already be upset at the error in the first place.

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southernbeegirl,

You asked me what my coworkers think. This seems to be the general consensus: They are relieved not to have to be covering up this nurse's mistakes all the time anymore, and say that I did the right thing. This error was just the last straw. They say that .I didn't get her fired, that she got herself fired for a multitude of reasons.

I'm glad you weren't personally blamed for reporting the mistake of another. It can sure make a person feel bad. It happened to me once. One of the RPN's was taking the residents meds and narcotics home with him, instead of administering it to the residents. He also falsified a doctor's order by writing on an already transcribed order. I left him a sticky note asking him to please redo the order properly and i'd be happy to cosign it. It turned out the verbal order was not given by the doc and the order to increase the percocet from 1 every 6 house to 2 every 4 hours. I mean IF the doc gave the verbal order, FINE. He gave the order and all is well. But, you can't make one up and expect me to cosign it. i only left the sticky note and he was caught. It wasn't me who did wrong. But boy did I feel guilty!!!

Mistakes and errors happen. We HAVE to learn from them in order to improve services and strive for the best reputation.

take it easy!

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
a lot of this flack i'm catching is because everyone is paranoid and freaked out at the thought of losing their jobs right now. they've found a safe way to express that...picking on me on a website thread where everyone is protected by faceless anonymity and pseudonyms. it is really ok with me. i know that what i did was right, and that my residents are safer because i was honest about it. i would do it again.... now, back to your nursing news:

medical mistakes will kill 200k this year: report!

good for you! good attitude.

some of us, though are continuing to comment in the hope that other new nurses learn something from your situation.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
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i'd expect a co-worker whom i followed regularly to have an idea whether i habitually screw up, take the easy way out or shirk work . . . or not. and if i was an otherwise solid, reliable worker who made a one-time error, i'd appreciate the opportunity to contact the supervisor and tell her myself. if i was someone who habitually spent my shift at the desk eating bon bons while everyone else ran their tails off, perhaps i'd deserve to get written up and subsequently fired.

as far as your suggestion that the op talk to the bosses about the ramifications of firing the co-worker -- probably not a good idea.

i think this is really the crux of it-- there are people i would trust with my own life, who could've made a mistake like that, wouldn't change a thing. then there are those who are so on the edge of incompetence that i would consider it a blessing that i found that mistake, the one that sent her out the door before she killed someone. sounds like ops co-worker was of the latter stripe.

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People respond to these posts from their own experience. Everyone's experience is different, thus the different viewpoints.

It should be valuable to know that different facilities treat incident reports differently - and you can't know how they really deal with them until you're involved, because what they say they do, and what they really do are sometimes different.

I think the most important information for new nurses reading through this is just don't rush into anything. Unless there is harm to the patient, wait till you really understand the culture you're in, before acting.

Many of us responded from a place of, it stinks to get written up without the opportunity to self-examine. Especially if you work in a punitive environment, as I do.

Also, many of us are working under gigantic stress, usually way understaffed, and now morale is low d/t lack of forthcoming raises, cuts in beneftis, etc, etc. I often go home greatful, extremely greatful, that nobody died. When I see small things left from the previous shift, I try more than ever to assume they were as overwhelmed as I was, and just try to make it right, hoping they will do the same for me.

Honestly, whether or not a med error warrants an incident report is a case-by-case basis. Personally I don't have time to do them unless I feel it's absolutely necessary. It's a judgement call we might not like making, and management may not think we should be making it, but we have to use critical thinking and priortize it like everything else.

It sounds like you are at peace with your decision.

Thank you for bringing this here; I'm sure it gave many people constructive food for thought.

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did you tell the family member who made the error? I would not have named names even if the family had asked. That decision should have been made by the facility admin and their lawyers. The nursing staff is a "team." Unfortunately, if one nurse looks bad, the whole team looks bad. What benefit would it have been to name the name of the Registered Staff that made a mistake? I'm just wondering why you gave them the name of the erroneous nurse knowing already that the family would already be upset at the error in the first place.

She has stated in previous posts that she only called the family because she was ordered to do so, and she did not give the name of the other nurse involved.

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a lot of this flack i'm catching is because everyone is paranoid and freaked out at the thought of losing their jobs right now. they've found a safe way to express that...picking on me on a website thread where everyone is protected by faceless anonymity and pseudonyms. it is really ok with me. i know that what i did was right, and that my residents are safer because i was honest about it. i would do it again.... now, back to your nursing news:

medical mistakes will kill 200k this year: report!

i think you and i might generally do things differently...

that being said,

i think you're kind of a rock star.

:cheers:

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.
good for you! good attitude.

some of us, though are continuing to comment in the hope that other new nurses learn something from your situation.

so you are basically telling new nurses not to follow the p&p of the facility in which they work.

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good for you! good attitude.

some of us, though are continuing to comment in the hope that other new nurses learn something from your situation.

so you are basically telling new nurses not to follow the p&p of the facility in which they work.

don't see how you get that from what you quoted. :uhoh3:

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Some very smooth to read literature on the general topic can be found in:

Foundations of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing, A Clinical Approach, Fifth Edition.

Saunders Elsevier

Chapter 8: Legal and Ethical Guidelines for Safe Practice

Excellent source for all practice not just psych! Note beginning specifically with pg. 130 header "Guidelines for Nurses Who Suspect Negligence" deals with peers, and what to do.

Many nursing students have this reference book. I've tabbed this chapter so I can refer later if need be.

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Ok. To the op. You did what you were instructed to do. Facilities have to notify families of errors plain and simple. My facility makes us notify for ANYTHING...Med change, bruise, new orders anything we have to call. You did nothing wrong. Dont feel bad cause that nurse got fired. It obviously was the last straw. BUt even if it wasn't she made an error. plain and simple. I would have done the same thing (if i had time to write it up).

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Specializes in LTC.
i didn't know that i was supposed to do that. i'm just an ignorant new grad. no one told me. what could she had done, anyway? she couldn't go back in time 5 days, and put the patch on. she couldn't undo her initials on the mar. her name was not disclosed to the family by me.

was there a patch anywhere at all on this patient? if you found this 'error' 5 days after it was supposed to be placed, (perhaps it was time for the new one?), umm, isn't it possible that the patch fell off during care/patient itched it off? if the nurse had totally forgotten to put the patch on, it's likely that there would've been a patch from 10 days prior still on the patient since if she didn't put a new one on, she probably didn't remove the last...

i had a patient who wore scopolamine patches behind her ears, we'd alternate sites every 3 days l-r-l-r etc..and she almost never had an old patch on to remove because she'd pick it off and stick it to her siderails or table or something...we notified the md and got n.o. because the pt wouldn't leave the patch on.

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