Another nurse got fired because of me.

[arelle68]

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?

[kcochrane]

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.

the op already stated that an old patch was found dated 10 days prior.

[kcochrane]

Our facility also requires the RN to notify a family member, as soon as possible, when an incident report is made. Of course if it is in the middle of the night, they can wait until morning - if it isn't important (i.e. skin tear). This is prior to any investigation.

As the op had mentioned time and time again, this nurse was someone who had made multiple errors and this was the last straw. Had this nurse not been making mistakes all along, this would have been a learning experience for that nurse and everyone would have moved on.

[EverNurseRN]

The op already stated that an old patch was found dated 10 days prior.

my bad...well uh in that case never mind..lol..

[nurse_clown]

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.

I thought there was something I was missing.... thanks for the clarification...:typing :)

[diane227, LPN, RN]

I would have to know more detail here. I have never terminated a nurse just because of a patient complaint. The termination must be done based on the merit of the error. First of all, did harm come to the patient? Second, did this nurse have a history of making medication errors? Were there other circumstances? Did she check the blood pressure before she gave the med? There are so many questions. Just because the nurse made a medication error does not equal grounds for termination. I would have to know more history here.

[arelle68]

Well Diane, I have to say that I have been shocked at how many people were interested in talking about this, and how intense the feeling was. I feel like I've explained myself over and over again. If I keep on, it will go on forever. Every aspect of the situation has been discussed at length on this thread. I hope you read it all before coming to a conclusion. I have had to work at defending myself. If I had known how it would be, I wouldn't have started this thread. Anyway, you can read all about it, if you are interested. I feel tired of coming back to this thread to explain it, and be misunderstood, and then falsely accused (not that you would do any of that), and having to defend myself some more, so I'm just going to stop. The thread can go on without me. It seems to have a life of it's own!

[sirI, MSN, APRN, NP]

OP has shared in detail, the events surrounding the firing and there has been good discussion.

Agree, the thread has run its course and is now closed.