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?

[Scrubby]

I would never disclose a colleagues name to a family member like you did, it's completely unethical and quite frankly I would not want to work with someone who could do this. What if a crazed family member decides to take retribution and meet that nurse in the car park or at their home? You've just given them their identify! This may sound a little over the top but I've heard some pretty out there stuff here on allnurses about nurses being harassed and even physically assaulted.

And unless the patient was dying of a drug related error and it was an emergency I would ALWAYS give the nurse the opportunity to admit to their mistake first, rather than dobbing them in.

[arelle68]

Honestly, I don't think I would have written that up. That being said, I find it hard to believe that the nurse was fired over just this one incident you describe. You stated it was a resident, so I am assuming this is LTC (correct me if I am wrong)? Unless LTC is very different from acute care nursing, no manager I have ever had would ever fire a nurse because of one family's complaints.

I wouldn't be so quick to do a write-up in the future. We all make mistakes. The next one could be yours. Would you want to be hung out to dry by one of your co-workers?

The write up was not at my discretion. It is required that we write up every med error we find as an incident. I called my RCM about it, and she told me to do it, and to save the old patch for her as evidence.

[arelle68]

i would never disclose a colleagues name to a family member like you did, it's completely unethical and quite frankly i would not want to work with someone who could do this. what if a crazed family member decides to take retribution and meet that nurse in the car park or at their home? you've just given them their identify! this may sound a little over the top but i've heard some pretty out there stuff here on allnurses about nurses being harassed and even physically assaulted.

what makes you think i did that?

and unless the patient was dying of a drug related error and it was an emergency i would always give the nurse the opportunity to admit to their mistake first, rather than dobbing them in.

i didn't know what to do. i wasn't in charge. i was acting on my manager's orders. i did what she told me.

[Scrubby]

I didn't know what to do. I wasn't in charge. I was acting on my manager's orders. I did what she told me.

I have a habit of reading threads backwards, start from the last page and work my way to the first post. Several posts further back have mention that YOU gave the identity of the nurse to the family. I think you really need to clarify this.

[arelle68]

that information should be private. no matter what, you should not have been privy to it. this situation sounds hinky to me.

well, word gets around.

i'm sure we've all worked with "im always right" nurse nancy that loves to report what others do wrong. not saying this is the case but it sure sounds like it might be, imo.

not always right. hated doing it.

why not just put the darned patch on the patient and let it go?

that was not my call. i called my manager, and then did what she said.

we have a similar med error report policy but no way would one of the floor nurses be the one to call. even tho the policy doesnt specify, a med error should always be immediately reported to the supervisor. at that point, she takes over and does the notifying. at no time should the nurse making the error been identified to the family. the point of reporting it to the family is to say "we" (as in the facility, not the individual nurse) made a med error and are working to correct it.

i wish the manager had, however, the incident report filer has to make the call. that's just how they do it.

yep, this surely sounds hinky to me.

not a happy situation for me, either.

[abcdwakwak]

Sorry but I think it's unethical to confront the family first. In nursing school, they told us to tell the nurse manager first. Or if you're really kind enough, you should tell the nurse first. It's a tough economy, you wouldn't want the same thing happening to you.

[Scrubby]

Sorry but I think it's unethical to confront the family first. In nursing school, they told us to tell the nurse manager first. Or if you're really kind enough, you should tell the nurse first. It's a tough economy, you wouldn't want the same thing happening to you.

I think they did call their manager who then told them to call the family.

Arelle-I would still like to know if you disclosed the identity of the nurse to the family.

[arelle68]

I am a very new nurse, and didn't know about the unwritten protocol of calling the other nurse first. When things come up, and I don't know what to do, I call my manager. That is what I did on this night, and then I did what she told me.

We always call the family regarding any incident report. I didn't tell the family which nurse. I told my manager. I filed the report on her orders, which included calling the family. The DON called me the next day, and asked me who the nurse was, and I told her. Believe me, if the family had known who it was, the DON wouldn't have been asking me who it was!

[arelle68]

Sorry but I think it's unethical to confront the family first. In nursing school, they told us to tell the nurse manager first. Or if you're really kind enough, you should tell the nurse first. It's a tough economy, you wouldn't want the same thing happening to you.

I called the nurse manager first. Was instructed by the manager to file an incident report. The family was then called as part of incident protocol.

[arelle68]

regardless, the op should have never ever told the family who made the error!

i would really like to know where you got this idea.

if i were the fired one, i would contact a lawyer, get a copy of the med error policy/procedure and if it doesnt specify to notify the family of the nurse making the error..i would report her to the board and sue her. she threw her under the bus. plain/simple imo. i would respond with legal action. oh yes, i would.

the policy is that the family is to be notified that the error was made. i followed protocol.

[arelle68]

yes! why not call her first? if you are going to take the time to call the family, then investigate the error first! imo, notifying the family should be the last thing done after the investigation is complete.

it's not my job to investigate incidents. that is for managers to do. i was instructed by management to file the report. calling the family is part of the protocol for filing the incident report. it was a bad thing to have to do. i wish someone else could have done it.

i charted all day saturday as the date was august 7 because i had the date wrong. i had to go back and fix it all. what if i missed a chart? someone going to call the family and report something i did or didnt do as an error before asking me? if thats the case, then the nurse is lucky she got fired. who'd want to work for a place like that anyway.

threw her under the bus indeed, regardless of her history is my opinion.

i didn't mean to be mean to anybody. i didn't know they would fire her. how could i know? i doubted they would even write her up. anyway, i am honor and duty bound to follow policy and procedure, and orders from my manager, and that is what i did. i am trying really hard to do everything that is required and expected of me.

she should have been called before calling the family.

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.

[Scrubby]

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.

thankyou for clarifying that you didn't tell the family who it was. my apologies for my comments earlier, i read some posts further back and assumed you did.

anyway i personally would have confronted the nurse and told them about the error, would say to her that this has to be reported but i think that it's better for you to admit to it rather than me. this is showing professional courtesy to them by giving them change to fess up to management (possibly saving their job) and letting them know that your not going to lie to cover their orifice.