Demerol 75 mg was given IV instead of IM. Fired!!!
Is it a misconduct? I was terminated and denied unemployment insurance.
Patient was not harmed. I started practicing under my RN license of Oklahoma 7 month ago. This was my first nursing job and I relocated for it (paid my relocation twice) from Texas to OK and back, when lost the job. The real reason for termination was a snow storm and I could not drive to work from the place I lived. I called the emergency truck to pick me up. My manager was furious and called me to her office few times for another reason. I was so fearful that she is going to fire me and I made an error. The time I found about it was next day in Human Resources, when I was fired. No variance report, no calling doctor for back IV order, no disciplinary, just simply terminated for misconduct.
Word MISCONDUCT bothering me. This is just a human error, which happens every day in hospitals!!! This was a personal issue not a misconduct. So, I filed the appeal for hearing with employer. At least my OK license is still displayed current online.
It is so hard to find an employment with only 7 months of experience! I believe that my 7 months of hard work 84 hours per pay period allow me to be qualified for unemployment insurance. I am just a human who wants to work, I am not asking for welfare.
Please, advise me what to do. If anyone was in similar situation. Thank you!
Maybe it's just me but I hope anonymity is your friend here. I say delete this post and say no more about what could be interpreted as a serious medication error. Sentinel event? Possibly...
You should go quietly and thankful you're just getting let go. You really don't want anything to get to the Board of Nursing where you could find yourself fighting to keep your license.
Say nothing more on this site. Learn from your mistake and move on.
Jeez. It's like injecting insulin IV instead of SC.
Simple error=simple termination
Sorry for the misjudgement hehe LOL.
I'm in no position to assess and comment on the circumstances regarding your termination. But then again, let's make it simple.
SIMPLE ERROR=SIMPLE TERMINATION.
We are talking about medication administration here, not just documentation. Patient harm may be possible and it's only right for your hospital to initiate appropriate action regarding your MEDICATION ERROR.
Simple as that.
Here in philippines, a baby died because a nursing student infused KCL through IV PUSH instead of IV incorporation.
Errors in route of administration is a SERIOUS ERROR.
Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
No, it's not that simple.
Other people have shared, in this post and others, that they have made serious medication errors and not been terminated. There may be circumstances here the poster has not disclosed that ultimately led to her being terminated. Everything is not black and white as you state.
Of course, things may be very different in the Philippines. It's possible there a med error= termination.
Do you know for a fact that you made that error? Since you only learned about it in HR, and I know some hospitals are ruthless in firing employees. If they showed you the order, what you signed out and gave, never mind. I trained in a hospital in NM that was ordered by the Federal Court to make it's HR policies fall in line with the Constitution of the United States.
Demerol 75 mg was given IV instead of IM. Fired!!!
Is it a misconduct? I was terminated and denied unemployment insurance.
Patient was not harmed. I started practicing under my RN license of Oklahoma 7 month ago. This was my first nursing job and I relocated for it (paid my relocation twice) from Texas to OK and back, when lost the job. The real reason for termination was a snow storm and I could not drive to work from the place I lived. I called the emergency truck to pick me up. My manager was furious and called me to her office few times for another reason. I was so fearful that she is going to fire me and I made an error. The time I found about it was next day in Human Resources, when I was fired. No variance report, no calling doctor for back IV order, no disciplinary, just simply terminated for misconduct.
Word MISCONDUCT bothering me. This is just a human error, which happens every day in hospitals!!! This was a personal issue not a misconduct. So, I filed the appeal for hearing with employer. At least my OK license is still displayed current online.
It is so hard to find an employment with only 7 months of experience! I believe that my 7 months of hard work 84 hours per pay period allow me to be qualified for unemployment insurance. I am just a human who wants to work, I am not asking for welfare.
Please, advise me what to do. If anyone was in similar situation. Thank you!
Oh cr*p ...not sure you realise the implication of what you've done.
Demoral 75mg IV .... good the p't was ok this time but what if the p't was elderly or otherwise compromised ???
Things could have turned out very badly indeed.
This may be a risk management issue and management may feel they cannot trust you to have good and appropriate judgement.
Something for the OP to reflect upon: How did you respond when informed of your error? If you responded as you have here, making excuses and downplaying the seriousness of the error that may have contributed to your termination.
The managers may have felt that if you were not able to appreciate the potential danger of what you had done you were likely to continue to make errors, especially if excuse making seemed to be a pattern.
A better attitude might be to be truly contrite and discuss what actions you could take to assure that this does not happen again. Taking responsibility for your errors is the key.
Seems like a HUGE med error to me. We're being told to check our Drug Guides every time we go to give a med, because our licenses will be on the line, not the MD's. So make sure you are giving the medication in the right amount dose, route, pt., etc. etc. 3 times before you ever give it and be sure that the medication is not contraindicated in your patient. Its easy to make stupid mistakes, they happen, but med error is extremely serious. The employer is not at fault, especially if you are in an at-will state. It sucks, but there is nothing you can do except appeal to unemployment and look for a job immediately if you aren't already.
And I agree with a previous poster. Delete this immediately, you do not want to risk this coming back to bite you in the orifice later when looking for employment. If one hospital fired you because they thought you were a liability, it wouldn't be a far guess that one hospital may not hire you for the same reason. Try to rectify the situation and move on.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
wow, you guys are harsh. she made a human error. i think being fired for the first offense is wrong. we are human, we error. no one said she didn't acknowledege her error.
i made a pretty bad error a few months in as a float on a busy med-surg floor. i put a demerol pca syringe in instead of a morphine. no adverse event, except the patient was in pain, but was even on the morphine. a doctor caught my mistake. he was ok with it, but said he couldnt turn a blind eye and gave me the chance to self report. and i did. i cried to the nurse manager. she said we are all human and we error and as long as we recognize our mistake and learn from it, we should not be punished.
i'm glad i wasn't fired. i made a few small mistakes since, but i also made some pretty decent catches. i became an icu nurse and saw a caught a few patients going sour (mine and not mine) before coding and was able to fix these problems before they did code.
i was scared to become a nurse in fear of making a potenially life altering mistake. but i put that fear aside, because this world needs nurses. they do good, and are human at the same time.
i haven't read anyone being unduly harsh to the op. she made a serious mistake had has yet to aknowledge it. she was fired because of a snowstorm, her employer made her nervous . . . i'd feel much better about her if she said something like "omg! i made a huge error!" instead, she's trying to minimize it. it makes me wonder if she realizes what an enormous error she made and/or how permanent the consequences could have been. in my opinion, that's why she was fired, not because she made a single mistake and not because of the snowstorm.
everyone does make mistakes, and when someone realizes the mistake and the potential ramifications, admits it and tries to learn from it, it's far easier to forgive than when someone attempts to place the blame elsewhere and doesn't seem to "get it."
I am responding to this as I have recently posted in regards to my recent termination. I'm interested in the term "misconduct" myself because I did not commit any misconduct or a med error and was told by unemployment rep who was assisting me in filing my claim, that my employer will in all likelyhood deny my claim flat out. I think I need clear clarification on that term because I was let go due to employers claim I was late in completing a care plan. How in the world is that justification for termination, at best shouldn't it be considered a documentation error? Loosing a nursing job can be a painful experience whether unjustified or justified.
Wow. Since I will be graduating soon...this would be one of my worst nightmares! Sorry for your misfortune, OP. Hopefully things will work out for you.
I am going to open my big mouth -again. I am reading a lot of very harsh postings condeming this nurse for a med error. I don't know how else to put it. We have all made them. I don't feel the punnishment fits the crime. Remediation, Pharm course perhaps. Reading of orders review- definately. Some more time under a preceptor - good idea. Send you down to the Education dept and let them develope a stratagy with you- good idea. But termination- NO! Counceled-Yes. This is a 7 month new grad- this is not an expert nurse making one med error after another. I do think the posting are correct - the 2 relocation for a job has nothing to do with pharmacology and route of administration- the 5 R's( right patient, right drug, route of adminstration etc blah, blah) These managers are coming down on EVERYONE now adays with an iron fist. Are these managers out of control and lost their perspective on situations- Definately.Hense we are having major tradgedies in nursing( Nurses and patient)- for the nurses not being able to carry out thier responsibilites with a clear head and the saftey of the patient. The managers need to recognize this and make a conscious effort to decrease stress amongst the staff to the best of their ability- but they are not. This is their incompetence. They should be more in touch with the stress levels on their units and doing more(their job) to decreae it as much as possible. And the nurse has to control her own stress level when standing at that med cart, chart/computer station viewing orders and at a patient's bedside doing her assessments. Nursing has to control what is in our power to control- for the nurse it's her own stress level, for the nurse manager- she/he needs to control stressors on the floor that will interfer with nursing concentration and focus. That manager is just as guilty- more so. What is her/his level of experience?
Examine your situation- what was happening when you looked at that order? what was your patient assisgnment-numbers acutity levels, interruptions. some things just have to wait- priority( reviewing orders are a priority, the cll bell screaming for a bedpan is not) you must remain calm and focused looking at those orders. If you think something doesn't look right or unsure in any way, get another nurse to double check. We need to stop beating each other up.
hannahmaepunk
41 Posts
Jeez. It's like injecting insulin IV instead of SC.
Simple error=simple termination