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!
Also unless you worked prior to this 7 months, I believe you would not get unemployment anyway as you do not have enough quarters worked. So appeal it and find out their real reason. Even if you missed too much work as long as you called in .... you still can get unemployment on appeal. You get denied based on their reason, right or wrong but if you appeal you find out the reason and can discuss with appeal person.
First I was denied because I was not monetary eligeble. In April I became eligeble, but denied because separation issue with employer due to misconduct. I hope that med error is not a misconduct. I didnot miss any day of work, never being late. I worked so hard, why is insurance not available to working people in this country?
of course, i have remorse and i cry. i would never guess that any nurse who made an error did not do the same. people are so harsh judging without having enough information. my question was about misconduct, but i didn't deliver it properly. i am from foreign country, trying to catch my american dream - job, please forgive me for all my mistakes. i didn't mean to do that. i am not asking for welfare, i just want unemployment insurance which i deserved working hard, till i find a new job. my hearing date will be on may 5. my friend consulted with online lawyer. he said that employer has to prove misconduct. i know that medication variance reporting must be done with med. error. i was not offered one. just simply fired. thank you for your support.
I used to work in a casino, and made an error in payout...which violated P&P. So no unemployment for me, as it was considered misconduct due to a failure to follow P&P. That was my first error in payouts in nearly two years of working there, but they didn't care. It sucked getting fired, but I couldn't really argue with it.
Not knowing your work history, I can't really comment on whether or not it was unduly harsh for you to be fired over this med error. I will say that in my experience at my facility, if an exemplary employee made a similar error they would likely go through some kind of remediary program and put on probation so to speak...if there was a history of other issues, firing would not be out of the question.
You have to own this and learn from it. The 5R's got drilled in our heads in nursing school for a reason. I have seen pts die from med errors, regardless of if there was no harm this time, failing to follow P&P with med administration is extremely risky. Any time an error such as this occurs, the nurse needs to figure out why it happened and take steps to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
wow, i have to agree with the op - what a bunch of really nasty replies. i have been out of hospital nurses for a long time. it becomes obvious to me again why. btw, i too have made a similar error - don't remember the exacts about it, but i think the order was dilaudid 2 mg iv or 8 mg po - i gave the 8 mg iv. did i feel bad - sure. but after i had gone off shift the doctors had increased the dose anyway because the two mg wasn't working.
there was a fatal medication error made at one of the local children's hospitals in our area. the nurse had had 30 years of experience. it can happen to anyone. be a bit more compassionate. that nurse committed suicide a couple weeks ago - i wonder how much compassion she got for her error.
you don't get it any more than the op does -- and that's sad. the fact that you made such an enormous medication error -- and don't remember the exacts about it -- is even sadder. that and the fact that you're so cavileir about it tells me that you don't understand the potential ramifications of your error. that patient may have done ok, but she might not have with four times the iv dose. the next one might die. would that be enough to get your attention?
nurses who show understanding of their mistake and the potential ramifications of it, who show regret, remorse and determination not to ever make that mistake again get our sympathy . . . they've earned it. neither you nor the op "gets it". you don't understand the enormity of your error, you don't seem to have any compassion for the patient you might have harmed and all your attention seems to be pointed at whining about the unfairness of it all and how little sympathy you're getting from us. grow up. take responsibility. then look at the compassion you'll be getting. right now, you don't deserve it. you're feeling plenty sorry for yourself. both of you.
Like I said, its been a long time and I don't remember the particulars. I just know that when I went to work the next day his IV dose was the same that I gave in error. He was an oncology patient and it was his last few days of life.
I guess that makes it all ok then.
Seriously, this sort of attitude from you and from the OP is really sickening. You can't just brush a medication error off with 'oh well, patient was dying anyway'. It's clear you learned NOTHING from your mistake.
In an ideal world, clinical errors would be managed the way they are in engineering - rather than focusing on individual actions, investigations would look at what systems contributed, and what failsafes could be implemented to prevent similar errors happening in the future.
The world we operate in, however, is not ideal. In this world, the organisational response depends on multiple factors - even within the same system, the same or similar error may be treated differently depending on who made it, and on the patient outcome. It's not fair, but it's the way it is.
Anyone on this board who hasn't made an error isn't yet a clinician. I know I've made my share of errors, and I have no doubt there are more I haven't made.
Here's the thing, though - I know it makes absolutely no difference what excuses I have for making an error; my cousin was diagnosed with breast cancer, my dad's back in hospital, I didn't sleep last night because of the noisy party next door, and my back's killing me? That's a shame, but it makes me no less culpable for the results of my mistake.
I'm lucky - I haven't made a mistake that's harmed a patient. So far. And after each mistake, all of which I remember, I thought I was going to throw up because I potentially harmed my patient. In every case I spoke with the doctor, my manager, the patient and/or their family, completed an incident report, documented it in the history, thought about what I could have done differently, reflected on my practice, and used it as a teaching opportunity with less experienced staff.
I'm also fortunate to be practicing in Australia, where there's no such thing as 'at will' nursing employment. But breaching my hospital's policy and procedure guidelines gives my manager room to take disciplinary action - I can guarantee that, faced with a junior nurse whose response to making a potentially fatal error, with a PINCH medication no less, was defensive and almost wilfully oblivious to the potential for harm, there would be consequences up to and including dismissal.
I feel the need to interject something here. The OP stated that a terrible med error occured. Doesn't understand why unemployment insurance in all likelyhood would not be granted, had only worked 7 mo in the position and sounds as if doesn't understand how misconduct and potentially fatal med error can be one in the same. But, the OP has now established being from another country. I am hearing a person who has not experienced what it is and what it is about, when a nurse commits such a med error in our country. We are educated in needing to be aware of our patients ethnic/cultural diversities, but I haven't seen yet anyone address the possibility that this new nurse may not understand the ramification of the action or that in the OP's culture it may not be viewed the same way healthcare is in the U.S. I doubt the OP has ever gone through filing a claim for unemployment before and clearly doesn't understand why it is not just given to someone who has worked so hard as was stated. The presentation of being aloof and no remorse may also be cultural as much as not getting terribly emotional about very upsetting serious matters as I myself surely would. This is what I am getting from the replies to the OP. The urge to chew an inexperienced nurse up is evident. We should be mentors giving guidance to new grads on this forum. Granted damage has been done by the med error, and I don't like the saying "well at least it didn't entirely harm the patient." Oh heck yes it could have. But the aftermath of the error now is the OP's issue and will learn you can't continue to be an unsafe nurse and recieve unemployment just because you worked. I'm sure this is one of the biggest lessons the OP has to learn.
you don't get it any more than the op does -- and that's sad. the fact that you made such an enormous medication error -- and don't remember the exacts about it -- is even sadder. that and the fact that you're so cavileir about it tells me that you don't understand the potential ramifications of your error. that patient may have done ok, but she might not have with four times the iv dose. the next one might die. would that be enough to get your attention?
nurses who show understanding of their mistake and the potential ramifications of it, who show regret, remorse and determination not to ever make that mistake again get our sympathy . . . they've earned it. neither you nor the op "gets it". you don't understand the enormity of your error, you don't seem to have any compassion for the patient you might have harmed and all your attention seems to be pointed at whining about the unfairness of it all and how little sympathy you're getting from us. grow up. take responsibility. then look at the compassion you'll be getting. right now, you don't deserve it. you're feeling plenty sorry for yourself. both of you.
ruby vee,
this happened about 15 years ago. i don't remember the exact dosage because i don't remember the exact dosage. could have been 4 mg, could have been 8mg. could have been 6, could have been 2mg. i don"t remember. sorry. or not - i really don't care if you think i "get it" or not. haven't worked in med/surg in about 12 years. so my feelings toward what happened then are very different from what they were they day it happened.
here's an example perhaps you can understand: my dad died 12 years ago and i can tell you my feelings and demeanor today are 180 degrees different than what they were the day he died. doesn't mean i have any less love for him.
Seriously, this sort of attitude from you and from the OP is really sickening. You can't just brush a medication error off with 'oh well, patient was dying anyway'. It's clear you learned NOTHING from your mistake.
Scrubby - make sure you read my post to Ruby Vee. You are all taking this way out of context. You were not there - 15 years ago - and you have absolutely no idea what I learned or did not learn.
I feel the need to interject something here. The OP stated that a terrible med error occured. Doesn't understand why unemployment insurance in all likelyhood would not be granted, had only worked 7 mo in the position and sounds as if doesn't understand how misconduct and potentially fatal med error can be one in the same. But, the OP has now established being from another country. I am hearing a person who has not experienced what it is and what it is about, when a nurse commits such a med error in our country. We are educated in needing to be aware of our patients ethnic/cultural diversities, but I haven't seen yet anyone address the possibility that this new nurse may not understand the ramification of the action or that in the OP's culture it may not be viewed the same way healthcare is in the U.S. I doubt the OP has ever gone through filing a claim for unemployment before and clearly doesn't understand why it is not just given to someone who has worked so hard as was stated. The presentation of being aloof and no remorse may also be cultural as much as not getting terribly emotional about very upsetting serious matters as I myself surely would. This is what I am getting from the replies to the OP. The urge to chew an inexperienced nurse up is evident. We should be mentors giving guidance to new grads on this forum. Granted damage has been done by the med error, and I don't like the saying "well at least it didn't entirely harm the patient." Oh heck yes it could have. But the aftermath of the error now is the OP's issue and will learn you can't continue to be an unsafe nurse and recieve unemployment just because you worked. I'm sure this is one of the biggest lessons the OP has to learn.
Yikes - so it's OK to kill someone because the nurse was foreign and may not have understood the ramifications of the med error??? Or, a med error is not a med error in another culture??? And, by the way, I would have the same reaction if the nurse involved was US born and bred and was a nurse for 30 years.
And, by the way, I would have the same reaction if the nurse involved was US born and bred and was a nurse for 30 years.
mirtesen
9 Posts
First I was denied because I was not monetary eligeble. In April I became eligeble, but denied because separation issue with employer due to misconduct. I hope that med error is not a misconduct. I didnot miss any day of work, never being late. I worked so hard, why is insurance not available to working people in this country?