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!
I don't see people nitpicking. As mentioned, the OP would have greater empathy from readers if she actually acknowledged the error. Instead, her responses seem to evade the issue. Regardless of culture or being a new grad, an error was still made.
For example, recently i, too made an error. I didn't notice the Dr had written a second page of orders. Fortunately, the second RN caught my mistake the following day. However, I used this as a learning experience. From now on, I know to be more careful. And I'm a new grad, too. That's irrelevant. My point is, we all make mistakes. But instead of skirting around the issue, it's best to own it. Otherwise, you haven't really learned.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
. . .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.
Oh come on. Respecting diversity doesn't impact this incident in the least. Seriously, are you saying there are places in the world where it would be all good to give a near-fatal overdose?
Yeah I guess I am in the Nitpickers Club if it means NOBODY should get a pass because they didn't understand the implications of an error like that. Good Lord.
What is your reason for bringing the topic of diversity if you're not proposing a double standard exists and giving this nurse a "poor dear" and pat on the head.
edit: was referring to Nurse Heidi"s 8mg morphine IVP as "near fatal" - I know an error is an error, period and "yeah, but. . ." rationalizations don't mitigate the error.
Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.
OP, I can guess that you are feeling pretty bad regarding the course of events that put you where you are now. I read that you are from another country. My best friend is from Russia, and I admire the way he has been able to learn the culture, the language, and societal norms here in the US. However, he can also come across as cold. He does not admit to mistakes, because where he came from, mistakes were punished in ways that would horrify us in this culture. I have a limited understanding of his attempts at apologies, and we have gotten into knock-out, drag down fights as a result. It was only when he was able to learn to communicate his FEARS that he begun to understand that mistakes are human, and moreover-forgiven.
I wonder if you aren't perhaps in the same mindset regarding remorse for mistakes. I am only grasping at straws here, because I don't know you and don't know your background. I think the reason you are being torched is because you have yet to post how you really feel about making this error. It seems as if you are pointing to other reasons, other issues, and other people as to the cause of your being fired. Accountability and the recognition of mistakes is key in our profession. Nobody is going to torch another nurse for a mistake unless they are desperately trying to brush it under the carpet.
I invite you to be vulnerable for a moment and tell us what you are feeling now. I strongly believe that if you share what you are FEELING about your mistake instead of focusing on how good an employee you have been thus far, you would get some support from us. We have all made errors in our practice. We like to talk these errors out with other nurses on this forum in order to get some perspective. Do you think you would be able to do that?
No, I am not saying it would be all good to give a near fatal overdose. I implied nothing of the sort. Read again what I posted. I am not excusing the OP's actions. The reference to nitpicking comes from 8 thread pages of shaming the OP's demeanor and thought it could be possible the background and origin of the OP may have been an ifluence in the not owning up to the mistake (a cultural difference does not excuse a near fatal med error by a nurse and I'm not placing a double standard) That's not a common reaction from nurses in this circumstance. This is not meant as a poor dear, pat on the head. Mistakes have been made by many nurses. It's a serious matter. I have nurse friends and co workers who have made med errors, some quite serious, and depending on the facility and their nurse manager/DON etc predicts the disiplinary action or immediate termination. I myself made a med error a yr ago when my charge nurse verbally ordered me to give an additional PRN dose of an antianxiety med even though I advised her and showed her the MAR that I had already given this psych pt the sheduled dose. I took the hit for the med error, and should have been more assertive to decline giving but felt at the time I was so beneath this mighty charge nurse that I better do what she says. I certainly learned a valuable lesson that night. The physician was livid. I could have, or should have been fired. Especially because it was a pediatric pt. Monitoring VS q15 and was close to triple dose above what was already given. I was not fired. I also was not shamed endlessly for the mistake. The incident report, calling the MD, the MD having to come to the unit, all the other floors finding out about it, I felt like I had commited a murder. I was seriously repremanded for it, and wrote up. I was not fired. I also was not treated poorly by fellow nurses or the charge nurse for reporting her. My point is it could have gone the other way, I could have been "nitpicked" about it until I was reduced to quitting. After the med error, I felt like I wasn't fit to be a nurse or scared to give meds! No one told me "there there, pat on the head.. you're new and we all make mistakes." But I'm glad I was held accountable, and also not made to feel like dirt. I just think this thread clearly addressed the OP's sense of not realizing the magnitude, but think the message has been conveyed to the OP emphatically.
If OP works in US as a RN then she should be held to same accountability as anyone, no matter where she is from. I can understand she may not understand unemployment but frankly 1/2 of America probably does not. And frankly I do not believe we are getting the "Rest of the story", so this debate is basically a mute point.
Cultural differences aside, we are all human and all make mistakes. I think everyone agrees on that point. What separates those who ultimately go on to be successful from those who don't, is the ability and willingness to be accountable for our mistakes, and to learn from them. From what I've seen from the OP, that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm not trying to be mean, but I would not want any caregiver (nurse, MD, whatever) taking care of me or a loved one, who cannot take responsibility for what he or she does.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
newtress - when I wrote my post I had not read all of them (which I could kick myself for - again) sighh
I have very strong feelings that shaming a nurse for an error is about the stupidest thing nurses can do as a whole, because people will be less likely to report them save for the really really bad ones, which fortunately are rare. The pages I read were stripped of the niceties, but I didn't see the shaming you did.
I related a story over on the nurse suicide thread about a nurse who gave an infant 0.1 mg of epi when it was ordered 0.01 - things were touch and go for a while but my friend was absolutely devastated. I will lay odds her med error record is better than it would've been had that not happened and we all rallied around her.
A few years later I worked with a nurse where giving allergy shots was part of our job, and one day she casually mentioned that she actually caused the death of a guy who had a son on treatment, too. She gave the son's serum to the dad. The dad was getting very low concentrations and the son the big guns.
Honestly, at first I thought it was weird that she didn't seem to be bothered about it at all - she told me the hospital was being sued, but she was not. I admit I found her detached attitude a bit disturbing. That is what people are picking up on here.
When I posted about it on allnurses the response was that not firing her was the right thing to do even with a death! with an explanation that made sense to me. Maybe she did feel remorse deep down but I didn't see it. I never went into the subject with her again. Her true feelings may have been expressed - I don't know.
btw I saw you wrote about your own termination -- I'm sorry ...sucks ((newtress))
Oh come on. Respecting diversity doesn't impact this incident in the least. Seriously, are you saying there are places in the world where it would be all good to give a near-fatal overdose?
Yeah I guess I am in the Nitpickers Club if it means NOBODY should get a pass because they didn't understand the implications of an error like that. Good Lord.
What is your reason for bringing the topic of diversity if you're not proposing a double standard exists and giving this nurse a "poor dear" and pat on the head.
edit: was referring to Nurse Heidi"s 8mg morphine IVP as "near fatal" - I know an error is an error, period and "yeah, but. . ." rationalizations don't mitigate the error.
Don't remember mitagating anything - and it was Dilaudid, not morphine. But mistakes happen. And I was NOT implying that because the patient was an onco pt who died soon after that it was ok. Or that I wasn't talked to and didn't feel horrible. It was a mistake I will never make again. I learned my lesson, just didn't figure I'd get my orifice reamed for not putting all the facts on a little post on a stupid internet board. Love how people can make an impression on what kind of nurse one is in a very short post.
BTW, the family was aware of this mistake, but wrote me a one of the nicest thank you letters I ever received while working on this floor. I chose to remember that part of this event, not the error I made. If that makes me a bad nurse, so be it.
newtress, LPN
431 Posts
Really, come on, there isn't a single person who endorses the act of fatal med errors.. anywhere. Period.