Do you write up med errors?

Well, i think that this was an education opportunity rather than a write. One did the md write npo except meds? If not the nurse should have clarified, two, if the md did write npo except meds then yes it is a med error and the nurse should have been written up

Idk if the MD wrote NPO except meds. But I didnt see any documentation of an attempt to get MD to change meds from PO to IV even if the pt couldnt tolerate PO meds

I have made two med errors in my career, and I wrote myself up both times (computer incident reporting system), as I was the one who caught the errors (almost immediately). I have also reported errors made by others, and they weren't happy. I don't care. If an error is made, it needs to be reported by whomever discovers it.

If we let small errors go unreported (although the example by the OP was NOT a small error!), it can lead to larger errors going unreported, and we owe our patients better care than that! Yes, we are human, and yes, we can and will make mistakes once in a while, but we need to take responsibility for our mistakes. We need to put our patients' well-being ahead of our own egos!

Incident reports can uncover problems in processes in the facility, and communication issues. No one likes being written up, but if the policies and protocols can be made to enhance patient safety and outcomes after theses incident reports are written, then we should be glad to have those opportunities. Just MHO.

There is another route that is call "ivpb" and it only takes a phone call. Totally incident report worthy.

What we tell ppl is we aren't writing the person up but the incident (ours ARE called incident reports).

Unless this happens a lot for this person it shouldn't matter. It's something to live and then learn.

as charge, i would've talked w/the nurse 1st, to hear her side of the story.

if i felt s/he showed poor judgment (which in this case, i think she did...she didn't even check w/md), then i'd tell him/her that i needed to write this up.

so while it's not always black and white (which to me, it isn't), most often it is warranted.

leslie

the purpose of writing up incidents is so superiors can see if there are patterns. The patterns could have more to do with something other than nursing care itself, or it could be the nurse. Whatever the outcome, incident reports are the only way the managers can find out there is a problem.

I write up pretty much every error that is against policy. I see no other way of patterns changing or additional education being offered. I also make every attempt to let the person know I wrote them up and why.

I would've asked her about it before I wrote it up. She didn't forget it, she opted not to give it because the patient was NPO, and she noted it.

I write myself up if I catch any med error I've made. Our hospital has a "blame-free" policy which means usually there is an error some where in the "system", as opposed to the nurse themselves. However I must say this did seem sort of careless on the nurses part! You did the right thing.

I would've asked her about it before I wrote it up. She didn't forget it, she opted not to give it because the patient was NPO, and she noted it.

In my opinion though, a PRUDENT nurse would question not giving potassium to someone with a potassium of 2.8. I would have called the MD and got the route switched to IV. Seems like she was being lazy.