Errors at Work

Health care and nursing stress perfection and a zero tolerance for error. As human beings, though, we are imperfect and at times make mistakes. I have been a nurse for 35+ years and I have made medication errors. Most of time time these occurred due to being exceptionally busy and not taking the time to think through the process. We've had the education, passed the test, keep up on what's new with literature and CE's. But, the human element, that part of us that gives us compassion, intellect, and caring, means that we are also imperfect and do make mistakes. I guess my suggestion to you, is that what we all need to do is learn from those and use them in a positive way for change. Most hospitals have a process, called incident report or unusual incident report or the like for documenting such things. Hospitals are required by JACHO and lots of other entities to do those. Don't ruminate over things that have happened; you can't make it different, just use it to perhaps help guide you with CE choices, or additional training. Nursing is sometimes real hard on itself. The fact that you examine what has happened tells me you are a great nurse!

Keep the faith and keep posting! Nursing needs you.

Morghan MSN, ARNP in kansas

There is something I would like to talk about that seems to be a taboo among nurses: errors at work. I have make them. In the last 7 years, I have made many of them; most were minor and basically harmless. I have made at least one serious error (errors are errors and we don't always realize we have made them); I immediately notified my charge nurse. To my knowledge, there was no serious injury to the patient. I was so upset by the situation, I had to leave work that day and I had to go to EAP for counselling. I wondered if I would ever practice as a nurse again; I was just horrified and very scared to return to work! My nurse manager was cool about it and assured me I was a good nurse, but my charge nurse still holds a grudge (no longer work in that dept) against me because I insisted on leaving that day. I was a wreck and as I worked in ICU, I felt unsafe.

I would say I am a safe practioner; in fact, I have never been told otherwise. I have never had any negative reviews in regard to my practice or safety. I think of myself as a good nurse, but sometimes when I am stressed or a bit down, I think "Maybe I should not be in nursing" and ruminate over mistakes I made. We, as nurses, never talk about them, their effect on our mental health, the risk to patients or anything at all. I hate secrets and I hate this part of nursing.

I understand completely. I was brought up to be a little too honest, I'm afraid, and it was always hard for me to simply say nothing to anyone but the patient's doc, my Charge nurse and Risk Management (via an incident report) when I made an error.

However, the reason you don't say anything is so that it doesn't come back twisted up the wrong way and bite you in the butt later on--both on the job and in court.

Believe me, making an error and having coworkers find out about it can be a lot like the Telephone Game--by the time it gets back to you, it's twisted so badly out of shape that none of the information is correct. Now picture what would happen if that person is chosen as a court witness after the fact.

So much smarter to keep the details to a "need to know" basis only.

As I gained experience, I caught mistakes that other nurses had made and it did help to know that we all make them, but I needed more reassurance than that.

I read a lot on Med Errors and how sometimes it's a process error that's the root of the problem. It might help you to do some research on the topic. It might reassure you, as it did me, as well as inform you. None of us can afford to become complacent about this issue, but at the same time, we can't worry ourselves into an early grave over it either.

Here's a couple of links for you that might be interesting reading:

This is a thread that I started because I wondered if there was such a thing as a "common" med error:

https://allnurses.com/forums/f8/med-errors-86200.html?highlight=errors

This course is a FL license requirement, but it might be enlightening to read:

http://www2.nursingspectrum.com/CE/Self-Study_modules/syllabus.html?CCID=2839

I've made errors at work, and feel that the minute you realize it - report it!! I've seen other nurses try to cover them up - don't feel like it would be worth the guilt to try to hide something.

I've used some of my, or other's, more memorable mistakes when teaching some of the newer nurses what can go wrong.