especially when you could have swept it under the carpet.......a short while back, l went into the pt room to give an IM inj. Almost always, l draw up meds in the med area, for some reason, that evening l did it in the pt room....l change needles after l draw up the med, so when l re-capped the firs needle, l laid it on the counter, turns out the cap was loose. Next thing l know, a visitor was stuck with this needle... thankfully it was not contaminated biohazard-wise....pt did not want to see a doc, wasn't upset, and no one else knew....but l wrote it up, didn't feel l had a choice. If anything had come of it later it would have been much worse and the injured could have made false claimes. So l got a "verbal". My NM was great about it but stopped short of commending me for my honesty, which l found dissapointing.
Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
Originally posted by l.rae
especially when you could have swept it under the carpet....... LR
Good job hon. I try to be as honest as I can be including writing myself up for med errors etc. It makes me feel good inside.
Now for a short period of time I'd gotten overwhelmed with my work load and signed that I gave a tylenol when I discovered later that I'd missed it. Or on my records sometimes written "I agree with the above" when my assessment was half a....ed at best. Made me feel like cucka. I was doing stuff like this more and more frequently. Blame short staffing, blame me, I dont' care, it was wrong. I still live with the secret. I did finally tell a therapist all about it and i felt much better. Her answer: dont' do it anymore.
Yes I have and every time (Oh, not many) I just hit myself over the head (mentally, with a very large frying pan like in the cartoons) just a teensy bit harder (mentally) and just relax and go back to it and I haven't made one for a long time.
I have written myself up twice and both times a system change was put into place because of it. I still feel nervous when I write myself up but these are supposed to be used as tracking devices so others do not make the same mistakes. Unfortunately, I now get to write another when I go to work tomorrow. This time it was not chrecking for informed consent for blood transfusion on a pt before hanging the blood. sigh I hope i learn from this mistake!
yup, knowing that incidence report or PI's as we call them, are a sorce of tracking human error & preventing them in the future. I am all for someone learning from my mistakes!!! I know there is a God because I have had some tuff things happen & no adverse outcomes came about!
Yes....I write myself up if I did it-----it was my error and I feel I should own it and be accountable.....luckily it was a minor thingie,
but we had a fresh grad there & I thought it was ethically the right thing to do plus it was an opportunity to be a good role for the newbie.
I figure----since I write up everyone else, I should definitely include me when it comes to incidents---integrity has to be a basic foundation of this business!
Yup!!! It was a couple days after orientation. Just a little med error (pt recieved dose couple hours early). Called the doc, let the charge nurse know. Luckly it was alright. Made a new grad a little shaky though.
especially when you could have swept it under the carpet.......a short while back, l went into the pt room to give an IM inj. Almost always, l draw up meds in the med area, for some reason, that evening l did it in the pt room....l change needles after l draw up the med, so when l re-capped the firs needle, l laid it on the counter, turns out the cap was loose. Next thing l know, a visitor was stuck with this needle... thankfully it was not contaminated biohazard-wise....pt did not want to see a doc, wasn't upset, and no one else knew....but l wrote it up, didn't feel l had a choice. If anything had come of it later it would have been much worse and the injured could have made false claimes. So l got a "verbal". My NM was great about it but stopped short of commending me for my honesty, which l found dissapointing.
yes, i have written myself up several times in my sixteen year nursing career. it's a learning tool for myself and others, so why not?
Perhaps with all the errors we write up about the things that happen in nursing due to shortstaff and too many patients per nurse, etc, the hospital just might realize something needs to be done to fix the situation like better staffing and less patients per nurse and really really really making the best of those acuities i hate to do every morning.
My largest med error was working in PICU. I Do not recall the exact med, but I pulled it from stock instead of waiting for pharmacy. I checked the dose with two other nurses being that it was an unusual med to give, maybe it was atropine or a code drug. Anyway, when the med came up from pharmacy the concentration was different than I had given. My heart dropped about ten thousand feet straight down. I cried, I called the resident, the cardiologist, and G-D also. The child was fine. His heart rate stayed stable. No negative side effects at all. The other part I remember is that because of the class of the medication there may have been disciplinary actions. It took me a long time and a lot of tears to write up that one. I feel and still do that if a med needs to be checked with another nurse, both should suffer consequences if its wrong. Not just the one actually giving the dose. Just my opinion, no flames please.
Absolutely! I know there are a few nurses out there that like to pretend they've never made an error . . . but, I like to think they are just being less than honest.
Temptation will tell you to do otherwise ("I'll get in trouble!" "No one even knows unless I rat!"), but your conscious should kick in, as well as your logic center! The fact is that your mistake COULD get discovered via patient outcomes, computerized medication or supply tracking systems -- and you could get in WORSE trouble trying to cover up than being honest.
In healthcare, honesty is ALWAYS the best medicine, even if it's a "bitter pill" to swallow.
thankfully it was not contaminated biohazard-wise....pt did not want to see a doc, wasn't upset, and no one else knew....but l wrote it up, didn't feel l had a choice. If anything had come of it later it would have been much worse and the injured could have made false claimes. So l got a "verbal". My NM was great about it but stopped short of commending me for my honesty, which l found dissapointing.
Liddle Noodnik
3,789 Posts
Good job hon. I try to be as honest as I can be including writing myself up for med errors etc. It makes me feel good inside.
Now for a short period of time I'd gotten overwhelmed with my work load and signed that I gave a tylenol when I discovered later that I'd missed it. Or on my records sometimes written "I agree with the above" when my assessment was half a....ed at best. Made me feel like cucka. I was doing stuff like this more and more frequently. Blame short staffing, blame me, I dont' care, it was wrong. I still live with the secret. I did finally tell a therapist all about it and i felt much better. Her answer: dont' do it anymore.
Good questions, thanks