This is so hard.......but here goes. I am a new LPN, just completing my 3rd week of Orientation at a busy hospital. Last night I made a med error and feel like my spirit is broken.
It was 7:10p and I was completely finished with my 2 patients, charting, etc.......one of the other nurses I work with was trying to complete her charting and got a call that one of her patients needed pain meds.....she looked at me and I asked if she would like me to give.....asked her what she was ordered to get and she said "morphine", no problem I thought, been giving my patient IV push Morphine all day (4 doses, 10mg/1ml).....not sure what I was thinking (or not) and didn't double/triple check the order....long story short gave the elderly woman 10mg/1ml IV push Morphine, when she was ordered to get 1mg/.1ml every hour......as soon as I came back to chart I saw there was something wrong, double checked in Pyxis and immediately told the nurse who called the charge nurse ...... she says "Oh ****" and I'm asking how much Narcan to get out and they both disappear to the room, I'm heading down the hall to the room and COMPLETELY lose it, start crying uncontrollably because of my mistake and the possible harm I could have caused this patient, ducked into the empty room next door and just cried and cried and cried. After the patient was taken care of (she's fine) one of the other nurses finds me and tries to tell me that it's OK, it was just an accident and everything would be OK. She tells me that the important part is that I caught the error and reported immediately so the situation could be corrected. As kind as she was I cannot forgive myself for this complete and total idiotic moment.......and am even doubting I should be working in this hospital.......my clinicals in school were at rural hospitals, I didn't have a rotation with the med or IV nurses, and just completed (last Monday) the IV therapy class at this hospital. There are of course several reason I could give (exhausted, getting over a severe sinus infection....blah, blah, blah) but they would only be excuses for a situation that I should have never allowed to happen. I am seriously debating a change of position to the hospital in my area (I currently commute 45 minutes) because I feel as though I may need to become more comfortable in a slower setting before I even attempt to do bedside in a busy hospital. I am SO devastated right now and start crying every time I think about this mistake. My nursing school classmate (and carpool buddy) tried to tell me last night not to worry, she says that I have such high expectations of myself (my class joked about my perfectionism and possible OCD) that I do not allow the possibility of mistakes to enter my vocabulary.......she says I need to let it go and understand that mistakes happen and if every nurse who made a med error was fired there would be no nurses. Although I value her encouragement, I don't even know where to begin to accept this mistake.......and I am terrified of walking back into work on Wednesday for SO MANY REASONS. I have been feeling uncomfortable off and on for 2 weeks now, but actually felt more confident yesterday.......maybe that was the problem, began feeling a little too comfortable.
So what happens now? Any advice or words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated, I was so heartbroken that the career I have wanted for so long, the path I believe I was meant to take, may not have been the right decision. I could not forgive myself if I harmed someone I was supposed to be caring for.
This is so hard.......but here goes. I am a new LPN, just completing my 3rd week of Orientation at a busy hospital. Last night I made a med error and feel like my spirit is broken.
It was 7:10p and I was completely finished with my 2 patients, charting, etc.......one of the other nurses I work with was trying to complete her charting and got a call that one of her patients needed pain meds.....she looked at me and I asked if she would like me to give.....asked her what she was ordered to get and she said "morphine", no problem I thought, been giving my patient IV push Morphine all day (4 doses, 10mg/1ml).....not sure what I was thinking (or not) and didn't double/triple check the order....long story short gave the elderly woman 10mg/1ml IV push Morphine, when she was ordered to get 1mg/.1ml every hour......as soon as I came back to chart I saw there was something wrong, double checked in Pyxis and immediately told the nurse who called the charge nurse ...... she says "Oh ****" and I'm asking how much Narcan to get out and they both disappear to the room, I'm heading down the hall to the room and COMPLETELY lose it, start crying uncontrollably because of my mistake and the possible harm I could have caused this patient, ducked into the empty room next door and just cried and cried and cried. After the patient was taken care of (she's fine) one of the other nurses finds me and tries to tell me that it's OK, it was just an accident and everything would be OK. She tells me that the important part is that I caught the error and reported immediately so the situation could be corrected. As kind as she was I cannot forgive myself for this complete and total idiotic moment.......and am even doubting I should be working in this hospital.......my clinicals in school were at rural hospitals, I didn't have a rotation with the med or IV nurses, and just completed (last Monday) the IV therapy class at this hospital. There are of course several reason I could give (exhausted, getting over a severe sinus infection....blah, blah, blah) but they would only be excuses for a situation that I should have never allowed to happen. I am seriously debating a change of position to the hospital in my area (I currently commute 45 minutes) because I feel as though I may need to become more comfortable in a slower setting before I even attempt to do bedside in a busy hospital. I am SO devastated right now and start crying every time I think about this mistake. My nursing school classmate (and carpool buddy) tried to tell me last night not to worry, she says that I have such high expectations of myself (my class joked about my perfectionism and possible OCD) that I do not allow the possibility of mistakes to enter my vocabulary.......she says I need to let it go and understand that mistakes happen and if every nurse who made a med error was fired there would be no nurses. Although I value her encouragement, I don't even know where to begin to accept this mistake.......and I am terrified of walking back into work on Wednesday for SO MANY REASONS. I have been feeling uncomfortable off and on for 2 weeks now, but actually felt more confident yesterday.......maybe that was the problem, began feeling a little too comfortable.
So what happens now? Any advice or words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated, I was so heartbroken that the career I have wanted for so long, the path I believe I was meant to take, may not have been the right decision. I could not forgive myself if I harmed someone I was supposed to be caring for.
Thanks for reading, I know this was long.
You've already learnt one good lesson here and you did it yourself. Take credit for that. You immediately noticed your CN of the error. That was the right thing to do.
I had a nursing student years ago give the wrong patient another patient's insulin. The pt she gave insulin too didn't even have an order for insulin.
She did do a fingerstick on that pt and gave the "correct" amount per the rainbow coverage.
When I realized what she had done and saw who the pt's doc was I considered turning in my license. The doc was notorious for finding mistakes.
He went to see the patient told her what had happened in front of me and the student. He said the student helped him . Now he knew the patient needed insulin. He wrote a one time order to cover the student and rainbow coverage for the patient. His was one unit off of the other patients just so he could maintain control.. BTW the patient was a total knee and a diabetic. Usually on oral meds but because of the surgery needed insulin in the hospital.
I had the student make out an incident report and told her instructor about it at the end of the day. The instructor was fuious at first but I said "hold on" .. The student learnt a valuable lesson that day.
So pick yourself up, remember the 5 rights of medication administration and do your job.. We need ya....
Mistakes happen, always learn from them and don't cover them up. I still remember my first med error. Had to elderly ladies in the same room, one was restrained in the bed (bed a) the other one wasn't (bed b). Bed B wanted something for constipation and the doc ordered Mag Citrate. I gave it to bed A, got her to drink that whole nasty bottle. Got back to the desk and realized I had given it to the wrong patient. I about freaked, immediately told the charge nurse. Well few minutes later the nurses aid was calling us for help. Bed A made it out of the bed but was still attached draging the bed behind her and pooping all the way to the bathroom, when we got to the room Bed A was on the toliet bed in tow and bed B had her covers pulled up over her nose screaming, "I don't want that, I don't want that for my bowels." Needless to say that was 15 years ago in a small rural hospital. So moving to a smaller hospital doesn't help either, I've been busier in the smaller hospitals more than I have been in the larger one. In the smaller hospitals you get anything and everything. I've run from the med/surg floor to the unit to help in a code, then ran to the ER to help in a situation there and once I finially got back to the floor was two hours behind with my patients, even though the other nurses checked on my patients to make sure they were breathing, they didn't give their meds or do any of their treatments. Just because the hospital is smaller doesn't make it slower.
This is so hard.......but here goes. I am a new LPN, just completing my 3rd week of Orientation at a busy hospital. Last night I made a med error and feel like my spirit is broken.
NephroBSN, BSN, RN
530 Posts
You've already learnt one good lesson here and you did it yourself. Take credit for that. You immediately noticed your CN of the error. That was the right thing to do.
I had a nursing student years ago give the wrong patient another patient's insulin. The pt she gave insulin too didn't even have an order for insulin.
She did do a fingerstick on that pt and gave the "correct" amount per the rainbow coverage.
When I realized what she had done and saw who the pt's doc was I considered turning in my license. The doc was notorious for finding mistakes.
He went to see the patient told her what had happened in front of me and the student. He said the student helped him . Now he knew the patient needed insulin. He wrote a one time order to cover the student and rainbow coverage for the patient. His was one unit off of the other patients just so he could maintain control.. BTW the patient was a total knee and a diabetic. Usually on oral meds but because of the surgery needed insulin in the hospital.
I had the student make out an incident report and told her instructor about it at the end of the day. The instructor was fuious at first but I said "hold on" .. The student learnt a valuable lesson that day.
So pick yourself up, remember the 5 rights of medication administration and do your job.. We need ya....