Hi all. I have been a member for a while and have come here to research things and such. I recently got my first RN job in the end of October in a ltc facility. I had 2 weeks of training and have been on my own for about a month and a half.
Yesterday I made my first med error...involving narcotics of coorifice! My resident was supposed to get scheduled lyrica at 9am and scheduled morphine at 2pm.
So, the coorifice of my day (and trust me I am not trying to make excuses, I know that I failed to work safely) as I know many of your days are probably similar...I had just started antibiotics the day prior for a sinus infection, touch of bronchitis, and an ear infection I wanted to call off more than anything, but just couldn't bring myself to since I am the new nurse and that would look horrible being there less than 2 months and calling off, I wanted to look dependable. I even told one of the other nurses that I felt "off" and "foggy" when we clocked in in the morning. Plus it was a weekend day which meant there are only 3 scheduled nurses so a call off would most likely mean a manager would have to come in and cover the shift. It was a usual crazy busy day... 20 residents to care for with 5 million meds, the aides coming and reporting things, one resident not doing well (will pass away any time now), family coming and going wanting updates, so on and so forth.
So, during my 9am med pass I go to get resident X's meds. I check all my rights, someone comes up and asks me something (I can't even remember who or what it was now!) and I go on about my business. I take the medications in and give them to the resident. When pouring them into her hand I realize that they just didn't seem right to me. I go back out to my MAR and then it hit me!!! I gave her her scheduled morphine instead of her lyrica. Both are in our narc lock boxes and I'm just so used to giving her both it didn't send up any red flag for me. My legs immediately turned to jello!! I felt like all the blood had drained from my body and the room was spinning! I took a second to recheck my steps to make sure that I really did mess up and confirmed it when I looked in the narc book, I had signed the morphine out at 11am (I was super behind and always save this resident for last)
So, I immediately ran to the senior nurse on duty to ask what to do. At this point I am already crying and having a mini panic attack. I was sick, tired, not clear headed at all, new, already overwhelmed on a normal day, and this just sent me over the edge...I couldn't keep it together! She instructed me on what I needed to do. First she checked out the error I made and said she really though it wouldn't harm the resident. I checked on her and then called the doctor. I don't know if this on call doctor is just normally nice or he could tell that I had been crying, but he was extremely nice and laughed after I told him and just said "Well, give the lyrica at 2pm and hold the morphine" I filled out my error report and put it in an envelope in my ADON's mailbox. (The senior RN told me that the supervisors don't want called for simple med errors on the weekends) I told the resident the error that I made (tried not to make it sound like a big deal because I knew I would break down in tears if I let on to the severity) and told her that I had called the doctor and what he said to do. Her response was "Thats fine with me." and took her afternoon meds and I went on relieved that I had told her, breaking out into tears throughout the rest of the day.
I cried almost all the way home, cried on my way to work this morning and had so many thoughts running through my head!! I wanted to quit! To work at McDonald's and not have this kind of responsibility! I wanted to crawl into a hole and hide! Should I have had more training? HOW on EARTH did I miss the time when I was checking things so closely?! (I thought) Should I quit nursing? Should I switch to a slower paced shift? Ughhhh!
So, here I am, the day after still feeling SO extremely incompetent! I was just beginning to feel a tiny glimmer of some confidence and then BAM!!! I mess up big. This just has me doubting myself unbelievably! I'm ashamed, scared, embarrassed, and so very remorseful, I could go on and on...
I still still have yet to talk to my ADON, she will be there tomorrow and I really can't wait to talk to her. I just want to get it over with! I'm still terrified to speak to her not to mention all the embarrassment and shame I feel! How do explain something I don't even understand how it happened? I was just in a fog, I just need to be more careful. What will she say? What happens after that? Is the error keep on my record? Does the BON hear about it?
I'm just looking for some support, comfort, or some direction in dealing with this. I have read a lot of the posts on errors and I keep trying to talk myself into feeling better..."everyone makes mistakes" "we're all human" but it just isn't working! Maybe once I talk to my ADON. I just don't know! I just can't shake this! Is this normal?!
I made my first med error 2 weeks off orientation. It was bad. I lost sleep, I had a panic attack, almost quit my new career and felt shame and horror like I'd never felt before. I thought I was going to throw up on the spot! It was a med that was confirmed by RX and another nurse the day before me, the dose was WAAAY off. I was the one to give it...
I now go through the chart and make sure I verify all doses... As you see, THREE of us in my job missed this! Being told by everyone around me that "we all have made errors" didn't help me one bit. It literally took weeks for me to gain my confidence back. It is SO time consuming, but I do take the time to pull the chart and verify it with what is profiled by the computer. I am the only one I see that does this, but I don't ever ever want to go through that again. I get so upset when I'm pulling meds and I'm interrupted, called out of the room, phone rings, whatever. It is so distracting, and believe me, since then, I find errors frequently, I see how easily it is to make an error, and it frightens me still. I feel so bad for you, I remember like it was yesterday the horrible sickness I felt. You will gain confidence again, and you will be a more cautious nurse from this. Hang in there, you are not alone...
I should have caught that I pulled the drug too early and then I just wouldn't have given it... but I got interrupted and had more than one person talking at me.
I should've taken a deep breath and re-centered myself, I'm sure.
People really need to back off when they see the nurse pulling/checking/giving their meds... especially newbies who are already frazzled.
My resident was supposed to get scheduled lyrica at 9am and scheduled morphine at 2pm. 
charm33221
1 Post
I made my first med error 2 weeks off orientation. It was bad. I lost sleep, I had a panic attack, almost quit my new career and felt shame and horror like I'd never felt before. I thought I was going to throw up on the spot! It was a med that was confirmed by RX and another nurse the day before me, the dose was WAAAY off. I was the one to give it...
I now go through the chart and make sure I verify all doses... As you see, THREE of us in my job missed this! Being told by everyone around me that "we all have made errors" didn't help me one bit. It literally took weeks for me to gain my confidence back. It is SO time consuming, but I do take the time to pull the chart and verify it with what is profiled by the computer. I am the only one I see that does this, but I don't ever ever want to go through that again. I get so upset when I'm pulling meds and I'm interrupted, called out of the room, phone rings, whatever. It is so distracting, and believe me, since then, I find errors frequently, I see how easily it is to make an error, and it frightens me still. I feel so bad for you, I remember like it was yesterday the horrible sickness I felt. You will gain confidence again, and you will be a more cautious nurse from this. Hang in there, you are not alone...