First Med error and plain old frustration

I have been an RN since August of 2005. I bounced around a little becasue I would have to orientate on days. I am by no means a day person. My preceptors would tell me I was doing fine but then I would be asked to resign because I was not doing well enough as a new grad. I kept telling that that I needed to go right to third shift. That is how my body clock is. I am suprised I made it through nursing school.

I found a job at a hospital about 45 min from my house. Now there are three within 15 min of me but they didnt work well. I could have went back to one of them but the politics there are horrible. This new job is great. I told the NM that interviewed me that I was a slow starter and that to be honest I don't function well on days. She offered me the job on the spot and actually had to create my FT position. The only catch was I had to work 12 days for at least a month. That preceptor had to approve me for my change to nights.

The first day with my preceptor I sat down with her and told her what I thought my strenghts and weakness were and that I did not function well on days. I was completely honest except for the fact that I have ADHD and that is the biggest reason I dont do well on days. (To many distractions for me) We started slow. My previous experience as an aide and as a nurse extern was helpful. When i only had 1 or 2 or 3 pts I could help out the other nurses on the floor by passing meds and helping with things I already knew how to do. My biggest problem was the interupptions by the docs and not knowing all of them. Things were progressing well untill last week.

My First Med Error....OMG i cried for hours afterwards. THe pt was found to have PE...lots of them as well as clots in his legs and else where in his body. He was on heprin drip and was on complete BR. I was so busy that day because I had went from 4 pts to 6 that week. I had a brain fart and hung levaquin with his heprin line. A few hours later we got his aPTT back and according to the protocol we had to bolus him 3500 units and increase his heprin by 2. So we went to his room, precpetor with me and she said OMG did you hang the levaquin with the heprin. I jsut looked at her and said OMG about 5 times. We checked the line and it was clear and flowing...no crystalization. I flushed the line and then pushed the bolus....it immediatly crystalized. i pulled the IV line and got two more started. One for heprin and the other for the other IV meds. He was fine....but I could have killed him. I wrote up my paperwork on the medication error and asked my preceptor where I put it. She said she was proud of me because I immediatly took responsiblity for my error. The educator who works closely with us told me she was aware of the error but despite that my preceptor felt that I was safe and could move on to thirds.

NOw I take an extra few minutes at the start of each shift to look at all IV meds that the pt had ordered and look them up in the pysis system for compatabilty. I jot down my notes on my "brains" that way I dont make that mistake again. Each time I have a pt with heprin running I automaticlly circle it in red and put virgin next to it as a reminder.

Previous employers would ahve fired me for a med error that soon. Each and every person told me that we are all human and we will make mistakes the important thing is that the pt was not harmed and that I learned ways to not allow that type of mistake again.

I am so glad that I found this job at this hospital..They are very understanding and more then willing to teach and to help me grow.

Just thought I would share my troubles.

Can anyone else suggest ways to prevent med errors.

Dawn