first write up. what to do

I'm surprised you were written up for this. It warrants a med error report, but I don't think it warrants being written up. There's no way you can prove you put it on the correct foot, so a rebuttal would really do you no good. If there is no disciplinary action attached, just let it go and move on.

It could be different where you work, but where I work we just call all occurence reports "write ups" (i.e. falls, med errors, etc). Anyway, where I work these occurence reports are used specifically for system errors and trying to find how the error could have been avoided. We are not spoken to individually (for example, if I give the wrong med to a patient, I won't be told I did it....it will come up at the next staff meeting with no names used and we try to hash out how the error could have been avoided). I don't know what happens if there's a sentinel event, though. I'm sure I'd hear about that! But, if they wrote up the med error and it's to be used to find how the error could have been avoided...let it go. The above poster is correct, I'm not sure how you can prove you put it on the correct foot. I supposed anything could have happned, it could have fallen off and maybe another staff member replaced it, a family member, the patient, etc. There are too many variables. If you are being formerly written up, I think I'd try to argue my side, though. Good luck! :)

If you are given something to sign, just put down that to the best of your knowledge the patch was placed on the correct foot at the time you placed it. Or make out an incident report of your own that says the same thing. Anything could have happened to it after you placed it.