have you ever "written up" yourself in an incident report?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

  1. have you ever "written up" yourself in an incident report?

    • 196
      yes
    • 89
      No

285 members have participated

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...:eek: 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.

Anyone care to share?:) .........LR

Yes. Just wrote myself up on Friday as a matter of fact. Wrote myself up once about 6 yrs ago and got fired for it tho. If I had that one to do over I may not have, to be honest. I had been written up for missing a mandatory meeting, (facility was in trouble with state inspections and having mandatory meetings daily for about 10 days, requiring night shift to come in during sleep hours), and had been written up for inconsiderate care of a patient. (charted that a woman had been placed on bedpan by this RN and voided very small amt and by the time this RN reached the door was asking for bedpan again and this RN refused) Her careplan included attention-seeking behavior and being a rather new nurse I failed to also chart that she was on a toileting schedule and was reminded of this. Nurses had just voted in a union tho, and eventually most were let go for one reason or another. Anyway I gave 6 units of Regular insulin instead of NPH and then sought out the oncoming supervisor at 6:30 am, and we called the Doc, who just said to make sure she ate breakfast and check BS later (I also gave OJ) and the next day when arrived at work, I was fired as this was such a "serious, and potentially harmful med error". First time I was ever fired from a job. And I took responsibility and was accountable for my error. I didn't have to, as no one was there, but I did.

So, on Friday as I'm doing updates @ my LTC, I see that I have not one but 2 transcription errors on THIS months MAR's. Left off promod and Vitamin C. So wrote me up again. Will I get fired? Don't know, don't care. Had to do it.

I have to beg every month for help to do these updates and do not have the time to 2nd check (7-3 is supposed to). I have between 53-57 residents, and I'm worn out. Am seriously going to look for another job this month, although I fear any in LTC will be the same if not worse.

Yes, I have.

YES, all the time.

Incident reports are suposed to be used to track and fix problems not to punish. To use them punitively is self defeating. Everyone makes mistakes this is human. But if we can find a source that is causing the error or a way to fix something by reporting in that is great. If we are aware of the problem we may be able to do something about it if you are the only one that knows well you are kind of stuck (no pun intended). For all you know this might be an ongoing problem but if no one is reporting it it cannot be looked at.

Using these punitively is inappropriate. It encourages covering up. Sooner or later covering up will come to light in a very nasty way for the facility and even the nurses who covered.

When the incident is something I was involved with I say "I". If it was another employee I say, "the nurse, "the physical therapist," "the CNA. I never use their name.

If it is necessary that the person's identity be known that is easy to discover. But it does not need to be written in the report.

Specializes in Med-Surg Nursing.

Yes, I have. Gave a pt IV MS04 instead of the way it was ordered, IM. Pt suffered no ill effects. Doc was notified. Pt was a hospice pt and shoulda been on IV morphine anyway. No hospice pt should be stuck with a needle to receive pain relief.

Yes. Several times. Med errors. Once I gave a cardiac pt another patient's meds. My stomach dropped to my feet and I messed my pants. Made out the incident report and then had to call the cardiologist (who can be a bear). He was actually pretty nice about the whole situation.

In my experience most of our docs are usually pretty decent toward us when it comes to med errors, especially if we admit right up front we screwed up.

yes, I have

one attraction I have to nursing and nurses is our honesty and acceptance of our own and others' human fraility.

can't solve problems without identifying them first

luckily I've worked in supportive environments....

Yes, I have and other nurses have asked me why I did it. I would write them up so I should write myself up. They are supposed to be blame free. The mistake I made didn't harm a patient though. I was never spoken to about it by anyone after I turned it in.

Yes, I have. I gave a med that the nurse from the previous shift had given. She didnt note the order, but charted it on the MAR. I found out it had been given when I went to chart that I did it.

Been there done that. HONESTY IS THE BEST. I forgot to remove a nitro patch from one of my patients and I filled out a report. The floor was busy...I CYA all the time. Being an honest person is CYA. It's the ones who don't file anything...and you pick up on their errors...they are the ONES TO WORRY ABOUT.

an incident report is just that--something that happens and you happen to be the one who discovers it. if i make a mistake then i write it up. it's to protect the patient.

just a postscript--i have written myself up so i don't think it's such a big deal--one day i had to write up a med error that someone else made and she really came down on me! go figure!

You bet. More than once. One time, we had a patient that was on Tylenol #3 for ages and ages. The Dr put him on Tyl. #2. I wrote "hold" on the back of his card and placed it behind his new ones. The policy at our place is that you have to keep it and count it with the other narcotics until the pharmacy person comes and takes it away. About a week later I was back on that unit. I took out his card and gave him his Tylenol. I looked at the card in horror when I went back to the med cart. So I phoned the charge nurse and said to her "I have good news and bad news. Which do you want first?" ...."Well, the good news is that we do not have to count Mr. C's Tylenol # 3 any more. I gave it instead of the Tylenol #2."

To me any incident is a learning experience. I have learned too that often there is a string of circumstances that lead up to the initial boo-boo.

+ Add a Comment