Should I report my own error?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I was pulling a patient's medication and continuusly got interrupted.

I always pull the narcs last. But somehow at the end of my shift,

I was making sure my count was right before the next nurse came on.

I noticed that I signed off on the narcs but in fact I didn't give it.

How should I address this? any advice?

I was pulling a patient's medication and continuusly got interrupted.

I always pull the narcs last. But somehow at the end of my shift,

I was making sure my count was right before the next nurse came on.

I noticed that I signed off on the narcs but in fact I didn't give it.

How should I address this? any advice?

The count should be over then, right? That's pretty easy to fix and to explain, if so.

The count should be over then, right? That's pretty easy to fix and to explain, if so.

Yes been about two weeks since this happened.

I've tried calling the Unit manager to explain but she hasn't returned my calls as of yet.

Yes been about two weeks since this happened.

I've tried calling the Unit manager to explain but she hasn't returned my calls as of yet.

If two weeks passed for this error, I would probably just forget about it ...especially if no one was concerned enough to bother contacting me.

If two weeks passed for this error, I would probably just forget about it ...especially if no one was concerned enough to bother contacting me.

Thanks!!

Specializes in Pedi.

It seems pretty straightforward to me. When I worked in the hospital, if we pulled a PO narcotic and the patient then didn't take it, if the package was unopened we could return it to the Pyxis (with a witness) or if the package had been opened or it was a liquid suspension, waste it (with a witness) and document the waste in the Pyxis. That would fix the discrepancy.

We counted the Pyxis once/week on Sunday nights and we found overages with narcotics all the time. Mostly it was because this was pediatrics and the Pyxis wanted us to pull out a full mL for every 0.1 mL that was needed and waste the rest. It wouldn't let you say that you were taking out 1.2 mL, for example, it would only record that you were taking out 2 mL and wasting 0.8 mL. After this happening a few times, there was quite a bit of "extra" medication in the bottle. We just corrected it and made a comment about overage of liquid medication.

Specializes in ED, Cardiac-step down, tele, med surg.

Yeah, I'd report it but if they didn't respond I'd forget about it.

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