Medication Error

Nursing Students General Students

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  1. Has anyone else done this?

    • 23
      Yes
    • 10
      No

33 members have participated

Hey everyone,

I am not a nurse yet, I am in school for my RN. I made a medication error and now I feel like I should never be a nurse. Does anyone else feel this way? The patient was not harmed because of it and I honestly just didn't go over my 6 rights well enough. I now how the 6 rights written on my badge so I will always do it but it was a dumb mistake and I feel terrible. My job does not take lightly to this either. I really just question my ability to be an RN after this. I love school and do well and love my job and patients. Am I the only one to make a mistake?

Thank you, my work is not cool about this and I feel awful. They make it seem like it has never been done before.

They have all made errors, trust me. They are just making you feel rotten so that you will feel so badly that you might very well never make another error in your whole career.

Those who don't make errors are working in an area where they don't give meds.

Don't keep bringing it up, don't tell the whole staff. Just learn from it and carry on.

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Basically the only difference between my RN and I is that an RN can give narcotics and start iv's.

Sorry to be a stickler but for those who don't know better I must point out that this ^ most certainly is not true.

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OP, the first time I made a med error (I did not give an ordered vitamin) I expected police helicopters to be flying over my house and the police coming to arrest me. I think the majority of nurses have made a med error in some form or another. The biggest thing (and the absolute hardest) is admitting it. If you didn't feel bad after making an error that would be much more concerning. Learn from it, and move on. It's embarrassing and humbling but I make a point of when I have new grads or students letting them know I made an error so hopefully they can learn from my experience.

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Specializes in Palliative, Onc, Med-Surg, Home Hospice.
Medical assistant can admin meds and vaccines. I know I messed up but I do have an associates degree for medical assisting. They don't have to verify anything. And I don't work in a Pcp office either. Basically the only difference between my RN and I is that an RN can give narcotics and start iv's.

Nope, sorry. There is a lot more difference between RN and MA. The RN scope of practice is quite different than the MA.

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Basically the only difference between my RN and I is that an RN can give narcotics and start iv's.[/quote

There is a tremendously large difference between RN and MA...

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No, physicians are not required to do that. However, MAs are still required to perform the 5 Rights, just like nurses do. This did not happen.

Even if it is true in all/any states that physicians are not required to physically verify that the medical assistant has the correct vaccine/medication before the MA goes in to the patient to administer it, this doesn't mean that it wouldn't be good practice for the physician to do this from a patient safety point of view. Medical assistants do not have near to the training that RN's do. RN's have a lot more education backing up their use of the "five rights" than medical assistants do, and are not immune to making mistakes with medication administration.

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

I disagree that an MA cannot adequately learn the 5 Rights and safely administer certain medications without direct physician supervision, within parameters (for example, when I worked clinic, MAs were not allowed to administer IM antibiotics because it required admixing). MAs do it all the time, in clinics all over the country.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Hey everyone,

I am not a nurse yet, I am in school for my RN. I made a medication error and now I feel like I should never be a nurse. Does anyone else feel this way? The patient was not harmed because of it and I honestly just didn't go over my 6 rights well enough. I now how the 6 rights written on my badge so I will always do it but it was a dumb mistake and I feel terrible. My job does not take lightly to this either. I really just question my ability to be an RN after this. I love school and do well and love my job and patients. Am I the only one to make a mistake?

Everyone makes mistakes. Every single person. There is no one who is perfect, although there may be some who will tell you they are. They're either liars or too stupid or arrogant to realize they've made a mistake.

Congratulations -- you've made your first mistake. Now there will be NO doubt in your mind that you are capable of making a mistake. That's huge. If you're convinced that you're too smart, vigilant or special to ever make a mistake, you're unlikely to realize it when you inevitably make one.

The mark of a good nurse isn't in whether or not they've ever made a mistake. It's in what they do after they've made one. A good nurse realizes when a mistake is made, admits it, and immediately sets about mitigating the damage or potential damage to the patient. They contact the pharmacy to see what their recommendations are, inform the provider and they're the first ones to tell their manager about the mistake. They express remorse, demonstrate that they know how serious the mistake could have been for the patient, and are accountable. They take full responsibility for their error, figure out how they made the mistake and have a plan for preventing it from ever happening again. And then they forgive themselves. Sounds like you're doing the right things.

If you've already talked to your manager, the next thing is to forgive yourself. That's the most difficult step for most of us, but it's really important. If you cannot forgive yourself, you're setting yourself up to make more mistakes because of your anxiety.

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Hey everyone,

I am not a nurse yet, I am in school for my RN. I made a medication error and now I feel like I should never be a nurse. Does anyone else feel this way? The patient was not harmed because of it and I honestly just didn't go over my 6 rights well enough. I now how the 6 rights written on my badge so I will always do it but it was a dumb mistake and I feel terrible. My job does not take lightly to this either. I really just question my ability to be an RN after this. I love school and do well and love my job and patients. Am I the only one to make a mistake?

Everyone makes mistakes when starting out, I have not met a perfect nurse yet, myself included ;-)

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Everyone makes mistakes. The best you can do is minimize them, own up to it, and figure out how you can avoid doing it again. Never skip steps.

I work in a hospital and we pull meds from the Pyxis. I noticed I was one of the only ones who actually took that extra second to look at the medication that I pulled when I was pulling it. The other day I was in a hurry and didn't double check. When I was at bedside scanning my vials before drawing up meds and administering them the MAR warned me that the medication I just scanned did not match the MAR. When I looked closer I had a vial of propanalol not zofran. I honestly don't know if I pulled from the wrong cubby or if someone dropped a vial of propranolol in the Zofran cubby.

I didn't actually administer the medication and I'll never know if I would have noticed when drawing up the medication but lesson learned. I won't skip that initial check again because I'm in a hurry and their is a line behind me at the PYXIS.

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I noticed I was one of the only ones who actually took that extra second to look at the medication that I pulled when I was pulling it.

A very good practice, good for you. I do the same - - it's not that uncommon to find that a wrong vial has made its way into a particular cubby. When I thought about that I forced myself to develop the habit of conscientiously reading the label as I'm removing something from the med dispenser.

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Specializes in Med-surg, school nursing..
Sorry to be a stickler but for those who don't know better I must point out that this ^ most certainly is not true.

JKL, I typically love what you post, but must disagree here.

When I worked in a doctors office, there was absolutely NO difference in the tasks that I performed and the ones the MA's performed. The only reason they even hired me as an RN was because they had planned on giving IV fluids in office, which never happened, which is why I left for a hospital.

Just sayin', the only difference between me and the MA's, was my pay.

Also, as another poster asked, the doctor would order the immunization and we would draw it up and give it, no verification by anyone.

I remember once I accidentally forgot to mix the powder and solution for a vaccine and just gave the solution. I felt horrible. The only harm I did was the patient had to get another vaccine, but still. I cried and cried lol

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