I recently got a job in a private hospital. Now the hospital i work with has different policy and procedures in administering medication. I made two medication error in the first two days. The first one was an error in medication dosage for someone else's patinet . I administered the wrong dose cause the nurse who told me to give it was not clear about the units of measurment and just gave me a number so i administered the med in ml where it should have been mcg. This happened in icu enviroment where nurses are allowed to adjust medication dosage within certain parameters .the second one i gave a medication which was in an incomplete order. This happens alot in where i work and most often the med team come and complete the order later on when doing rounds. I administered this medication for bp according to previous day dosage .
In both accident nothing happened and i acknowledges my mistakes and reported them.
This facility did not organise an orientation for me whwn i commenced working so i went with what i was used to in that enviroment from previous experiance .
My magaer said it will be fine and that i will hopefully get shifts . However after putting many shifts down and not getting any i got the hint that i will no longer get any shifts . Later on in 2 months time i recieved a call that i was fired .
I was thinking about making a complaint firstly bc i was never orientated and secondly they waited 2 months before letting me know .
I apologised to my manager after accidents and filled out an incident form .
Does anyone have any such experiance and should i make a complaint ?
Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
I would say fired not so much for medication errors as for unsafe practice. There is a difference. Not taking the time to review the order/MAR? That's unsafe practice.
Specializes in Mental Health, Gerontology, Palliative.
for the love of god always always, always check any med calculation even as a second checker.
If the first nurse is rushing you say something along the lines of 'appreciate you are in a rush I'm not going to sign this until I have double checked the numbers"
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
I noticed that in the original post, the OP referred to his/her place of employment as a "private hospital". This had me wondering if maybe they were not in the US?
Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.
I hope this is not for real because if it is, it is truly terrifying. This is basic nursing fundamentals. It doesn't matter how long your orientation was or wasn't, if you can't practice safely as a nurse you shouldn't be one!
SouthernBelle85
97 Posts
Right Patient
Right Drug
Right Dose
Right Route
Right Time
You check 3 times.