Got my first "med discrepancy" form

[kmarie724]

I've made my first official med error. The other day I overlooked a resident's Levaquin on the MAR and forgot to give it to her. I'm not beating myself up over it, but I'm kind of bummed that I made such a stupid mistake. I usually look over the MARs at the end of my shift to make sure I didn't miss anything, but that night I was busy so I didn't and I should have because I did miss something.

[praying_mantis]

Dont be too hard on yourself....it could have been alot worse. At least you didnt give the wrong me to the wrong pt, and at least the pt wasnt harmed! Now you will be extra vigilant about checking your MARS!

[Jules A, MSN]

Just take it as a lesson learned. Hang in there!

[earned RN 2008]

Med errors are lessons to be learned, whether it is your error or someone else's. I agree with praying mantis......it could've been worse.

[mume2mykidz]

I hate to say this but this is a common error with nurses when it comes to an added med like antibiotics,I would worry more about wrong med or wrong patient,I myself am big on giving the med and then missing the small block on the MARS and no matter how carefull I am I miss them,I pull the meds on the page,then recheck them and pop them out and go down and sign the block then turn the page and still i may miss a block somehow....most nurses go back and sign all meds at end of shift but there is no way I can do that especially in LTC

[starletRN]

Here's a tip also. A lesson I just learned recently. Before the start of your shift check each MAR page before giving meds.

One day I got MARs from the off-going nurse and found out later that one of Patient #1's MAR pages was stuck right in the middle of Patient #2's MARS. I could have easily given a whole page of meds to the wrong patient!

Fortunately, I caught it in time but not before almost stroking out in the med room. LOL

[Footballnut]

Omissions are not fun errors to make. However like some of the other posters said, there are worse things. I work with a nurse that says she has never made a mistake. I seriously doubt anyone who says that.

There are so many ways to make errors. I just make sure that I have checked everything, and I mean everything before I give meds. I have the doctor's order in front of me or I verbalize the order back to the MD, I recheck the labeling of the med, I verbally check with the patient their identifiers and allergies and tell them what I am giving and what I expect it to do. If I am giving meds to another nurse's patient I make sure they are not duplicated by checking charting and checking with the nurse. I make sure the dose is reasonable sounding and I watch my patient's responses. I do all of this and more in a short, timely manner. The point is that I am amazed that we do as well as we do. Keep up the faith! Your careful development of good habits will pay off.

[ANH_RN]

That won't be the last time you make a mistake. I once forgot to give a 0100 dose of Lasix to a pt in CHF (he was in BAD CHF, too). Yeah. That made me feel like the best nurse ever.