Has anyone made a medication error and *not* get fired for it?

Nurses Medications

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I screwed up tonight, plain and simple. I had meds pulled for two patients and started giving meds to one patient. I pulled the pills in their packages out of the cup and told him each med and their dosage. The second after he put the cup to his lips, an "oh ****" comes out from under my breath. I realized that what I had given him was intended for the other patient and that I had made an error. I walked back to the nursing station, told another nurse, told the charge nurse, called the doc, got an order for Benadryl to prevent any undue reactions, however unlikely, filled out an occurrence report, documented in the chart (without saying it was an error) and made it through the rest of my shift. Everyone was telling me that it was okay and I did the right thing, but I'm terrified. I'm thinking about calling my supervisor in the morning and admitting my screw-up before she gets the wrong idea. Is this nuts?

Had a co-worker to get her "first and final" write up when she ALMOST gave a patient a Heparin injection. While re-checking her meds in the room she realized he was not on the med. The patient's wife realized what she said and informed our DON of the incident. Same nurse had a patient to fall a month later (and every fall precaution we have was in use) and she was fired.

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Specializes in ICU.
Dazglue said:
Had a co-worker to get her "first and final" write up when she ALMOST gave a patient a Heparin injection. While re-checking her meds in the room she realized he was not on the med. The patient's wife realized what she said and informed our DON of the incident. Same nurse had a patient to fall a month later (and every fall precaution we have was in use) and she was fired.

That is INSANE. What a toxic facility. I sure hope I never end up working there... I can't imagine anyone with any sense thinking writing someone up for catching an error before it happened is a good thing. If I saw anything like that happen with a coworker I'd be out of there fast!

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Specializes in Oncology.
PeepnBiscuitsRN said:
Found a seasoned nurse had hung straight D5....on a diabetic. Was she fired? No.

While obviously if this wasn't the fluid ordered that's an error, there's nothing wrong with hanging D5 on someone, even a diabetic in the right circumstances.

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@ calivianya For some reason it won't let me reply/quote your comment. But yes this is TOXIC environment. I won't go into details but this is small compared to the other crap they have pulled. I LOVE the facility where I work but this unit is the worse. They have the highest turnover rate for a reason. I'm trying to transfer but whenever you mention the word "transfer" to the boss, she writes you up. So now I'm forced to look at other hospitals. Now I see why there has NEVER been a person on this unit to transfer to another floor under the new boss...and she's been here for almost ten years. I've only been there for two years and I'm the longest employee working on the floor.

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I made an error and no, i did not get fired. But I was so depressed about it and nervous that i couldn't sleep or eat. We all make mistakes and you fessed up. Don't worry about it....you are human:) all of these experiences contribute to becoming a more conscientious nurse!!

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Specializes in ICU, CM, Geriatrics, Management.

Made only one that was discovered... minor incident. Agreed to hang another nurse's IV who had fallen behind due to an admission. Didn't read the order for the antibiotic she had already removed from the fridge. She was an excellent nurse.

Turned out the dose had been increased that day, and we still had a bag with the old dose. Tell ya what, since that write-up, I've never "trusted" anyone with having pulled a med they want me to administer. Live and learn!

I'm sure I've made other med errors through the years... none of any real significance to the patient.

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Specializes in ICU, CM, Geriatrics, Management.

BTW, this past weekend, we found five med errors (same error repeated five consecutive days).

Med was ordered daily. But was placed on MAR with admin times of 9a and 9p.

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Specializes in Hospice.

I have made a med error, just talked to me.

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Specializes in Oncology.
Quote
BTW, this past weekend, we found five med errors (same error repeated five consecutive days).

Med was ordered daily. But was placed on MAR with admin times of 9a and 9p.

We has two different patients on my unit on the same relatively uncommon IV medication. It came in a big glass bottle so it wouldn't fit in their drawers on the med cart and just sat there on top of the cart. Two different times in one week, two different nurses hung the wrong patient's bottle on their patient. Both times in was caught when the next nurse went to give her dose. I was there the first time, and charge the second time. When on the second day the nurse came to tell me she can't find Fred's dose, only Bob's was there, I was just like, seriously?!? Marched into Bob's room, yep, there's Fred's dose hanging. Pharmacy started highlighting the names on the bottles after that.

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Specializes in DD, Mental Health, Geriatric.
\ said:

I made a big error in the first couple months of my first nursing job. Pt being discharged we sent 3 days of meds home in ziploc bags for every pt. we were short on bags so ADON told me to double up meds in one bag and mark which two meds were on there. I wrote all dosages correctly on discharge papers but when I wrote them on the ziploc bags I accidentally doubled the dose of Lasix. Pt went off the bag and not the discharge paper. He ended up being fine after going to ER as a precaution but I cried for days! My boss put me on 30 day probation and I had to prove how I was going to stay organized. I had 30 long term care and rehab patients the day I discharged that patient, I was just really overwhelmed with wounds, g tubes, etc. not an excuse though and I am super careful now , triple check every tiny thing I give.

Oh, I feel for you. We are only human, not machines, so even triple checking sometimes mistakes happen. For instances, I will follow the five rights, triple check and go back and recheck and once out of a hundred times I'll miss an initial or forget to write the date on the blisterpack where the med was popped out. I'm a nervous wreck til I get it straightened out, though. But thankfully I work at a place where we try to help each other out.

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Specializes in ICU, CM, Geriatrics, Management.
Skayda said:
... We are only human, not machines, so even triple checking sometimes mistakes happen...

Agree with the sentiment here.

While we aspire to minimize / manage them, med errors will always be around IMHO.

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Specializes in Family Medicine.

I almost made one last night.

The patient's wife was telling me I was such a great nurse. Ironic, because while she was doing this, I was about to hang an incorrect IVPB. Luckily, I always look at the label closely one last time before programming the pump and caught the error before I hit, "start."

On a side note, it's funny how patients/their family members define a, "great nurse." Interpersonal skills/customer service skills are all they seem to consider when making this determination. I had gotten her pillows, blankets, fresh ice water, etc. right before I almost hung the wrong IVPB. Even after the incident, they sung my praises. Probably, because they were too distracted by my excellent customer service skills (gag me) to notice my nursing skills were actually sub-par.

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