Has anyone ever experienced inattentional blindness? It's when you miss something right in front of your eyes. I'm thinking about writing an article on the many different ways we make mistakes.
I read where a group of radiologists were given a chest Xray to view and many failed to notice that there was a missing clavicle!
I remember driving through a red light on my way home after a night shift. I didn't see the red light, and I may have never known, except that a policeman pulled me over. He saw my stethoscope and just gave me a warning. You can imagine how much it shook me up.
Wonder if anyonelse has had a similar experience? I suspect there's a lot more to the science of making mistakes that we realize.
Just FYI, on the road, it's called 'highway hypnosis', an incident that's more common than many think. The driver just hops into the car, and next thing he knows, he's at his destination. As another poster commented "very unsettling".
...and the feeling like ice water running down your spine when it hits you that you can't remember a thing about the drive.
I have this all the time with things that are trivial and simple, but I've always been the type that complicates the snot out of tasks that aren't complicated. My mom always said I had no common sense and sadly she was right!
I get so angry with myself though when I'm in the supply room, can't find the 2×2's or what have you only for it to be right in front of my face.
Maybe that's visual overload stimuli and you're a highly sensitive person (HSP)
I once went to the store accidentally leaving my 21mo old son at home. I brought the other son who was 4. I got to the store and realized I only had one son and ran home. He was playing quietly.
I once went to the store accidentally leaving my 21mo old son at home. I brought the other son who was 4. I got to the store and realized I only had one son and ran home. He was playing quietly.
Thank goodness nothing happened. No one (nurses included) ever gets up with the intention of making a mistake. Do you think it made you more compassionate to others who make mistakes?
Specializes in Psychiatry, Community, Nurse Manager, hospice.
Expectation is built into perception.
You can easily overlook something when you aren't expecting it. By the same token, you can see something that isn't really there when you fully expect it to be there. Like the docs who saw a clavicle when there was no clavicle.
I have discovered that finding something that is lost is so much harder when you say stuff like "Its gone. I can't find it anywhere." Your brain believes you.
When I lose something I say out loud, "I'm going to find it. It's here somewhere I just haven't seen it yet." It really helps!
Thank goodness nothing happened. No one (nurses included) ever gets up with the intention of making a mistake. Do you think it made you more compassionate to others who make mistakes?
It happened so long ago I don't think about it often. My toddler hadn't noticed I was gone for no more than 20 minutes.
Just FYI, on the road, it's called 'highway hypnosis', an incident that's more common than many think. The driver just hops into the car, and next thing he knows, he's at his destination. As another poster commented "very unsettling".
Once I ended up figuring out some bad news in my life and driving home on the usual highway with my two young children. I was so focused on the bad news, that I missed the turn onto a different highway that goes to my home and I ended up 40 miles down the road to a small mountain town. And all of a sudden, realized I was in the wrong place. I have no memory of driving there. I was on autopilot that didn't work very well.
Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
4 hours ago, Nurse Beth said:
Thank goodness nothing happened. No one (nurses included) ever gets up with the intention of making a mistake. Do you think it made you more compassionate to others who make mistakes?
Well, she realized he wasn't with her and ran right back home. I'd have less compassion for her if she'd given him a med without even checking the label and then left him to sleep while she went off and finished her shopping. ?
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
4 hours ago, Nurse Beth said:
Thank goodness nothing happened. No one (nurses included) ever gets up with the intention of making a mistake. Do you think it made you more compassionate to others who make mistakes?
I'm thinking that there is very good evidence on two very active threads that this is not the case.
I once went to the store accidentally leaving my 21mo old son at home. I brought the other son who was 4. I got to the store and realized I only had one son and ran home. He was playing quietly.
That must have been SO frightening! Of course you ran straight home!
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CharleeFoxtrot, BSN, RN
840 Posts
...and the feeling like ice water running down your spine when it hits you that you can't remember a thing about the drive.