made my first med error today at work; gave a patient a discontinued 7.5 mg lortab fo.r pain
i knew she had always had this med pr for pain in the past, but for some reason, i didnt check the mar before i gave it.
what makes me feel more worse is the fact that the package no longer even had"prn" written on it (though she has had it prn in the past), and for some reason i just went on that "assumption", instead of checking on the actual mar and rechecking the label on the med pack (stupid i know)
im even more upset about the fact that this med had been d/c for 2 weeks now (the pt was d/c to a hospital for surgery during that time), and no one even bothered to take the d/c med out of the cart to help prevent any error (though i take full responsibility).
felt like a idiot trying to explain what happened to the DON. this is the second time im being written up this month(first time was for missing a dressing change). the administrator warned me from here on out i cant let anything like this happen again (which is understandable), but this means im basically hanging onto a thin piece of thread as far as my position goes for a really long time.
i know safety of the pt comes first, and i assessed and reassesed her throughout the shift, and she had no complaints. totally fine. but the administrator told me they have to notify the fam as well, and im terrified cause they have given us a hard time lately (dropping hints that theyre ready to sue :S if anything goes wrong)
im thinking its probably time to throw in the towel...god it's like everytime i make a mistake and learn it, another comes out of nowhere...all i wanted was to be the best nurse i can be...
im seeing the don tommorow, and im thinking of resigning before she fires me....my self esteemis at an all time low now
