I got written up for leaving a saline flush in a patient's room. I had went in the room with it already having the plastic cannula on it, ready to use, but the previous shift didn't tell me that the patient was getting an IV at TKO, so turns out I didn't need it. I didn't throw it in the sharps container. I think I left it on the IV pump. So, the next night, I received a med error report in my mailbox, saying I left a "syringe with an unknown medication in it in a patient's room". The patient didn't even have IV push meds ordered, and the syringe already had "NORMAL SALINE" printed on it, so it couldn't have been an unknown med. So, on paper, it just looks bad, when in reality, it's something that every nurse has probably done on accident without discipline. I'm starting to think that if the next shift has time to write up reports like this on me, then they're probably over-staffed or is out to get me. Has anyone been written up for something like this? Or have you written someone up for this kind of thing? I realize what I did was wrong, but filling out a report with "unknown medication" on it seems petty to me. This could have easily been resolved with a quick, "Oh, by the way, here's something to remember..." Any thoughts? And how can I defend myself well on this? It just doesn't look good when the only thing I can think of to say in defense was that I was ditzy at that moment.
