How have you handled your errors?

[KatrinaPM]

I mean the types of errors where there is an incident report made up and families are informed of the mistake. Do you take care of those babies the next night? How do you handle the parents? How do you handle yourself? And how do you handle your co-workers knowing that a mistake has been made and you were the stupid one to do it?

What's been your experience or your perceived experience of other nurses who've done it?

TIA

[Humbled_Nurse]

That can be a tough situation to be in. Fortunately, I haven't had an error big enough that the parents needed to be aware, but I did follow a nurse that had put the TPN and IL in the wrong chambers so the TPN was going at the IL rate and vice versa. This went on all night and needless to say this baby almost died. This baby was already a sick micropreemie. I had the baby the following night and the parents had some understanding of what happened. They were asking me a lot of questions, but I told them they would need to direct their questions to the doctor. I think the best thing to do in those situations is let the doctor talk with the parents because if you say to much and it isn't accurate it could be held against you in a court of law. Unfortunately, bad things happen in hospitals. Usually not intentionally, but they happen. If the mistake is harmful to the baby it can be very devastating to your career and to you personally. If I ever made a significant mistake that harmed or killed a baby I would probably just have to leave nursing. It's important that we learn from our own mistakes and other people's mistakes. We can never be too careful!