How to own up and move on from mistakes

[hopefulmurse14]

Hello all!

I am a soon to be nursing student here in California and I just recently received a job as a patient companion at the hospital I have been interning at. For those whose hospitals title the position differently, my hospital uses patient companion's for patients who need 1:1 care: post-surgical dementia, detox, 5150, fall risk, combative, etc. My role is essentially to be next to the patient (or outside of the room if in the ED--never know what a patient on a hold is capable of) and assist the RNs and CNAs with basic hygiene and keeping the patient safe throughout their stay. I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience as a patient companion and have been able to handle some pretty intense assignments without any hiccups. That is until last week....

I was down in the ED and my patient was on a 24 hour hold for being brought in with an insanely high BAC the night prior. This patient was to be on hold until a psychiatric evaluator either cleared them as not being a danger to themselves or put them on a 5150. Long story short, my patient was cleared and the RN then began the discharge paperwork. My patient had been a handful all day: complaining about getting her seroquel and that the nurse was taking her sweat time doing everything and that her care was sub-par because she was in the "loonie bin" of the hospital. I did well at keeping the patient calm and comfortable but she really began to restless when the discharge process did not go as smoothly as possible.

Let me slightly back track as well. Prior to being cleared, the RN administered PO seroquel to the patient. Fast forward to being cleared and waiting for her discharge to be finished, the patient decides to walk out of her room and pick up her discharge information that a scribe had dropped off in a little cubbie type thing outside the room that holds the patients chart and any other important items. Well, it just so happens that the RN was also holding the patients own outpatient CVS prescription of seroquel in the cubbie (maybe because the patient was not suicidal and she thought it safe to be there with me watching the patient?). As the patient grabbed her discharge papers, she also grabbed her prescription bottle of seroquel that was right next to it. Not wanting a confrontation, I followed the patient back in her room, grabbed the medication bottle and told her, "I will put this in with your other belongings so it does not get lost." No sooner than I say that, the patient grabs her bottle because she wanted to make sure nobody stole some of her medication.

This is where I goofed up (sorry for the novel you have had to read until this point). I really did not want to cause any sort of confrontation that I felt was unnecessary, so I let the patient make sure that nobody had stolen her medication as she poured it out in her hand to count. I was completely alert and ready just in case she decided now was the time to harm herself by ingesting too many pills, but thankfully that did not happen. She did however manage to quickly pop 2 pills (a normal dose for her I'm assuming) into her mouth in a split second before putting the bottle back on the counter. Obviously this made my heart race and I quickly found the RN to cautiously explain how in the world I let this happen (even today I cannot believe what an idiot I was to let that happen).

The RN was obviously worried because she had already given the patient a dose of seroquel earlier in the morning from the order the doctor prescribed. The RN seemed very irritated at the fact that I had managed to mess up the very job I assigned to do....keep the patient safe at all costs, even if that means causing an argument with a patient who fighting comes second nature. The nurse let in on the patient, letting her know she takes too much medication and that she needs to be aware that she cannot do as she pleases while she is in her care, regardless of the fact that she was in the process of being discharged. I eventually got enough cojones to apologize to the nurse for what had occurred and asked if the patient was going to be alright. She had told me that the ER physician said that the combination of the patients personal seroquel and the dose given to her in the morning was not going to harm her and that the patient would still be getting discharged.

20 minutes go by, the patient gets changed, I walk her out to a cab waiting to pick her up and all is well except for the fact that I still felt like a complete idiot for screwing up. The nurse told me not to worry about it and that she was at fault as well for having the patients CVS prescription so close to the room but to just yell out for help if something similar happens in the future. Regardless, I took full blame for my mistake and I tried my best to move on.

The reason I am posting this is because I want to make sure that I do the right thing. The nurse said it was OK and not to worry about it (she still seemed a little irritated), but I just want to know if you guys think it is necessary to report this to my supervisor or if I should just leave it be?? I don't want to make a bigger deal about this than it needs to be because I don't want any blame to fall on the RN; however, I don't want to let this to slide and feel as if I got away with making a mistake. I am a hard working individual who takes pride in his accountability and I just want to make sure I do the right thing. Please let me know your thoughts so I can move on and stop beating myself up.