How do you move past a mistake?

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Specializes in Nursing.

Hello nurses, 

I made a mistake recently and I'm taking it pretty hard :-(

It was a big mistake, but luckily, no-one was hurt and the outcome was just fine. Not a med error, but I missed a step in an important process. It was accidental and definitely not intentional. 

I'm frustrated with myself, frustrated with nursing, frustrated with the busyness and the demands. Frustrated with a disorganized unit and constant chaos! And ultimately, the mistake is mine. I cannot blame anyone or anything. But I do see my distractedness as the cause. 

I'm overloaded, ashamed, embarrassed. Feel like I don't trust myself. I'm honestly thinking of leaving the ER environment for calmer pastures. 

Has anyone been through this? What did you do to feel OK again?

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Specializes in ER, Pre-Op, PACU.

Yes. I can name at least 10 mistakes off the top of my head right now. It happens to all of us....not because we are not good, competent nurses but because multiple priorities are going on and the ER really is disorganized chaos. 

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On 10/22/2020 at 5:03 PM, friendlylark said:

I'm frustrated with myself, frustrated with nursing, frustrated with the busyness and the demands. Frustrated with a disorganized unit and constant chaos!

 

On 10/22/2020 at 5:03 PM, friendlylark said:

ultimately, the mistake is mine. I cannot blame anyone or anything.

I pretty much walk a fine line between these two things. I guess deep down I don't really buy the idea that--no matter what inordinate amount of external pressure...and no matter that we are being timed and people have fantasies about us getting everything done instantly...and all the meddling and chaos--every individual is individually responsible for for the fall out from that. I can't help myself, I find fairness an important principle, and that ^ all is beyond unfair. It isn't even a natural unfairness, it's totally planned and almost completely unimportant to other "stakeholders."

On the other hand, I do take my duties seriously and believe we are indeed obligated to do everything humanly possible to operate safely, which, at the end of the day involves de-prioritizing a large amount of extraneous stuff that others really want from us.

I won't tell you not to worry about your error; I think it's best if we always take stock whenever something serious hasn't gone as it should have. Learn whatever lessons there are to learn and move on. Don't beat yourself up, that will not make one single thing better.

Lastly, if you find (over time) that you find the environment intolerable, don't tolerate it. Come up with plan B and get to work on that.

It'll be okay. ?

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Specializes in ER.

One good thing about mistakes are that they burn that bit of clinical information into your brain.  A wonderful learning tool!  I have a couple of personal bad judgements that I routinely bring up during classes that I teach.  These seem to be effective teaching tools.  People remember applicable cases better than abstract facts they've read.

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Human error is unavoidable.
That does not mean mistakes cannot be avoided and reduced.
Human error is a factor in our job that needs to be mitigated, but can't be wiped out.

That is a long way of saying we all make mistakes.  Sometimes that results in a bad outcome, and that is hard on us.

I have no idea whether leaving the ER is a good or bad idea for you.  But regardless, you can choose what you get from this error.  The fact that you accept responsibility is the first part, and is something many never even get to, so you are ahead of the game.

Good luck with whatever you do, and don't be hard on yourself for being human.

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