How Soon Should A Nurse Be Notified Of A Med Error?

[CruisNrn]

Hello,

Today, the DON at the place where I am employed notified me that I made a med error. She stated that I hung an incorrect ABT for a resident. The Don stated that she knows it was me because I initialed the bag and the next nurse went to hang her scheduled dose and noticed the error. There's two things that I have a bad habit of doing, not putting my initials on the IV bag itself and tossing the entire bag after my IV's are complete in the garbage, after removing the patient information from the bag. I stated to the DON that I never inital the bag and I always throw them away afterwards. I asked her when this incident occured and she replied oh about a month ago, I asked her why I was not notifed of this when it happened and she stated that she was very busy and had so many things to take care of and that she had to investigate it. I then asked to review the report so I could see the exact date and medication infomation. She begin to look around in a drawer with scattered paperwork and said oh it must be out waiting for the MD's signiture. This all sounds very strange to me. I am currently having to deal with the same exact person trying to force me into a nursing supervisor position I am not qualified for I actually was forced into the position one night without training or prior notification and was very concerned. I've refused this responsibility several times sincetim even after explaining my concerns to the DON over and over again. I really hate to think this, but it really seemed to me that she may be picking r/t my refusal of the supervisor position and may be looking for reason to terminate my employment. I would love to hear your comments.

[OttawaRPN]

When I worked in LTC, I was once written up for a med error about 3.5 weeks after the alleged incident. It was a "med error action plan" requiring me to indicate what contributed to my making the error and plan of action I will take to prevent another error. The only other info, on this paper was my name, and "dilaudid 0.5 mg s/c given when order was 1 mg" and the date/time and resident's name.

And so I asked for proof, show me the MAR and the individual narc sheet. Well, the resident was dead so that wasn't so easy since her chart went to storage, but I was still expected to sign it "because they said so." To make a long story short... I categorically refused to sign it until the documentation was proven to me. Guess what? They couldn't be bothered to pull the info out of storage so suddenly and miraculously, I never heard anything about the incident since.

Moral of this story: Stand up for your rights. Do not admit to anything until they provide you with proof. You are innocent until proven guilty, but management will try to bully and intimidate you into guilty until proven innocent.

[systoly]

"Oh, about a month ago" really? When was the physician notified? What was the physicians response, when and where was it documented. Where is the medication error report form and when was it filed with the state? I'm not sure what ABT is, but it sounds like a piggy bag anyway. That stuff is expensive and not routinely stocked, so where did the allegedly wrong bag come from? Are we dealing with two med errors here? She was too busy to promptly follow up on a situation that puts patients at risk for serious injury??? This is a serious allegation - I'd nail her to the wall. You just don't play with this.