I just got written up for the first time...agh..

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Specializes in Ortho, Case Management, blabla.

I got wrote up for the first time today. I had a patient on a heparin drip in prep for surgery tomorrow morning. I work the 7am-7pm shift.

At 6:15pm, the ortho (bone) surgeon visited as I was working on a new surgical admit that was puking all over the place. He wrote some orders that I never saw regarding the heparin drip. At 6:55pm, the anesthesiologist visited and mentioned he'd like the drip turned off at 2:30am if okay with the cardiologist. I wrote the order in the computer. As an afterthought, and in a huge hurry to get my work done and report off, I accidentally wrote the order in the pt's roommate's chart (wrong chart).

It is worth mentioning that we double chart physician orders where I work. Once in the chart, and once in the computer. We just started doing this last week. We never used paper charts for verbal or telephone physician orders up until just recently. The physicians still write in the charts though.

I reported off to the oncoming nurse and explained in extreme detail what needed to be done with the heparin drip.

At 8:30pm my coworker called and basically said, "Hey the ortho doc wrote an order to turn off the drip at midnight. And I made a bunch of phone calls to the cardiologist. Then I noticed that you had written the order from the anesthesiologist in the wrong chart."

Oops...

I say,

A)The patient's roommate wasn't even on a heparin drip, so I'm comfortable that no one was ever in any danger due to my error. (we get patients on heparin drips on our floor like once a month at the most)

B)I never saw, acknowledged, nor signed off on the ortho doc's order. The HUC processed the order and in the chaos of the end of shift she didn't communicate it to me.

C)I was doing what the anesthesiologist (a physician) ordered me to do..

I guess that doesn't matter that I ordered everything correctly in the computer. The computer is where the real work gets done anyways, the written charts are just a papertrail (as of last week). Because I'm being written up over it. Coworker says, "This isn't something we can just walk away from here."

Egads.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

I'm so sorry this is happening to you, and I definitely will not pass judgment on you regarding what occurred to cause this disciplinary action to be taken.

As a personal recipient of write-ups in the past, I can tell you that the disciplinary process is sometimes unjust, hurtful, and decreases employee morale. On the bright side, be aware that worse things could have happened.

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Specializes in LTC, ER.

Yeah, it feels bad, but as long as the patient wasn't harmed you'll feel better. We've all made med errors, many much worse, and you always feel horrible, but just make sure that you learn the lesson so you don't make that same error again.

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Sounds like an honest error, anyway. Thanks for sharing it here, so we can all be watchful of ourselves with our own stuff. I always appreciate that and I also try to share my mistakes with other new folks.

No one was harmed, that is the main thing.

I'm sure I'll be on here reporting my own huge mistakes very soon.

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Specializes in Tele.

I agree. it's horrible being written up about a mistake. Thankfully no-one was hurt.

and you are new!

Everyone makes mistakes- I know I already have one error under my belt and I've been working as RN only 5 months-

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Specializes in Ortho, Case Management, blabla.
I'm so sorry this is happening to you, and I definitely will not pass judgment on you regarding what occurred to cause this disciplinary action to be taken.

As a personal recipient of write-ups in the past, I can tell you that the disciplinary process is sometimes unjust, hurtful, and decreases employee morale. On the bright side, be aware that worse things could have happened.

I don't really feel it was unjust. I wrote in the wrong chart. I admit it and accept full responsibility (although I haven't seen the actual charting I did to confirm this, I'm assuming the nurse that told me was correct). Guilty as charged. I had plenty of chances to not make the mistake (like as in reading the name on the chart before I wrote the order). I'm interested in seeing exactly what is written in the incident report/write up though.

You're right about hurting morale though. One of the main reasons I decided to work where I am now was due to the computer charting. I felt it was like working at the hospital of the future. Now we are reverting back to paper charting. The physicians still get to chart on paper. The charting is all over the place and it is hard to keep up with. This double charting stuff is getting ridiculous, and the official line about the double charting was "more time at the bedside"!!! Haha...right. It should either be on paper or on the computer. Period. That's my opinion. The best I can hope for out of this is that it goes through the proper channels and affects some sort of positive change throughout the hospital. I hate to be a statistic though, but they have to realize that changing the policies every other month is setting the nurses up for failure.

The main thing that sucks is that I've caught errors like this in the past, brought it to the coworker's attention, and allowed them to correct their mistake (everything was non-harmful). Oddly enough, one of them involved the coworker that wrote me up, so I guess I feel a bit backstabbed over the whole thing that they jumped to that official step instead of bringing it to my attention and letting me fix it, but whatever.

So far my record at work has been spotless. I recently made the change from nights to days in one of the charge positions plus acquired a nurse extern to supervise; as you can imagine the last 2 weeks have been very tough for me. Flipping my life around and also adjusting to being a mentor to a nursing student.

Yeah, it feels bad, but as long as the patient wasn't harmed you'll feel better. We've all made med errors, many much worse, and you always feel horrible, but just make sure that you learn the lesson so you don't make that same error again.

I don't really feel this was a med error. Again, the first thing out of my mouth was that I was comfortable that no one was ever in any danger due to this. And like I said in the post, it was written correctly in the computer (which is where the MAR is located and the work gets done anyways). Plus I literally spelled out exactly what needed to be done in report, step by step, so there was no room for error on my coworker's part. Of course, I missed the orthopod's order (I'm sure that will figure into the writeup at some part); nevermind I had fresh post-op patient that was puking arrive literally in the middle of the physician's visit.

I agree. it's horrible being written up about a mistake. Thankfully no-one was hurt.

and you are new!

I'm not that new. I've been there a year. The physician that wrote the end at midnight order is notoriously non-communicative and I should have known better. I'm pretty pensive about the whole thing.

I think the best thing I can do is buckup, bite the bullet, and pay more attention to what I'm doing. I guess it should have been one of those "stay late" days but whatever. It's always been my philosophy that I make mistakes. To err is human. I rarely make the same mistake twice. And really what I did completely defies the laws of common sense. I just needed to vent about getting written up because it sucks!!

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Specializes in Ortho, Case Management, blabla.
I'm sure I'll be on here reporting my own huge mistakes very soon.

No, don't think like that. You're setting yourself up for failure. Just put your best foot forward and pay attention to what you're doing!! (lol I'm one to talk, right?)

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Getting "written up" just feels like high school. Yes, we must be accountable for our own nursing practice, but "written up" is a huge morale problem for nurses. For the record, I have been written up 2x in my 1.5 years as a LPN; first time I mouthed off at the Director of Janitorial Services, i.e., the janitor and he is our superior in the chain of command. Second time, I told the Director of Food Services, i.e., the kitchen help, that sending up meal plates on the dirty linen dumbwaiter was not acceptable on my watch. Got written up again because the nurses in our 54 bed facility are supposed to be subservient to janitors and busboys. LOL

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Specializes in LTC, ER.

Sorry november551, I didn't realize that it was caught before the ordered 2400 d/c. However, in my facility it would still be considered a "near miss" and should be written up. I have personally written several med error reports up on myself- however not for a near miss. I often bring potential errors to the attention of the professional involved, and would only write a person up/make a med error report if it was the kind of situation where the person shows a complete lack of knowledge, or the kind of collosal error that a reasonably prudent professional would not make, i.e., the nurse that gave a pt like 30 gm of dilantin iv and killed her. In a situation where you intercept that kind of error you have to write it up.

Yeah I can see where you may think that you were backstabbed, since the actual error was caught, and the potential error was something that could have happened to anyone.

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Specializes in Ortho, Case Management, blabla.

Yeah I can see where you may think that you were backstabbed, since the actual error was caught, and the potential error was something that could have happened to anyone.

The potential error being that a heparin drip would be stopped on a person that didn't have a heparin drip in the first place. oh well...I'll be more careful in the future.

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Specializes in LTC, ER.
The potential error being that a heparin drip would be stopped on a person that didn't have a heparin drip in the first place. oh well...I'll be more careful in the future.

I thought that the potential error was that the drip would have been d/c'd at the wrong time d/t the order not being placed into the correct pt's chart.

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Specializes in Ortho, Case Management, blabla.
I thought that the potential error was that the drip would have been d/c'd at the wrong time d/t the order not being placed into the correct pt's chart.

Nah, the order was entered correctly into the electronic medical record system.

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