I made a mistake and I am terrified to go back to work

[DH1234]

Basically my pt's BP was high like Systolic BP of 170s and her base line has been like in 150s-160s. And I was looking at the orders of when to notify the Dr. but it said not to call unless systolic BP was greater than 180. And her BP did come down to the 160s by the end of my shift but that's not an excuse. And I did not know until the next night when the off going nurse giving me report that she had PRN meds for high blood pressure above 170. I feel like a fool how did I not catch this, and being a new nurse 4 weeks off of orientation does not excuse this mistake. I pretty much put my pt at harm. I just got my license, and I am already making mistakes to were I can lose it.

Be honest how bad of a mistake did I make? How do I go back to work, and face my manager and co-workers? Do nurses get fired for this action? I am just dreading going back to work because of this big screw up of mine. How do y'all get over mistakes.

[shamadi]

New nurse 3months off orientation here! I made similar mistake with a pt whom we were keeping intentionally permissive hypertension due to ischemic stroke. Order was to hold all BP meds for SBP under 140 but i gave it when sbp was 131 and caught my own mistake next day. I panicked so bad like you did so I talked to my previous preceptor and came clean to my manager as well. They all said it was just a simple mistake and not a big deal but just to learn from it!

Now I never miss any BP goal, parameters, prn meds and such. Don’t be so hard on yourself! I know how this feels but be glad mistake you made is not something serious

[beatrice1]

How is this order set up in the Emar . If patient is on parameters, then entering the B/P in should alert you to any PRN orders. Maybe going forward this could be an opportunity to make orders more clear to avoid errors or near misses. You are probably not the only one that has missed this

[Lynker, ASN, LPN]

5 hours ago, beatrice1 said:

How is this order set up in the Emar . If patient is on parameters, then entering the B/P in should alert you to any PRN orders. Maybe going forward this could be an opportunity to make orders more clear to avoid errors or near misses. You are probably not the only one that has missed this

Isn't this assuming they're on a computerized system though?

[beatrice1]

Hmm, I guess I did assume that. Curious now to know if it is or not

[Lynker, ASN, LPN]

Honestly, same lol. Glad my first job will be in a computerized facility. ?

[beatrice1]

1 minute ago, JabuJabule said:

Honestly, same lol. Glad my first job will be in a computerized facility. ?

Congratulations and good luck with your first Job! Honestly it is just as easy to make mistakes with computerized system, no matter what remember what you learned “5 checks” ?

[Lynker, ASN, LPN]

9 minutes ago, beatrice1 said:

Congratulations and good luck with your first Job! Honestly it is just as easy to make mistakes with computerized system, no matter what remember what you learned “5 checks” ?

Thank you so much! Much appreciate. I'm super excited. It's LTC overnights!

[Lucydog14]

It’s not a big screw up and no one will have noticed. Relax. As the others have said, familiarize yourself with the PRNs available.

[Paul Jman, ADN]

On 9/30/2019 at 1:30 PM, Here.I.Stand said:

Oh goodness, RaDonda Vaught didn’t even lose her license! Deep breath... it’ll be ok, just learn from this. ?

Actually, the board changed its mind and are going to revoke her license.

[Hani, BSN, RN, EMT-I]

For the last however many years my hospital jobs (well, the one I do now too) were all computer charting and entering, say, an elevated BP, it never popped up anything from the MAR, they were like different systems. I can't recall ever getting a prompt from entering in vitals or assessments. That's super cool though, I'd have loved to have had that.

When I first started everything was paper. I think we had one computer on the unit ?