This morning, which is my second last day to finishing up my 2nd semester clinical, one of my residents was due for a glycerine suppository. Unfortunately for me, I didn't double check one and Gravol suppository was given.
My instructor gave me hell for the first couple hours but calmed down...after things were settled with the Family doctor and the family of the Resident. Now, the school campus was notified and told my instructor that it's her decision whether or not I get to pass/fail.
She really doesn't want to fail me..because this is her first time instructing for clinicals and she just wants to be on good terms with the school and the group.
I felt so bad..throughout the whole day.. We had a long post conference talk about this matter and I was so upset at myself for doing what I did. She said she'll give me her decision by tomorrow..
I really don't want to repeat because it was 6 weeks of hard work (I was responsible for 5 residents) and I had one of the hardest clinical instructors out of my whole LPN class.
I just wish I could reverse time.... WHY does this always happen to me? 2 more days and I blow it......
i dont know what to do.
It's understandable you would be anxious. It's a serious issue, med errors cause untold harm and death to patients.
You can not rewrite the past. What is done is done and you can spend all day in regret beating yourself up with the "why me?" "I screwed up AGAIN"... and the end of the day it is what is it.
You've learned valuable life and nursing lessons. You will find out what you are truly made of as you go through this process and what is to follow in the years to come as a nurse.
Even if you fail and repeat the semester, you're going to have to put one foot in front of the other if you want to be a nurse. If you don't fail, you're going to have to put one foot in front of the other and move on.
Right now the maddening thing is you have to wait for your fate. No matter what it is you can handle it. We live and we learn and we're all human and make mistakes. Some of my life's hardests lessons have been through my mistakes.
Heres the deal. all nurses make mistakes, still not a good thing, but they are mistakes. I do not feel that anger should ever be directed at a nurse or a sudent nurse for that matter for a mistake. the anger does not solve anything, it only makes the person who made the mistake feel worse (than they already do). Instead, after this problem is solved and paper work done, politely talk about what happened, and what can be done to prevent it next time. It will be ok.
1st of all, I wish you medication error incident turn out fine for you in the end.
On my second last day of my clinical, i made a medication error as well. I gave patient T's nitroglycerin patch to patient S, (They are in the same room).S' systolic BP went down to 60. During the day S also received 2 bags of IV morphine for pain management, the NP thought the BP drop maybe due to Morphine. I did not realize the error until the next clinical day, I was told by my tutor. The floor nurse educator told my tutor one of the nurse found the nitro patch on S at night, they figured out S' low BP is due to Nitro patch.
My tutor is really angry at me. She failed me. (My 3 months of hard word!)
Now i need to repeat the clinical course next term, or maybe i have to repeat the whole year, depend on the progression committee's decision. I don't know how I am able to surive the next two year without the support net work i had with my other nursing friends. I am also acared to make another mistake again. I am scared of nursing now. I am dealing wit pt's life. I am not sure if i am safe. I don't know if i will ever be competent to be a nurse.
My nursing instructor passed me. I am going to post back more updates as to what happened... anyways, i really gotta head out. I'll ready all the replies in a bit
Having read and commented on a similar thread I'm just so surprised that nursing students who are not regulated are allowed to give medications without direct supervision from the RN.
As for punishment I've said it before and I'll keep saying it. Nurses are only human. If you take responsibility for your error , you learn from it and move on. If someone does not accept the accountability and blames everyone else but themselves then that is a different issue.
If you fire and fail every nurse out there who has made a drug error you would end up with a HUGE nursing shortage. Firing and failing people only leads to covering up a mistake for fear of reprisal. I'm not saying we should make light of errors, but it should be dealt with a little less seveerly, and in a more constructive manner.
I'm glad you weren't failed and hope that it shows you why we nurses are so paranoid at times of doing the wrong thing.
...if you think that's bad, one of my classmates gave dig to a dead patient. top that.
Years ago, in the middle of the night, one of my IV team colleagues had started a new line on a patient, hooked it back up, and then went to the station to chart the process. When she arrived at the nursing station, the regular RN advised her, "Never mind about that IV, Mary (not her real name, of course), the patient had just expired..."
Of course Mary was flabbergasted, and asked "what do you mean, just expired? I put her IV back in just now..." By this time they both went immediately back into the room and after confirming that they indeed were talking about the same patient, the floor RN turned incredulously to Mary and asked, "Jeez, Mary, you really didn't notice she was dead...?"
Mary sheepishly replied, "Well to be honest, her veins did seem sort of flat..." :imbar
DLS_PMHNP, MSN, RN, NP
1,301 Posts
Big,
don't be too hard on yourself, we are ALL human which means we screw up from time to time.
Take a deep breath, learn from it, and try to move on.
I wish you all the best- truly!!
Best,
Diane, RN