Im / sq fail due to teacher misleading

[darrarizer]

I had been told by my professor: "WE WILL NOT TRICK YOU: THE MAR AND THE PHYSICIAN'S ORDER DRUG DOSAGE WILL MATCH UP", we were also given handouts to practice by where the MAR and Dr.'s orders drug dosage match up, corresponding w/ what the teacher said.

I take the test today and am told everything is perfect except that at the bottom of the Dr.'s orders he/she changed the amount. I am in my first semester and it's only 4 weeks into class. Is it wrong for me to be ****** that I was told by my instructor that everything would match up / and am given handouts to practice w/ to that effect, and that there would be no tricks? Also, I had never met the teacher who checked me off.

I feel that MY teacher should have been the one to check me off and she should either have not said anything at all, or should have pointed out that there may be 2 Dr.'s orders ,and that you should pay attention to the final one.

I may be ripped apart in your responses, but why set someone up to expect that the conclusion will add up, when in fact it does not?

[mammac5]

I'm assuming this is a lab exercise...

I don't know how other places handle this, but here where I'm at school the instructor who worked with us on skills in lab was NEVER the same as the instructor who checked us off on those skills. It was done that way so that there would be no bias at testing time. Others may have different experiences.

Sorry you had such a rough time!

[MissCharlieRN]

My school you have to go to the open lab to get passed off. You don't get tested off by the person that teaches lab. I think it's unfortunate that you were mislead into believing you wouldn't be "tricked" or anything, but when you're in the hospital, something like this could lead to a med error. Just because someone tells you one thing, doesn't mean you shouldn't double check on your own. But I do agree, at your stage in the game, that may seem a bit unfair. Just learn from this experience. Sometimes they throw you a curve ball to make sure you're paying attention.

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

We had to deal with inconsistency in labs and checkoff's all the time which sucked and also varied by what teacher you get on your checkoff's and it usually wasn't the one that taught the skill. In fact reading your post I almost wondered if you go to my school because that was probably our biggest gripe first semester of our program. lol

I think the bottom line in what happened though, no matter what, you always check your order to your drugs and stuff. 5 rights. Well some schools it's more then 5 but we were taught 5 rights and triple checking the patient to drug and dose 3 times. No matter what they told you, if you do this, you would have caught it. I hope next time you have a little more consistency as I can understand the frustration. I had to redo a return once (it was one I already passed once but later they had it added to a new one to make sure we still knew it), it was a cath one, at the very end when I attached the bag I didn't have the strap perfectly in the Y site on the thigh. When we first did it we didn't even have to have it in the Y site, we just had to strap it around this one part on the thigh. I had to come back to retake it over. Students that had another instructor never even had to actually strap the bag, they just had to verbalize they would. I was so annoyed but it was it was it was.

[caliotter3]

Whether an intentional or unintentional switchup, the bottom line is that it is still your responsibility to check, double check, and triple check that order. When things gets mixed up on the job, as they will, that will be the expectation for you.

[murphyle, BSN, RN]

Sorry to tell you this, but you didn't fail because the teacher misled you. You failed because you weren't paying attention. Nobody is trying to trick you in the real world, either. However, people get distracted, and people make mistakes. No one does it maliciously (you hope), but providers write incorrect medication orders and nurses fail to check MARs every day of the year.

7,000 times a year on average.

And at the end of the day, THAT PATIENT IS DEAD. Because YOU failed to double-check the order.

And when the malpractice attorneys come looking for blood and the state boards start looking at revoking licenses, guess whose fanny is on the line? Not the doctor, not the pharmacy - YOU. YOU were the last person who touched that med. YOU were the one who had the last chance to catch the error. And YOU were the one who let it slide and killed someone.

Instead of complaining that you were tricked, think of how easily that could happen in real life. This was in a lab, where we're all talking hypothetically. Consider yourself lucky that you learned the lesson there rather than on a real human being.

[nursel56]

If it was done on purpose, they wanted to see if you would use your own critical thinking skills to catch a mistake. Some questions are intended to test something other than what the question actually says.

For example, a multiple choice question about a drug calculation that is actually getting you to eliminate an incorrect route.

[9livesRN, BSN, RN]

yeah.. all about reducing medication administration errors, we had that!

some people fell in that trap, also, at times they will have all doses right, but will change the mar number on the patients bracelet, or the DOB, or last name, so then you would fail

remember the rights:

patient

medicine

dose

route

time

right to refuse

calculate your meds, cros check mar to bracelet, and ask patient to state name and DOB. make sure that the orders match and go for it!

[darrarizer]

Ok, so I did TRAMP (double check) 3 times. The first time I checked the numbers didn't match up (like I was told they would). I asked the teacher to come look and she did. All she said was "look at the doctors orders". Because she said that I crossed off the MAR number. I wish she had said nothing because I almost used the numbers on the MAR and would have passed. In reality I would have asked the Doctor which dosage was correct. Afterwards, I told her as much.

I work in an environment where I give injections and realize how important it is to give the correct dosage. This sucks, because in reality you get feedback. I believe I was mislead because I trusted what my teacher said.

LESSON LEARNED. NEVER BELIEVE WHAT YOUR INSTRUCTORS TELL YOU.

[AllSmiles225]

I think the more important lesson is to never trust anyone else but yourself. Unless you see it with your own two eyes somebody else could have made a mistake. As soon as you administer that medication it is YOUR responsibility regardless of who said what. Always go out of your way to double check things that you are unsure of.

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

Ok, so I did TRAMP (double check) 3 times. The first time I checked the numbers didn't match up (like I was told they would). I asked the teacher to come look and she did. All she said was "look at the doctors orders". Because she said that I crossed off the MAR number. I wish she had said nothing because I almost used the numbers on the MAR and would have passed. In reality I would have asked the Doctor which dosage was correct. Afterwards, I told her as much.

I work in an environment where I give injections and realize how important it is to give the correct dosage. This sucks, because in reality you get feedback. I believe I was mislead because I trusted what my teacher said.

LESSON LEARNED. NEVER BELIEVE WHAT YOUR INSTRUCTORS TELL YOU.

This is not the lesson that should have been learned, the lesson you should have learned is to always double and triple check your orders to prevent medication errors.

[darrarizer]

Cheers All Smiles 225. I am going to ask my teacher if I would have stated, "at this point I would find the doctor to assure the correct dosage", if I would have passed. Even if I didn't I learned a valuable lesson. LOOK AT THE BOTTOM OF THE GOSH - DARN ORDER! I just think it's a high price to pay b/c if I don't get it right the 2nd time, nursing school is over after only a few weeks.