I am frusterated and am so glad that I can vent here (probly the only safe place to). Anyway so I fill out an incident report on a med error (gave wrong pt med), bad I know but no harm came to pt followed him for rest of day, notified MD. About a month later I'm asked to re-explain the incident to management. I do but can't help but feel a little leary about it. 1st of all the info was put in the incident report right after it happened, that's what it's there for right??, why not go back and look at it. 2nd if I'm asked to talk about it 1 month later we could have conflicting info there. The whole thing makes me kinda nervous, like maybe I don't want to fill out a stupid IR next time. I know many other nurses who call the MD, no harm and they are done w/ it. I was taught in school to always do an IR, that it helps prevent errors next time, blah, blah, blah. I agree that in theory it should and could but in reality it doesn't seem that was-and that's a shame. Now I realize why other nurses I've seen don't do one. I can understand in some instances yes do an IR but in my case is seems that I am having to explain my mistake without regard to pt outcomes. What are anyone elses thoughts, I'd really like to know.
wow, i'm not sure why i'm suprised, but I kinda am. I've worked in the same place for almost 6 yrs, and have written myself up a few times. I've never had it used against me!! I haven't heard of anyone else having them used against them either. Honestly not saying you guys are wrong--maybe I'm just really lucky?? I actually even had one incident (that involved several shifts, I was just the last one with the pt) end up in a mtg with risk management, and the policy really was changed...had to do with a latex allergy that was missed. (Pt was OK) But not a single person was disciplined. I must sound pollyanna to you guys. But that's really how they're handled where I work. If that's how everyone else is experiencing them, that really sucks.
DeepFriedRN
207 Posts
wow, i'm not sure why i'm suprised, but I kinda am. I've worked in the same place for almost 6 yrs, and have written myself up a few times. I've never had it used against me!! I haven't heard of anyone else having them used against them either. Honestly not saying you guys are wrong--maybe I'm just really lucky?? I actually even had one incident (that involved several shifts, I was just the last one with the pt) end up in a mtg with risk management, and the policy really was changed...had to do with a latex allergy that was missed. (Pt was OK) But not a single person was disciplined. I must sound pollyanna to you guys. But that's really how they're handled where I work. If that's how everyone else is experiencing them, that really sucks.