Just so tired of blame shifting

[Scrubby]

I swear some people just pretend to be nurses or have no idea that being an RN involves taking responsibility for ones own actions or lack of.

The other day I worked with this nurse who like me is also a CN. I was circulating and she was scrubbed for a facial fracture. I accidentally without thinking poured full strength betadine instead of half strength. Full strength is not recommended as it can be damaging to the eyes.

So as she was about to apply the solution I realized the error and said 'wait is that full strength?" Rather than admitting the error she said 'you poured this for me'. My response to this was 'we were both supposed to check this but I'm comfortable with admitting MY errors''..

What I really felt like saying is "Ummm your the scrub nurse, your supposed to check every solution with your scout nurse. This is basic knowledge that even a student should be able to tell you....and part of ACORN standards. You can't just blindly accept everything that is given to you, the scrub has to know everything he or she hands to the surgeon.....duh"

This sort of thing really annoys me. We all make errors because we're only human. But when other nurses immediately start trying to shift the blame solely on someone else I get so angry. Especially when they were partly at fault and try and make themselves look all innocent by pointing the finger.

Some people I've noticed are happy to have the CN status, get the extra money etc but when it comes to accepting personal responsibility act like children...."it's not my fault...she did it!"

Honestly I feel like telling these people to grow up and start behaving like professionals....from my experience acknowledging responsibility gains you respect, while people who try and wheedle their way out of trouble are looked upon as people who are not team players and get very little respect.

Seriously though why don't these types of nurses just grow a spine, admit to their errors and become a better nurse from learning from it? It's not as though anyone is going to get fired over this, in Australia it's sooooo hard to fire anyone!

Edited to add: Just noticed the mistake in the title!...well I'm tired and it's been a looooong day :) Could the moderators please kindly fix it for me?

[Batman25]

I do see you both as equally wrong. I think your wording could have been better as you knew you had made a mistake at that point. Pointing out you both need to be more careful in the future would also have been appropriate to the situation and could even have been said in private to her. You both made a mistake. It happens. Most importantly the patient was okay.

[Scrubby]

I do see you both as equally wrong. I think your wording could have been better as you knew you8 had made a mistake at that point. Pointing out you both need to be more careful in the future would also have been appropriate to the situation and could even have been said in private to her. You both made a mistake. It happens. Most importantly the patient was okay and in the end that is most important.

True, I should have spoken to her afterwards and said that what she did was wrong because it's something we both have to check.

Maybe my wording could have been better but hey I saw someone about to do something that may potentially harm the patient and my first reaction was to jump in and stop it, I did not intentionally set out to make her look bad or anything like that.

Perhaps I should have said 'I think that's full strength betadine I poured, I'll get you some half in strength instead".