Made a drug error and feel sick

[jojo14627]

Hi all, I have been qualified since last September and started on the ward I'm on in march so I am still new. The ward is heavy and the staffing is terribly low... As it is everywhere

but on this particular shift there was me and two other nurses who were newly qualified and new starters and non of us had been signed on on our meds... Well my assessment was that day and my boss had taken my paper work home to sign... I haven't really done many drug rounds as I am kinda pawned off to get patients washed for other nurses which looking back I now have learnt from... Any way so she did a few dad meds with me and said she was happy.... Later on that evening

I had ten patients 2 needing more pain relief 1 had just come back from theatre the day before and the other I think feeling a bit left out (another story) and three discharges to sort out among other things...

well LOL I had just received one of the patients ttos so I prepared them and asked the matron to check them with me she them instructed me that I didn't need a second checker as they had been done in pharmacy... So I checked them myself and noticed there wasn't a med on there that the patient normally took so I had to get the doctor to write on the TTO letter.... Any way in this time I had, had to bleep the doctor and was waiting a while .... The nurse in charge had asked me to do an sbar to take a pt to another ward and the ward matron was hassling me about an absence form I had to do because I had hurt my back at work so she the matron took the tots off me and put them in our tots cupboard..... She hadn't she had put them in another cupboard! So when I took the meds out of the the cupboard the actual ttos cupboard they weren't his

mistake one.... I didn't check the patients meds with the patient... I apologised for the wait and explained I had been trying to get the other med that wasn't on there written by the doctor and explained to keep taking that one as regularly advised by his gp....

The wife called us and said she had someone else's meds my heart sank when the ward clerk told me in front of a hca who then started to laugh at me and I said it's bloody well not funny... So I stopped the med round what I was doing and hunted for the ttos which were found in an unlocked cupboard!! Where the matron had put them to do my bloody absence letter....

any by way I discharged another lady before we got the call from the wife and I had gone through her tots with her so why didn't I with him!!

So I think I've learnt a lesson :,(

I'm one of these people who tries to help everyone else but then I get swamped down and can never say no...

so 1. When I'm giving out ttos I'm going to wear the do not disturb tabard

2. I'm going to, while I'm still learning, get a more senior nurse to check ttos with me (even tho matron said that doesn't need doing)

3. Tell people politely that I can't do sbars and absence forms while I am doing ttos. Because I don't want to make a mistake.

4. CHECK CHECK AND RECHECK

NAME, Dob, address, dosage, route, and if I'm not happy to ask some one.

anyway doing a datex with the ward manager Sunday... Not the matron and she's lovely so I called her after it happened telling her I wanted to quit nursing and I just didn't think I was set to be a nurse and she's told me we will do my meds again and this time I AM when I'm working with other nurses insisting that I do meds in my own bay.

I feel stupid and awful and I feel very deflated

can an any one reccomend anything they do to make sure they don't make errors like this??

Thank you guys xxx

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

We have all been there...((HUGS)) they thing about learning is that mistakes will happen. The point is how to learn from them and move forward.

Good Luck!

[jojo14627]

Thank you that means a lot :) I've been a bit depressed about it. But I will pick myself up and take your advice thank you :) xxx

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

jojo14627 said:

Thank you that means a lot ? I've been a bit depressed about it. But I will pick myself up and take your advice thank you ? xxx

We have all been there...admittedly there are those that forget....but they have been there too!

Now. Feel better learn from it and find out what steps to NOT make this mistake again.

It WILL make you a better nurse.

Brain sheet help you get organized I don't know if these apply to where you are nursing but they might give you ideas.

5 Pt. Shift.doc

1 patient Float.doc

MTPMedSurg (2).doc

Report Sheet.doc

FinalGraduateShiftReport.doc

DAY SHEET 2 doc.doc

[vintagemother, BSN, CNA, LVN, RN]

ESME... You are so sweet and supportive to us new bies! Thanks!!!

[JeanOfAllTraits]

My very last clinical as a student I made a serious med error. I had to talk with my clicial supervisor, class instructor and the dean of the nuraing program. That dean told me something that has shaped my career since, especially since her unexpected and untimely passing just two months ago. She told me, "Jean, every nurse makes mistakes. I've made several. It's the good nurses who take the steps so that the same error never happens again."

It sounds like you've thought out those steps, and so, have the makings to be a good nurse. Yes, med errors give you a huge punch in the stomach, but thats what reminds us that we have a high responsibility and calling. May this propell you to keep learning and growing as a nurse, hopefully making your ward a safer place to work.