Made a Med Error and sick over it!

[Martinette]

I feel like crap. I made a med error last week. The patient was unharmed and my manager told me that it was a systems error etc. and that it wasn't my fault. I still feel like hell. I missed an AM insulin dose. A patient was handed over as being a non-insulin dependent diabetic and when I reviewed her drug chart (she had 3 of them that were handwritten) I missed the order for insulin. Her blood glucose was fine in the morning but went pretty high later on until I figured out she missed her insulin. :trout:

Another patient arrested during the AM drug round and I rushed around doing the medications afterward as I was hours behind. I was med nurse and charge for 13 med/surg/ care of the elderly patients with no care assistants and just back on first day after 2 weeks of holiday. The night nurse who handed over to me didn't really know the patients as she only had the patients for the last 2 hours of the night shift in addition to her 13.

The regular night nurse left in the middle of the night due to sickness so the handover was really incomplete and due to call offs on the day shift as well I ended up on my own and overwhelmed. I called the matron who assured me we were getting another nurse to help out. No one ever should up.

I also had to hang blood as soon as I got out of report because it should have been given on night shift but wasn't..then straight into the drug round and assessing my patients and answering call bells and toileting and bathing simultaneously.

Our nurse managers are fighting to get us more staffing and less cutbacks. My nurse manager told me that it was a bad chain of events that lead to this error and that she knows I do well. I think she is partly right. The current situation in our hospital due to government issues is horrendous. But I also know that I should have looked at the drug chart more carefully and double checked no matter what was happening. Feel like crap. I have been an RN for a decade and should be past this stuff. I can't wait to get out of this place.

[RN1989]

Considering that conditions such as yours are getting to be the norm these days, if you can go home and not kill anybody, that is sometimes the best you can do. I know how bad it feels to make a mistake but these days, we are fighting so many uphill battles it's a wonder that anybody survives anymore. Hang in there, you are not alone!

[leslie :-D]

Considering that conditions such as yours are getting to be the norm these days, if you can go home and not kill anybody, that is sometimes the best you can do. I know how bad it feels to make a mistake but these days, we are fighting so many uphill battles it's a wonder that anybody survives anymore. Hang in there, you are not alone!

those were exactly my (sardonic) sentiments, expressed.

leslie

[bigsyis]

You'll never forget this, I promise you. I've been a nurse for 24 years and can still remember a med error that I made that first year. No one was harmed in that case, either, but it scared the paflooey out of me. I promise you-I have always been much more careful because of it.

That's all this is-a mistake. Don't continue to beat yourself up over it. It won't change a thing, and will only help you continue to feel bad. It sounds as though you MORE than have your hands full.