KelRN215, BSN, RN 1 Article; 7,349 Posts Specializes in Pedi. Has 16 years experience. Nov 12, 2014 That sounds like a very tough disciplinary action for pulling a med under the wrong patient's name. It was a simple easy mistake that didn't lead to any harm. I personally would not have filed an incident report and I see no reason for notifying the MD. I would have taken the med out under the right patient's name and then "returned" the med for the "wrong" patient.Same. I would not have filed an incident report in this instance (there was no "incident", the correct med was given to the correct patient) and I most definitely would not have notified the MD. Why would the MD need to be notified? It had zero to do with him/her.
imintrouble, BSN, RN 2,406 Posts Specializes in LTC Rehab Med/Surg. Has 16 years experience. Nov 13, 2014 I made a med error last week. Nobody was hurt. Nobody would know but me.Really minor, but it was an error that should have been reported. So I did. I filled out the appropriate form and turned it in. I knew there wouldn't be any punitive action taken. If I worked in a place that would assign me points, I never would have reported my mistake. Or at the least, I would have thought long and hard about turning myself in, for an extremely minor mistake that had no impact on patient care.
Salter444 64 Posts Nov 14, 2014 I get the feeling there is more to this story that being shared here. The odds are that every nurse will be involved in a medication error - it is the human aspect of the job that makes us prone to making mistakes. An incident report is designed to be a non punitive process and I cannot see how if harm did not reach the patient this becomes a disciplinary issue and not an opportunity to correct a process or provide education.
