Med error? help im going to loose ky mind thinking about this!!!!!!

[avenellpn82]

Ok I'll try to be short. So I have been giving rochephin with lidocaine IM for the past four days its two grams. Now today the last day of the ABT I go to my charge nurse RN to get a 3 ml syringe she tells me I should use a 5 ml. I thought I was wrong all along giving this patient too little of a dose. Now when I looked at the syringe I felt that something was wrong but again my charge nurse told me it was correct so I gave the injection. When I came out of the patients room the DON asked me why did I look so nervous so I told her I just gave a patient an IM with a 5 ml syringe and she is so frail that it just scared me a little. Soooooo now how it gets to a med error......... She asks me what med it was and some other questions about the patient then she says what's the most an IM should be I replied 2 ml then she says well that's a huge med error u gave her dble the dose of lidocaine. Now even though the charge nurse told me to do this I now feel so damn stupid because I know that if u feel unsure about something u should check other resources and btw to make it worst I always have my lipincott clinical skills book :-(

Now the question...... This is my first med error what should I expect? I am freaking out.

[Dazglue, ADN, BSN, MSN, RN]

No clue. oOur pharmacy draws up our IM medications and tubes them up. We just check the concentration on the sticker to make sure it matches what the order says.

Wow, that must be very helpful! I guess we're still "old-fashioned"...lol. So what about prn meds???

[ckh23, BSN, RN]

huh. You learn something new every day. I was taught 2ml was the max. Of course, that was over 25 years ago, but I had never been told differently until now. Do you have a link to some EBP about this?

Here is a link to a manufacturer insert

http://www1.astrazeneca-us.com/pi/faslodex.pdf

[ckh23, BSN, RN]

As for the OP, here is a manufacturer insert for Rocephin and they say to use 4.2 ml of a diluent for IM use as well as the recommendation of injection into a large muscle.

http://www.sagentpharma.com/Products/Ceftriaxone/Catalog/Ceftriaxone_PI2.pdf

[jujuseah, RN]

what? IM everyday? Tell your MD to stop torturing that poor patient.