Med Error

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I'm a newer nurse (little over a year) and I made a med error. It was my own fault, I didn't follow the five rights. I gave another patient an injection mentioned for another patient. I got lucky, the patient I gave the injection to was to get the exact same injection only not for a couple days yet; so there were no adverse effects for the client. I notified my supervisor immediately and still am sick over it. I am petrified that they are going to report me to my BON. The weird part is they still let me work the whole day in the field giving injections, I resigned at the end of the day because I believed they were going to terminate me, though they said our director would reach out to me by the end of the week. Would they call me before they made the complaint? If they do, what would my consequences be?

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Specializes in Medical-Surgical/Float Pool/Stepdown.

No one here will know whether or not your company will turn you into the BON or not. What the BON does seems to vary quite a bit from state to state so that is up in the air also.

What I personally would be most concerned about is the lack of accountability and pure focus your post has on you not getting in trouble or facing unknown consequences. I realize that you turned your own self in but it is of little solace if you only did so because you knew you would get caught anyways.

Take a very long and hard look in the mirror please before searching for a nursing job again. Mistakes will happen but how you are accountable and handle any mistakes now and here on forward will define your nursing practice and quite frankly the safety of your patients. Running away from mistakes is just not healthy nor does it provide you with the necessary experience to learn from your mistakes and not repeat them.

Not meaning to sound so harsh, just being truthful. Please take this time to learn not only from your mistake but from your actions as well.

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Specializes in Reproductive & Public Health.

((hugs)). My first med error was giving a teenager (i worked at a boarding school) her night time meds, and dispensing her Vyvanse instead of her Vistaril. Oops. I handled it directly and professionally. No one so much as gave me a hairy eyeball at work, and so far it seems like no one snitched on me to the board!

Just remember, you are human and part of being human is making mistakes. Your workplace should be supportive when this kind of thing happens. I can't imagine your work would discipline you for this, and if they did you should look for other work. This is not something the BON would care about. If you practice with integrity and skill, your license is fine.

You are handling this in the right way- being honest, taking responsibility, and examining your practice to see where/if you went wrong and how to fix it. But remember, no matter how careful and skilled you become, you will definitely make more mistakes.

Once I came *this close* to giving my nurse the OK to give a shot of rocephin to a pt with a documented allergic reaction. Caught it in the nick of time. This was a wake up call because unfortunately, in the stress of my new job, I had gotten into two bad habits- 1st was getting my med and allergy hx from my assistant and not confirming with the patient. And second was ignoring the constant assault of very serious looking WARNING pop ups that tried to give us one last chance to not kill our patient. Most of the warnings are annoying and nonsensical. For the few that are important, they are easy to miss since you have to actually click on the alert to see what it is all about. DOSING RANGE CANNOT BE CALCULATED WITHOUT BMI ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO PROCEED. WARNING; INSUFFICIENT DATE REGARDING BIRTH CONTROL PILLS AND SHELLFISH ALLERGY. WARNING YOUR PATIENT WILL LITERALLY DIE IF YOU GIVE THIS DRUG, CLICK OK TO PROCEED. USE CAUTION: YOUR PATIENT HAS A DIAGNOSIS OF LEGAL TERMINATION OF PREGNANCY, WHICH IS CLOSELY RELATED TO "PREGNANCY.' MISOPROSTOL IS CONTRAINDICATED IN PREGNANCY ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO PROCEED.

SOOO FRUSTRATING!! Anyway, this thread is about you, not my alarm angst lol. So be vigilant with safety measures, wade through the stupid alerts and confirm your patients med and allergy lists. And don't beat yourself up when you make your next one :)

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If every nurse that has made a med error was reported to the board every single one of us would have been reported or will be sometime in our career.

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AJJKRN - You don't think I understand the seriousness of what I did? I am still not over it! I got extremely lucky that she was to get the exact med and exact dosage as the other client. I know that! It doesn't take away from how serious of an outcome this could have been. It was a psychotropic IM to be given every 30 days, once you put that in, it can't be undone! If you don't think I have questioned my ability to be a nurse you are dead wrong there too! I am not a perfect being, God help you if you think you are especially with your condescending attitude. You don't need to beat me up, because I'm already doing it!

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Cayenne, Thank you, truly . . . My anxiety is at an all time high

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Wuzzie, thank you, I'm just anxious over it all

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Specializes in Medical-Surgical/Float Pool/Stepdown.
AJJKRN - You don't think I understand the seriousness of what I did? I am still not over it! I got extremely lucky that she was to get the exact med and exact dosage as the other client. I know that! It doesn't take away from how serious of an outcome this could have been. It was a psychotropic IM to be given every 30 days, once you put that in, it can't be undone! If you don't think I have questioned my ability to be a nurse you are dead wrong there too! I am not a perfect being, God help you if you think you are especially with your condescending attitude. You don't need to beat me up, because I'm already doing it!

It's how you state in your own post that you handled the med error that I have concern for. No one is exempt from making med errors as we are all human but quitting and being focused on whether or the BON will get involved is what red flags me personally. If you just run from every mistake as a nurse that you feel you're going to get in trouble for, how will you grow and learn from it?

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