Med errors

Luckily, I have never made a medication error (or at least not that I'm aware of). My facility uses bar code technology to help prevent errors. We complete an incident report and notify the provider. What action is taken depends upon many factors. As a Nurse Manager I try not to use incidents, such as med errors, in a disciplinary fashion. I think that usually they should be used as a learning tool and that staff will under-report if they feel they are likely to be punished. That said, it is my supervisory responsibility to take disciplinary action in some instnces to enforce policy and ensure patient safety. It is my job to make sure that the staff under my supervision have received adequate training and are competent at performing their job duties. A first-time medication error would be handled much differently than a nurse who repeatedly makes medication errors because he/she is not following med. admin. guidelines. Also, the severity of any adverse effects are considered along with whether or not the nurse was acting negligently. Rarely is it ever clear-cut and accidents do happen.

I've only made one that I know of... and I knew it was wrong the minute the patient had swallowed the last pill. :smackingf It's an experience I will never forget. Thankfully, nothing tragic resulted from this error. I have absolutely no difficulties reporting such things. In this case, the facility I was working in, made a policy not to have the same named people in the same room. Evelyn Smith & Evelyn Jones or Wilma Smith and Bertha Smith.

The facility I've been working at for the past 6 years, just opened a new facility in February 2006 and all the rooms are private. We've also join the Pyxis generation.

:yelclap: