med errors

My husband is a supervisor. Not a nursing supervisor, but a very acute profession. He has been in a position twice where he told someone that he supervised to consider the mistake rectified and over - and then HIS supervisor told him that he had to write them up. He felt like **** about it, but he had to do what his boss told him to do.

Now he says, "I don't expect this to come up again - It might, but I don't expect it to." Simply because he doesn't ever want to be in the position of 'liar' again.

My guess is your situation is something similar. Don't take it personally.

Not really. I told the charge nurse and supervisor and the supervisor said not to worry about it but then told charge nurse to write it up a week later.

I really think SCRN is correct. Your supervisor has a boss also. You did the right thing as soon as you realized you made the error. Your charge nurse and supervisor made a mistake, I really don't think they lied??? Forgive them, they are human. Next time (and there will be a next time, only I am perfect, ha ha,) just write up an incident report no matter who says you don't need to.

Don't be too trusting. And if something like this happens again (hopefully not), you already know what to do. Just learn from the experience.

I was wondering what some of you would think regarding this matter. If someone made a med error and they were honest about and told the the person in charge and charge nurse and was told that they would not be written up but then was written up two weeks later, what would you think of that? Especially if the person that made the mistake, wanted to write themselves up but was told there was no need to. I am so disappointed because I was honest and took accountability for my actions, but then was lied to. Not upset that I was written up, but upset that I was told not to and to basically forget it. I don't perceive that as being honest.

Sorry for that. It has happened to many in the past. But next time if anything similar like this happens no matter what your charge says make an incident report before you leave the shift.

I don't believe there is ever a nurse who never committed a med error in their lifetimes. The CYA ( Cover your A**) syndrome trickling up the chain of command is coming on strong here. We just have to learn from this lesson and move on. You might have to probably check out how long the write-up stays on your records, it will be worthwhile to know. It is also better to document your experience as to how you were able to commit the error. Check out the circumstances involved that led to the error and DOCUMENT IT in your diary, note the time and other significant details, put the dates, make photocopies, etc, just in case. Based on statistics, med errors are not solely the nurses' fault; at times the prevailing system makes a nurse more error prone. To prevent the same mistakes from happening again nurses should unite to improve conditions in the workplace. I admire your honesty.

Any nurse who says they have never have made a med error are liars! We all make mistakes, we are human! Med error reports are to be used as a quality assurance tool, not as discipline! The purpose of med error reports are for quality assurance tools, to look for ways to improve the system so these errors don't happen again. Anytime you think a med error has been made, CYA & make up a med error report.

:nurse:Jerenemarie

I was wondering what some of you would think regarding this matter. If someone made a med error and they were honest about and told the the person in charge and charge nurse and was told that they would not be written up but then was written up two weeks later, what would you think of that? Especially if the person that made the mistake, wanted to write themselves up but was told there was no need to. I am so disappointed because I was honest and took accountability for my actions, but then was lied to. Not upset that I was written up, but upset that I was told not to and to basically forget it. I don't perceive that as being honest.

Are you able to discuss your concerns with your supervisor and charge nurse, making sure they remember that you tried to take accountability for your actions at the time and now you feel let down? I know some people don't have supportive management and bringing up the situation could be shooting yourself in the foot. If you can though, it might be worth talking to them so they know at least YOU are honest and maybe you can find out why they decided to write this up after all.

I think med errors need to be written up not as a form of punishment, but because the hospital risk management teams really need to evaluate trends. It's good to see if a certain type of error is made frequently and figure out why. If you made the error, 100 other nurses may have made the same error and may not have even realized it. We need to change our whole mentality about reporting errors. Look at it as a way to improve care, and learn from mistakes so that we don't repeat them. I'm in no way saying would should tolerate those who make repeated intentional errors because of laziness or lack of concern. I know I personally have learned from lots of unintentional errors I made due to lack of knowledge or because the way an order was written, etc. I know not all hospitals are embracing this concept, and I remember in nursing school to be written up was absolutely horrible. In the past 3 years my hospital has established a safety coach committee. We meet once a month with staff from risk management. People on the safety coach committee are people who work on the floors. We try to encourage people to report errors and look at errors from a different perspective. Errors usually are not made just because of one factor, there are usually lots of contributing factors and we have been able to look back at these errors then implement ways to prevent it from happening in the future. The way your supervisor dealt with it makes me believe you probably work in one of those places that doesn't look at reporting errors as a way to learn, not punish and I'm sorry about that. One day when your in charge and someone ask should I write this up I'm sure you'll deal with it so much better than your current supervisors because of your experience.

Thank you for all of the advice. I am going to learn from this and move on. I am going to not look at this in a negative light. I did the right thing by being accountable for my mistake and I know now that I should have varianced myself even though I was told not to. I am not going to be so trusting from now on. I am also going to research what lead me to make the error and ways to prevent that from happening again. I am going to be the best nurse I can be and I will continue to be an honest nurse as well. I am glad I have a place to go where I can talk to others and receive helpful advice:)