Lawsuit?

LearningRN · Apr 26, 2005

It turns out the wife of my patient used to work for risk management in the hospital that I work out. She contacted the risk management department about the situation. What does this mean? What should I expect to be coming? I'm really scared... Please pray for me...

sbic56, BSN, RN · Apr 26, 2005

It turns out the wife of my patient used to work for risk management in the hospital that I work out. She contacted the risk management department about the situation. What does this mean? What should I expect to be coming? I'm really scared... Please pray for me...

So sorry this is happpening to you. This is so blown out of porportion! If this is an isolated incident for you, I can''t see where you have much to worry about. There was no injury. Nurses do not lose their license over one minor medication error, which yours just barely technically qualifies as! Sounds like you got the patient wife from hell and she is taking it as far as she possibly can. It doesn't sound as if you are getting any support at work. Have you talked about this woman's persistance in this matter with your supervisor? Have you heard of other nurses getting such poor support at his hospital? Something is definitely wrong with the way this has been handled.

mommatrauma, RN · Apr 26, 2005

This sucks that you are still forced to stress out over this...It really has been all blown out of proportion. I would say hold your head up high, and hang in there. If this is your first mistake, I wouldn't be too worried about it. There is obviously no malicious intent, and people do make mistakes...It's called being human. There was no long term harm done...no harm, no foul...I think at the very most you may get a slap on the wrist...Good luck with it...

RNPATL, DNP, RN · Apr 28, 2005

While I know that making a mistake makes us all nervous .... I submit that rather than worrying about a possible lawsuit ... you might want to explore what caused you to make the error. Were you overloaded with patients, was this a medication that was late .... circumstances play a major role in med errors as well as other errors. You indicated that your are a new grad with about 4 months on the job.

I think many new grads overreact when they make a mistake ... this is normal and in many cases healthy as a nurse. Your overreaction makes you more aware and cautious in the future. However, explore what caused you to infuse the medication in over an hour rather than the ordered 2 hours. Understanding the circumstances actually might help you in the future to recognize similar situations and avoid making the same mistake.

Most important to remember .... you are still learning. Nursing is a skilled profession that takes time to learn. Don't beat yourself up over this, rather learn from the mistake and don't do it again.

Good luck.

nursenatalie, ADN, RN · Apr 30, 2005

In my opinion you didnt run it too fast, just faster than prescribed. This being the case the family should have never heard about it. I would have told the doctor, called the pharmacist and ask about potential problems and monitor the patient. I am not saying to be secretive to patients but you can really scare them. Like someone else said, use this as a learning experience and figure out why you made the mistake. I dont mean to sound complacent about the med error but I remember my first med error I gave the wrong antibiotic, I told my preceptor and she didnt say a word walked to the phone called the surgeon and said I need a one time order for Zosyn. The patient wasnt allergic, the doctor gave the order and she wrote it as an incident. I learned a lesson and luckily the patient did not suffer.