Medication Error HELP

[pomlover08]

Today was an interesting day at work. I had a patient who's on a prescribed eye drop q2h, the order says for R eye. Upon going to give the 1st dose of my shift, she tells me they go in both eyes (what she does at home). She's 89 and AAO x 3. So this is what I did.. the daughter comes in while I'm giving one of the doses and says, "you just made a medication error". Stating she's only supposed to get it in the R eye despite what the patient says. I understand that, yes I did commit med errors by doing this. My question is: if reported will, what's the worse that can happen? I'm a worrier, so any help would be great. Thanks!

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

I think if it's reported, you'll be called in to the boss's office to explain yourself and if it's the first time you've made such an error, that will be the end of it.

In a situation where a patient says she's supposed to get a medication differently than it's written, you should call the doctor and clarify the order and not just give the medication. What if a patient said she should get double the dose of morphine? Would what the drug is make a difference? Since you made an error and realize it, you should report it. It's the right thing to do. Does your facility have incident reports or a computer system to report such things? Was the doctor notified after you gave the drops? I think it's better to be pro-active about such things than to wait to see what happens.

[merlee]

You had an order for the Right eye. What made you give it in both eyes? You need to own up to this BEFORE you are reported.

Best wishes!

[Mr I Care]

You should consult with your manager asap. I know pts can be convincing, but you have to use better nursing judgement.

[Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN]

I need a little more info. What were the eyedrops orderd for ? Lubrication? Glaucoma? Cataracts? etc...

As soon as the pt stated she put them in both eyes I'd be contacting the MD.

As person with unique vision problems, I tend to listen to the pt first, but that is my personal bias.

Also - just because a pt is 89 doesn't mean they know what they need. As well, sometimes the pt does know more than the nurse!

[BeautifulDoeLVN]

Pom I'll take it easy on you wow girls meow!!!! my claws are retracted

alright fill out your incident report, Yes patients do their own thing at home,make sure you let the physician know how she is taking the med at home versus his orders as for the daughter stating "you just made a medication error". Stating she's only supposed to get it in the R eye despite what the patient says seems she has had this problem before. ok let physician know what happened and document it including the patients statement of how she is not compliant with physicians orders she's 89 she's gonna do as she pleases at home but you have to follow the order regardless of what the patient says also I've know physicians to drop patients for being non compliant so upon discharge make sure you let the case manager know as well the nurse doing her discharge to enforce the eye gtts instructions and any other med order basically you've learned a valuable lesson.

[Jenni811, RN]

Maybe the patient is doing it wrong at home. It could be her medication that is ordered for her right eye only but maybe she thinks it is ordered for both eyes.

Don't 100 %trust patients being right on their medications and how they take them. If it doesn't sound right, it probably isn't. You would be amazed at how many times patients think they take their medications right and because thats the way they do it at home, that's the way they think it goes.

i had a patient taking her lasix at bedtime. "I take my water pill at bedtime" is what she told me. Doesn't sound right to me, so critical thinking tells me maybe she misunderstood what the doctor ordered because you don't order a lasix at bedtime.

[merlee]

My dad used to take his warfarin with his morning meds, despite the fact that I told him differently. He went for his blood test, and 3 weeks in a row they increased his dose. Then he had a massive nose bleed. He finally mentioned to the nurse in the hospital that he took it in the AM. She told him to take it in the afternoon....

Much lower dose was perfect. BTW - - he kept his blood sugar under very tight control, and managed everything else very well!

[OldNurseEducator]

My dad used to take his warfarin with his morning meds, despite the fact that I told him differently. He went for his blood test, and 3 weeks in a row they increased his dose. Then he had a massive nose bleed. He finally mentioned to the nurse in the hospital that he took it in the AM. She told him to take it in the afternoon....

Much lower dose was perfect. BTW - - he kept his blood sugar under very tight control, and managed everything else very well!

An EXCELLENT example of how patient teaching really made a difference!

[Jeanne M P]

Bottom line, it is a med error. Do the right thing. Follow your institutions policy for reporting med errors. Most institutions advocate reporting errors to keep track of the type of error and to look for solutions to avoid the same type of error from recurring. It's impetus is not to punish you (unless you are a frequent offender). In this instance, an in service on what to do when the patient says one thing and the order says another. Clarification is what needed to happen here.

Nursing has long been considered the most honest profession. Hiding mistakes does NOT contribute to developing trusting relationships with others.

[leslie :-D]

the daughter comes in while I'm giving one of the doses and says, "you just made a medication error".

ew.

spoken like a true... nurse?

hope not, for your sake.

we can be bad.

big thing with nursing is accountability and judgment.

show your boss what you're made of, by owning what you did.

leslie

[mommywithplenty]

It's a bad error. I think it would also depend on the type of drops that you gave.