Medication Error?

[jeane1090]

I made a silly med error that I am feeling anxious about. I did my checks (obviously not very well) but accidentally gave a patient an aspirin at 1000 instead of its scheduled 1700. This medication is only ordered once daily. I know that no harm will come to the patient but I'm still feeling anxious.

[Davey Do]

I hear ya, jeane, an error, no matter how small or insignificant, is still an error. We beat ourselves up over not seeing the error of our action at the time of the action.

The best we can hope for is that the error becomes a lesson learned.

"Finish each day and be done with it... You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it well and serenely, and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

[iluvivt, BSN, RN]

It's not the gravity of the error but the fact that you made an error that is bothering you.In situations such as these try to figure out why you made the error and what steps you can take to prevent a similar occurrence and this may decrease your anxiety level. I am not necessarily talking about the 5,6 or 7 rights but what is about your system that failed.No one knows you better than you and what you need to do so it does not happen again.

[hypnotizer90, BSN, RN]

We use the EPIC software on the hospital that I worked. I guess the benefit of such electronic MAR is to assist with "worklist" and barcode/pt scanning to aide in preventing errors.

I usually make note of reason why certain medication was delayed etc. This helps with "reflective" practice. Things happen inadvertently.

In my experience, why is that ASA scheduled in PM? I am mostly seeing it prescribed in AM once daily, for its antiplatelets function.

[Workitinurfava, BSN, RN]

Sounds like you did the patient a favor. An aspirin is usually taken in the morning anyway. Make sure not to let your nerves get to you due to pressure at work, take a break, eat something healthy and ask for help when you are overwhelmed. You will be fine. Hopefully nothing major will come of this. Nurse on!!?

[db2xs]

Hi @jeane1090 Thanks for your courage to share about your medication error. Along with feeling anxious, I imagine you also feel a little scared. Being a nurse is a big responsibility and patients trust that we are doing the right thing and will do them no harm.

Firstly, I would suggest letting the oncoming RN know about this so that the pt doesn't get double the dose in one day. Secondly, I would suggest not beating yourself up, as difficult as that may sound. I feel safe to say that almost everyone has made a medication error at least once in their career, myself included--we're human. The good thing about this error is that it was aspirin (relatively benign compared to some other medications out there) and it was only given at a different time. I view these sorts of incidences as learning experiences and ways to improve our practice. Once you get more nursing experience, you'll learn about how other medications work in conjunction with others and how certain meds are better to be taken at a certain time, etc. In this particular case, maybe it's a good thing because now the medication can get rescheduled.