My First Med Error

Oh, honey, stuff happens.

You informed everyone and reported yourself. The physician knows. You are an ethical, responsible burse. The patient is being monitored and is, I am sure, just fine. Enjoying graham crackers and orange juice.

Let it go and learn from it.

:)

Please take a deep breath.

Now.. Let me tell you a story about another new nurse. Once upon a time, there was a brand new LPN who was trying to learn a new unit, pass meds, and learn the names of all of his ...er...their patients. This new nurse prepared the meds for a patient, Mrs. B, and got distracted by a family member asking questions, then an aide needing help, and another patient needing a pain pill.

The nurse finally was able to get back to giving Mrs. B. her meds, and gave them. The patient taking the meds looked at the new nurse and said: "Gee, I don't usually take this many pills." The new nurse simply shrugged and said "It's the same amount you take every morning." The patient took all of the pills at once, swallowing them with a big drink of water.

Turning back to the MAR, the new nurse realized that it was actually MRS. D that had just taken MRS. B's pills. The new nurse froze. If there was ever a deer in the headlights moment, this was it. He quickly called the CNP on call, gave her a list of all of the meds Mrs. D had been given in error, and waited for the CNP to explode and demand that the new nurse leave immediately and never darken the doors of nursing again!

Well, that didn't happen. The CNP chuckled, asked a few questions, then instructed the nurse to check the patient's BP every hour for the next 8 hours, and to make sure that in the future he took his time and verified meds as he had been taught in school.

The CNP assured me er.... I mean The nurse, that while this was the first med error they had made, and it was a potentially harmful error, that it would not be the LAST error the nurse ever made. The important thing is to make sure the patient is safe, learn from the error, and NOT BEAT YOURSELF UP OVER IT.

Ok, I admit it. the new nurse was me. And the CNP was right. It wasn't the last med error I ever made. But I DID learn from it. And you did too. You handled the error the right way. Trust me. Every nurse has a story similar to this one. (Even if they don't admit to it. )

Making a med error does not make you a bad person, or a lousy nurse. It makes you human. Being a new nurse is stressful, and I'm sure that there are moments that you think to yourself that you will NEVER get this. But you will. The fact that you are so upset about this shows that you have a conscience and will be on the lookout for such things in the future. Much better than the nurse who says "Oh well, no one died!" and moves on.

I can only speak from my own experience but I and all the nurses I know take the independant double check seriously. I have caught mistakes and have had others catch my mistakes with regArd to insulin. Usually it's not a huge mistake but there is a reason that these meds have been deemed high risk. That being said, protect yourself. Ask for the independant double check even if you feel they are looking down at you. It seems to some extent you are shifting blame to the double check and how busy the unit was etc. That us the reality of your job. Accountability is really important as a nurse and accepting that under these circumstances you missed something vital. Be grateful the patient noticedeland last thing the double check doesn't always save you. Even when you have another nurse double check they mau nit have seen those two words either. Hopefillyyou wrote up an incident report. IR are not meant to be punitive. They are to track errors perhaps the way the MAR appears could be changed to highlight IN THE AM.