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Discussion

My first medication error

Im a new grad. 2 days ago I made my first mistake. My patient was charted prozac and we don't use prozac often over here so I looked up the generic name in the medication book found it in the cupboard checked the dose in the medication guide and grabbed the medication out of the cupboard took it to the patients bed side locked drawer which is where we keep our meds. At 8pm he was due his prozac so I went to his drawer, unlocked it, grabbed the box that I had put in there and gave it to him. He looked at it took it then informed me that that wasnt his prozac. My heart instantly went nuts. I grabbed the med box went to our drug room looked it up and realised after all my checking intially of the medication I had grabbed the wrong bloody box. I felt so bad having to tell him I had indeed made a mistake, then had to tell the team leader and the doctor who said it was no big deal. I had given him somac which the doctor said would prob make him feel better! I had to online report it and everyone at work has said to not worry but Im so anxious now and worried that our nurse unit manager thinks Im crap. I could have killled him! Im so upset and worried and not sleeping. Ughh! Im normally so careful with my meds. My biggest fear starting this new grad was making a mistake and here I have gone and done it in no less then a year. GOSH

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    It's OK. Really, it is. No one wants to make mistakes, but everyone does. If someone tells you that they don't they are either lying to you or they are just scary because they don't realise their mistakes.

    It's a scary feeling-heart in your toes when you realise that happened. Plus, being accountable for mistakes is never fun. It's tough on the ego and you already trying to prove yourself as a new grad.

    I can almost guarentee that you are probably just flat paraniod after this, from reading your post, you appear to be super careful. Just keep doing what you are doing and learn from it. Unfortunately, mistakes are how you learn how to prevent it from happening again. You get little methods in place. My first mistake was in orientation. I had been a nurse for only 2-3 weeks! Luckily, no one was hurt. Just learn from it and move on. It's not worth the stress because you can't take it back. You can prevent yourself from making the same mistake again though. If you were my nurse, I'd request you the next day because I bet you will be one of the safest on the floor from obsessively double checking everything. :)

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    Thanks heaps for this reply :) Your right, I feel much better about it all now and it has made be extra vigilent without feeling like a nerd. Some nurses thinks people that triple check everything thing are nit pickers. I think were just safe ;)

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