I am starting LVN school next week. I went to the doctors office to tie up my last vaccination. There is a new Medical Assistant,MA, (older woman)being trained by a young MA. The young MA had drawn the vaccination. This was out of my sight. The new MA comes in and give me the shot. One, The new MA would not put the safety device on the needle as she transport to the sharps bin. It came too close. Also she did not let alcohol dry naturally. Vaccine had burned @ injection. uggh!
I asked for proof of the shot. I run my errands and return home. As I am walking up the steps. I noticed, Immunization Admission Report says www.gardasil.com. ***** I dont believe in this vaccination. I just knew this was a typo. I called the dr's office and left a message .. hey! Ya'll made a mistake!
*ring.. ring* Hello! It's my Dr. I'm thinking, Why is she calling me?
Dr Says: Oh Smiles! I'm so sorry .. we really gave Gardasil. No you could not have gave me Gardasil.. ***** Smiles, we need you to come in to get your chxpox shot.. Are you *bleep bleep bleep * Serious! So I'm going off about the evils of Gardasil. She said I gave my daughter this shot.. My response: So! In the 60's or early 70's Do you remember the drug that it was given to pregnant moms for nausea. It made the daughters sterile. I would not want to do that to a chile. Gardasil is not needed ..
I did not realise Garadasil was 3 shot series. What's happens to me? I only got 1 out of 3. I read,folks were having side effects
I get back to Dr office. Dr is all calm and tries to convince me that I'm ok.. I said Yeah If I turn into the Fly or Zombie.. or dead.. I'm sure I'm ok.. So i cant convince you that you were not harmed by this shot, she asks.. NO! I said. The Dr also told me that Both MA's were highly skilled. When a vaccine incident is made the whole office feel bad. (I hope this is a rarity) Smiles, I do not think you are harmed by the vaccine.., The Dr says again. Smiles, my most educated patient should not believe everything on the internet or blah blah said the Dr. I looked at her with a death stare.
I'm not paying for the Garasil or chixpox shot. either. My Garasil arm hurt for 2 days. Tylenol was no help.
The new MA comes in.. No apologies..and ask for my arm.. She shows me the vial to prove its chixpox shot , give me the shot and blood is running down my arm from the injection. MA cleans it up. I had to tell her that she is to put on the safety device per transporting it to the sharps. Also, I asked her to let the alcohol to dry before injection. So it would not burn. Why did she blow on my arm? So where is the sterilization again?
I guess I had so too many points.. She finally ask me, Who are you? What are you? I said I'm a patient who has had phlebotomy training and one who reads and writes presidents of medical groups and hospitals .
She says oh!
The young MA was hiding per the checkout patient rep..
So I'm looking for a new dr.
What I have learn from this experience?
Yes, Folks are human. BUT, 2 pairs of eyes should have looked at the vial. So, they should have recheck the script.
When a patient comes in questioning a situation. I will not blow her off. If she or he wants to see the needle pulled from a new wrapping.. I will show up.
I will try my best to look at the script twice.
Is there anything else that I should have learned from this experience?
I've had shot by MA's before.. I walked into a store with a pharmacist doing flu shots. I walked back out. I went to a nurse practitioner for a flu shot.
I've never understood the objection to pharmacists administering flu shots.
I don't buy the argument that they aren't qualified. Pharmacists hold a minimum of a Bachelor's Degree. Most have earned a Master's or PhD. They are well versed in basic science, anatomy and physiology, medication safety, pharmacology and infection control. At the risk of being flamed, possibly more so than many nurses. The mechanics of administering an injection is something we teach to family members all the time, so a well-educated, licensed health care professional is certainly capable of learing it.
Unless one requires monitoring of a medical condition related to the injection they are receiving, why should they tie up an office appointment, which is a scarce and expensive commodity, simply to receive a routine vaccination that can be given without a provider's order? And why would one accept a vaccine from a potentially unlicensed MA, but not a pharmacist?
First of all, I am sorry you have gone through this.
Secondly, we have ALL made mistakes at one time or another.
It seems to me that in this situation, there was indeed a lot of irresponsibility. I agree that with two sets of eyes, this should NOT have happened.
But please try to keep in mind this isn't an "MA" issue. It is a professional error, one that could have been made by anyone...MA, LPN, RN etc.
I agree with the other comments that the physician is the worst in all of this by the lax attitude they have towards the mistake. The doc was wrong for dismissing your concerns.
BTW....I also refuse to get the Guardasil for my daughters and myself. :)
Am I missing something? MAs giving shots? I've never had anyone but a nurse or doctor give me an IM. I didn't even know it was legal for a MA to administer a med. Wow- if this is common, nurses need to start protecting out turf.
Excuse me, but MA's are trained quite well in giving injections. We are after all, the office personnel. We "assist" the doctor. So please take your condescending attitude elsewhere.
Furthermore, I cannot even count the number of residents that have come through our office that I have personally had to train in giving injections and drawing blood. They aren't routinely taught this in Med School!
first of all, i am sorry you have gone through this.
secondly, we have all made mistakes at one time or another. this is true!
it seems to me that in this situation, there was indeed a lot of irresponsibility. i agree that with two sets of eyes, this should not have happened.
but please try to keep in mind this isn't an "ma" issue. it is a professional error, one that could have been made by anyone...ma, lpn, rn etc. i will try!
i agree with the other comments that the physician is the worst in all of this by the lax attitude they have towards the mistake. the doc was wrong for dismissing your concerns.
btw....i also refuse to get the guardasil for my daughters and myself. :)
I've never understood the objection to pharmacists administering flu shots.
I don't buy the argument that they aren't qualified. Pharmacists hold a minimum of a Bachelor's Degree. Most have earned a Master's or PhD. They are well versed in basic science, anatomy and physiology, medication safety, pharmacology and infection control. At the risk of being flamed, possibly more so than many nurses. The mechanics of administering an injection is something we teach to family members all the time, so a well-educated, licensed health care professional is certainly capable of learning it.
Unless one requires monitoring of a medical condition related to the injection they are receiving, why should they tie up an office appointment, which is a scarce and expensive commodity, simply to receive a routine vaccination that can be given without a provider's order? And why would one accept a vaccine from a potentially unlicensed MA, but not a pharmacist? I went to a box store for my flu shot. The dr's office make 'nurse' appt with the MA for blood draws or flu shots. I do not think, I've ever had a dr give me a shot.
Is it just a "turf" thing?
Idk if it's a turf thing or not.. for me it's comfort level thing..
I have 4 friends as Pharmacists. I'm sure they would be mad at me..
When I was doing the H1N1 shots I gave hundreds of shots exactly the same way each time. There were 2 or 3 people who bled or developed hematomas.
Interesting.. I gave a bunch of the H1N1 this year too and had several bleeders too. I even changed to a different box of needles after awhile in fear I had a bad box.
First off, let me say that I'm glad you dismissed the legal action option. Unless you have severe, long-lasting problems down the road, there's no basis for it.
I had contaminated instruments used on me during my shoulder surgery. Once the surgeon looked through the scope (it was an arthroscopic repair), he saw some brown, foreign flecks of material. Washed them out, sent them to path, and they were broken down red blood cells. Obviously not mine. I had to do the six months of HIV and hepatitis testing, etc, and it was very stressful. But, since all testing was ultimately negative, it would not have been a medmal case, despite how horrifying it was.
Anyway.
I agree that their attitudes about it were terrible. I am guessing that the two MA's DID look at the vial, and the confusion lied in what you were actually supposed to receive, rather than drawing up the wrong med than what they thought they were drawing up (does that make sense?). Doesn't make it ok, but it really is best to put it behind you.
It is also not an MA issue, I agree. Anyone giving meds should be trained in the 5 rights, unfortunately, they did not use them. Anyone could be guilty of that (not excusing it).
I'm surprised about the walking out when seeing a pharmacist administering flu shots. I don't see the problem with that.
I gave an SC today that bled quite a bit. That doesn't usually happen, but it can. It's possible to hit a shallow vessel, and it's not harmful. It just bleeds more than you'd expect from an injection.
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
I have to give myself injections SubQ every morning in my abdomen. We were taught in school to hold it for 10 seconds after administering because this was supposed to be better. So doing my own injections I tested it. My first injections I just darted it in and pushed the med and pulled out. I didn't wait and I bled a little and had a little bruise.
So next few I did the dart pushed and counted to 10. Pulled it out, no blood, no bruise. I continued doing it this way, about 2 weeks later I did it without waiting again and I had bleeding and bruising again.
I found it pretty interesting. These are all subQ not IM injections, but all the sub q injections I have done in clinicals, the only time I had one bleed was when I didn't wait the 10 seconds after injecting as well.
Maybe their is something to the new way they are teaching us to do injections??
I have also been told that waiting for the alcohol to dry does keep it from stinging MORE. That if the alcohol is still wet and you are pushing it into the skin with the needle, it's going to burn. If you wait for it to dry it won't burn as bad.
The meningitis vaccine I got, the guy had no idea what he was doing. :| I knew he looked a little to eager for me to go to his line like he was getting to practice finally. They didn't have wipes, they had cotton balls, he soaked one in the alcohol and rubbed in on my arm, it was saturated and streaming down my arm. He then did the injection while it was still REALLY wet and it burned worse then any shot I have ever had. I also was bleeding really bad. I was very thankful he wasn't over in the childrens section.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
OMG how awful!!!
But here's the weirdest part of it. The nurse who mixed up the vials was the one who told me about it!! She was still working there. 2 of us worked in the "shot room" of a ginormous multi-specialty clinic, all shots all the time! She casually mentioned one day that she switched the vials and the guy died ! Surreal. I mean what are you supposed to say?? Umm. ..
Just in case anybody asks, yes we showed them their allergy serum mixtures before we drew them up. Don't know what happened.
She said the clinic was sued, she wasn't. We didn't follow a protocol of waiting for alcohol to dry naturally or hold the needle in place for 10 seconds. If we did, they would have had to hire more people.
But here's the weirdest part of it. The nurse who mixed up the vials was the one who told me about it!!
I think it's GREAT that she shared her error with you. It appears to have made an impact, and you are extra careful because of it. I'm guessing that she still faced some action from the Board; perhaps she had to take some sort of class, or practice with supervision, etc. Even if she didn't, she's sharing her mistake with others, probably in the hopes you take care when giving injections.
I hate our culture of silence in this regard. If we make an error, we're supposed to hide it? Never talk about it? On the "write up" threads, there are always the nurses who feel it "mean" to write others up for their errors. That's how errors continue to be made! When we perpetuate this culture of silence, this myth that good nurses don't make serious mistakes, we perpetuate systemic flaws that lead to errors!
I made a serious error regarding a PCA once. I gave a patient 10x the dose for two hours due to mis-programming the pump. I wrote myself up, told the patient what had happened and apologized for my error, and thanked my lucky stars that I did it on a, shall we say, experienced drug user. If it would have been on an opiate naive pt, I would have been coding her. I share my error with new nurses when I train them on the PCA pump, to emphasize the seriousness of the PCA double-check, as well as to reassure them that mistakes DO happen. When I reported my mistake, no one asked for my head. Risk management and my manager did ask me what I thought contributed to my mistake. It seems many nurses, seasoned and otherwise, were having errors with the pumps. When we bought new IV machines, our hospital decided to invest in new PCA pumps as well, in part due to the frequent errors. In the meantime, we instituted some changes in our PCA protocol and double-check system.
Had I not reported my error, no one would have been the wiser. The patient didn't know. No one else would have known. Reporting it helped make positive changes in the short term and long term on our unit with PCA pumps.
It is total bunk that good nurses don't make serious errors. They can happen to anyone. Good nurses don't hide their mistakes. They disclose them, learn from them, and advocate for education and change because of them.
But here's the weirdest part of it. The nurse who mixed up the vials was the one who told me about it!! She was still working there. 2 of us worked in the "shot room" of a ginormous multi-specialty clinic, all shots all the time! She casually mentioned one day that she switched the vials and the guy died ! Surreal. I mean what are you supposed to say?? Umm. ..
Just in case anybody asks, yes we showed them their allergy serum mixtures before we drew them up. Don't know what happened.
She said the clinic was sued, she wasn't. We didn't follow a protocol of waiting for alcohol to dry naturally or hold the needle in place for 10 seconds. If we did, they would have had to hire more people.
It came too close. Also she did not let alcohol dry naturally. Vaccine had burned @ injection. uggh!
So i cant convince you that you were not harmed by this shot, she asks.. NO! I said. The Dr also told me that Both MA's were highly skilled. When a vaccine incident is made the whole office feel bad. (I hope this is a rarity) Smiles, I do not think you are harmed by the vaccine.., The Dr says again. Smiles, my most educated patient should not believe everything on the internet or blah blah said the Dr. I looked at her with a death stare. 
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Jolie, BSN
6,375 Posts
I've never understood the objection to pharmacists administering flu shots.
I don't buy the argument that they aren't qualified. Pharmacists hold a minimum of a Bachelor's Degree. Most have earned a Master's or PhD. They are well versed in basic science, anatomy and physiology, medication safety, pharmacology and infection control. At the risk of being flamed, possibly more so than many nurses. The mechanics of administering an injection is something we teach to family members all the time, so a well-educated, licensed health care professional is certainly capable of learing it.
Unless one requires monitoring of a medical condition related to the injection they are receiving, why should they tie up an office appointment, which is a scarce and expensive commodity, simply to receive a routine vaccination that can be given without a provider's order? And why would one accept a vaccine from a potentially unlicensed MA, but not a pharmacist?
Is it just a "turf" thing?