Need Advice

Use the rights of administration. Right patient, Right time, Right dose, Right drug , Right route. Use 2 patient identifiers. If you get a order for a med and it dosen't seem right call pharmacy and check with them. They are a invaluable resource for me. It is good to be cautious, but if you make a mistake, just try to learn from it. We all make mistakes and aren't perfect. But you will avoid them if you use the rights of administering meds.

I have made a few med errors and none fatal. No harm done. I learned from my mistake.

If you make a error fess up to it and move on. Just remember as I said before learn from it.

I think we've all suffered from the "paranoia" of med error making at some point. The thing is, if you follow the 5 rights, you really do cut your chances of making an error. Also, have someone check the med w/you, especially on narcotics, and math calculations as well. I've practiced nursing over 30 years (yikes! that makes me sound old!!!) and I often still ask others to verify my calculations & if I don't know a drug & am not near a pharmacy (I practice out of the States a lot in places where there is no pharmacy)I ask others I'm with about the drug and/or keep a drug book handy. You'll do fine. Hang in there.

its always stressful. i still triple check everything!!

keep the anxiety!! it will do ya good!

-GL!!

-H-

I can well understand the anxiety associated with fear of medication errors. I just want to share a personal experience.

As a BSN student (back when the earth's crust was still cooling) I had to function as the "med nurse" for a 65 bed Ortho unit. My instructor was a stickler for details. I had to have med cards (3X5 index cards prepared ahead of time) for ALL the meds that I would be giving. YIKES - each multivitamin required a dozen or more cards, for each vitamin and mineral.

Anyway - on "the" day, she grilled me for over two hours and turned me loose with the med cart. I diligently moved down each of the 3 halls, carefully checking patient IDs and marking off each med as I gave it. Imagine everyone's surprise to discover that I had administered Dalmane to everyone as part of their 9 AM meds...... it seems that no one had told me about the significance of times written in green or red ink (evenings & nites).

Well - I had to fill out 60 (sixty!!!) individual med error reports. My instructor was hysterical. However, I will always treasure the response of the Head Nurse and Chief Resident. I realize now that both of them realized that they didn't need to add to my burden of horror and guilt. they agreed that "this is the quietest day we've ever had . . . we should have thought of this earlier" In addition, they changed the hospital orientation to be more specific about medication admin processes, including the significance of ink colors.

I recovered. So did my instructor. I am still a nurse. It felt like the end of the world at the time, but it wasn't. I completed school without any further incidents. But the instructor ended up retiring early.

My best piece od advice when it comes to giving meds is to take your time and not try to rush through them. This means checking that all your "rights" are right, your patient is who they claim to be (ask them and check their bracelet even if you've been with them all day -after a few hours Mr. Jones and Mr. Johnson can easily become twins on you) and organize, organize, organize.