new nurse medication errors

[radgey]

hi everyone i am a new nurse been on the job for two months and have already made 6 med errors five out of the 6 were missed doses of norco. i feel horrible and cant sleep and i think about it all the time. This experience makes me feel so inadaquate as a nurse. i pass meds to about 23 residents. i feel like i am alone in this boat, i don't feel like i can talk to other nurses about this because they tell me that they don't make errors. 6 med errors in my opinion is alot even though its a missed dose of norco and thankful these people were not in pain a med error is a med error, i feel like i am prone to med errors, i am not perfect i am human and keep trying to convince my self of that but that is not excuse i need to be perfect with the med pass. i am beginning to hate that word med error. Can someone please enlighten me and tell me that i am not the only one who has made this many errors in such a short period of time and i also would like some advice in ways i can improve med pass in a speedy manner. thankyou

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

hello thanks for your response. yes it was a few norcos that i had overseen and did not give. no harm done to patient they were not in no pain. i turned in my own med errors. i really did love my job but i was afraid they were going to fire me and so i resigned from my position. i

.no job. i am not a job jumper never have been i just couldn't face them running me down (been through that experience before) when i know i am not a bad person/not perfect but not bad and i loved the residents and i gave good care. i am now starting to second guess myself now as to whether or not i am nursing home material. i

it's a shame that being honest will get you out the door in a hurry.

the don even told me at one time that she has made tons of errors in her career but i feel like i have to be perfect or else. i realize meds are important and i do get the right meds to the right patient but yes in those two months worked at the nursing home i screwed up. i know i will never be perfect but as i look back i see what may have happened and what i can do in the future to prevent it from happening again.

i was so hoping that they would call me home and ask me to come back and to let me know that there plans were not to fire me but to talk about the problem but they didn't so i guess they didn't value me that much and with that said i think i made the right decision to resign even though i miss my job i just hope that someplace else will be willing to hire me, nursing jobs do not come by that easy. i didn't mention that when i resigned i informed my employer regarding my resigniation that i know i had made a few mistakes but i couldn't face the consequences of being termintated so that i why i am resigning i sent this is a note. i am not a coward but i have had negative experiences in the past and there was no way that i was going through that again being belittled,or run down. they had previously told me that i was doing a good job but after that last mistake i had a gut feeling and not a good one. right now i just dwell day in and day out what if , what if. would i still have a job if i didn't quit would they had terminated me. i don't know. well hope to hearing some postive feedback really need it now. thanks

please understand that i'm not trying to "put you down" or make you feel worse -- i'm hoping to give you some insight that may help you the next time you get into a similar position.

you may or may not be a coward, but you reacted to your medication error in a cowardly fashion by resigning your position rather than face the consequences of your error (which may have been far less than what you imagined). then you sat at home, hoping that they'd call you and ask you to come back and concluding that since they did not, they didn't value you all that much. that's immature. "they" were not your mommy or daddy or your friends. "they" were your employers. when an employee resigns, an employer respects their maturity enough to assume they've thought through the ramifications of resigning and actually meant to do so. i realize that your note saying you were resigning because you could not face the consequences of your errors left little doubt as to your lack of maturity, but the employers respected your decision all the same. if you really want your job back, you're going to have to convince your employers that you really, really want it back, and that you've grown up a whole lot in a very short time in order to be able to handle it. from what you've posted here, that doesn't seem to be the case.

"being honest" did not get you out the door in a hurry. your own fears and immaturity did that.

next time -- if you're fortunate enough to get another chance either at this job or another one -- have the courage to face your boss with your errors. think through how and why you made the error and what you (you, not everyone else) can do to prevent such errors in the past. make it clear that you understand the potential ramifications of medication errors and have done all you can to mitigate the potential harm to the patient. and then take whatever correction the manager offers you. very few people that i know of have actually been fired for medication errors, even fatal ones. you may have to re-take some classes or some other sort of remediation, but you would still have a job.

[netglow, ASN, RN]

The "trust no one" does sound like it's said for effect when you read it. But it is wise advice and should be what you do in every nursing job. It is what it is.

LTC can be the worst of the worst. I was unfortunate enough to be able to see many LTCs as a hospice nurse. Far too many were as that poster describes. The few nurses who were giving their all, I knew, would not survive long. I actually felt that they would become ill and be forced to quit or make a mistake from the sheer ridiculous stress of LTC. The ones who survive/thrive in some of the worst places, live evil lives you can see it in their beady little eyes.

[radgey]

Ruby i am offended you do not know me from jack and i am sorry to even mention the word coward to have it thrown back in my face....just as well.... and lacking maturity and growing up well until you can say you have walked in someone elses shoes please keep the negative comments to your self....,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[radgey]

Ruby negativaty breeds negativity please keep in mind the words you choose when posting comments to me and to others. "have you walked in their shoes"

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

ruby i am offended you do not know me from jack and i am sorry to even mention the word coward to have it thrown back in my face....just as well.... and lacking maturity and growing up well until you can say you have walked in someone elses shoes please keep the negative comments to your self....,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

i wasted all that time typing because i honestly thought i could help. guess not. i'm sorry you're not ready to hear me.

[LoveSbux]

Ruby i am offended you do not know me from jack and i am sorry to even mention the word coward to have it thrown back in my face....just as well.... and lacking maturity and growing up well until you can say you have walked in someone elses shoes please keep the negative comments to your self....,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Well this is a bit of a jump on your part, don't you think? You said it yourself, "I was afraid they were going to fire me" and rather than take whatever remediation/improvement plan/discipline they would have likely offered you jumped ship. You also said that your errors resulted in "no job" and honestly, you were the one who resigned.

I won't play the maturity game, you words speak volumes.

[radgey]

You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him. Now that is volume......Maturity Games?????. Get Real

[radgey]

:nono::nono::nono:

[radgey]

Get it

[radgey]

[Nurse_Wretched]

**** happens. Learn from this mistake and move on! Mistakes are (hopefully) learning experiences... Sometimes all of us are conflict avoidant. Look at what happened and write to yourself in your personal journal detailing how you would handle it better next time. Keep on moving forward so that you can grow and change. Going back to a former job is almost always a mistake. The old concept of self is there and you need to do something else now.

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

I found out that i am not the only one making these same errors, its a ongoing problem where i work.

If it's an ongoing problem with multiple nurses, it is most likely a "system error."

Is the DON interviewing all the nurses to find out where the problem lies and what improvements can be made to avoid these med errors? I hope it doesn't turn into punitive action; a more appropriate response by TPTB would be preventative action system-wide.

ETA: I've seen LTC MARs in our acute care admission packets, and they are cumbersome. LTC nurses have my sympathies.