ive been in nursing school for 2 years now, i been doing kind of well in classes since i love pharma and i really like being all near the blood and medicines and i have always liked hospitals.
jsut today i was caring for a well behaved 2 year old boy and took his vital signs, and checked his IV levels and so on. his mom was adamant to leave that day so a few hours after meeting them i was assigned to discontinue his IV, and i did so with a lot of care but i was pretty nervous and shaky.
i wrote down my nursing care notes in advance, 5 hrs before it was due. then the nightmare happened.
the chart had a lot of sheets in it and i had a hard time looking for the nurses notes, i saw the date july 9 on a newsprint (newsprint or the gray sheet is the usual standard nursing care notes)..so i wrote like 7 lines in on there when my classmate looked over and said.."you're writing on the doctors orders sheet"..
confused i was thinking ..this cant be, doctors sheets are yellow and usually in front of the other papers like patient info and prescriptions and cbc reports and so on. checking further i realized she was right.
i told our clinical instructor about it and he didnt yell at me, he was upset at me of course and he told me the least thing that can happen to me is an "incident report.. its a report that goes to the dean at school and it means i am in big trouble that i have never been in my whole life in nursing school (although i have heard of others getting it but i dont know if it was just a threat to them or was really carried out)..
the nurse on duty told my instructor that it was ok, so i was releived and went for lunch. when i came back my instructor told me i was really gonna have an incident report. then i went to take a bathroom break and noticed that other students from other schools were looking at me. turns out the nurse on duty told everyoen about it.
we're gonna hve 5 more months working in that hospital and at this point i wonder..i am the only one who made this mistake and its supposedly the "Gravest" one in terms of legal issues.
i am thinking of just stopping for now and think, this isnt for me.
i havent made a mistake and medicines or dosages, and i havent made a mistake ever but this i am afraid i might even get arrested.
can anyone help me, like has anyone heard of a similar incident or ..its just only me who has ever done this ?
if not what punishment do people get? do they get arrested?
thank you
sorry if im writing like crazy i am trying to stop from crying
You made one mistake, that is quite small- in my opinion. I've seen mistakes and this one is NOT a big deal. Your patient was not negatively affected. If anything the instructor should take this as an opportunity to better teach the students where to correctly document.
Specializes in Peds Critical Care, Dialysis, General.
Breathe, breathe, breathe. We have all made honest mistakes in charting. When our system went to computer charting, the mistakes were plentiful and we all made them.
As was stated earlier, the nurse who opened her big mouth was exceptionally unprofessional in her behavior. She's a HUGE example of what not to do.
We had a resident who actually wrote an order "Snickers PRN". He was not allowed to write orders by himself for a long period of time. All orders by him had to be co-signed by the attending. You didn't do anything like that. Honest mistakes happen in charting.
Own your mistakes - it's the best course and will show your integrity and professionalism.
I'm not sure if I'm understanding you. If you charted notes in advance that weren't done yet that is a big mistake. If you just charted on the wrong paper, that's no big deal. As has been said before, mark a line through it, initial it and then chart on the right paper.
Specializes in Surgical Trauma Burn ICU, Oncology.
who cares? i mean, really? i'm sure everyone involved got over this within 5 minutes. it's REALLY not a big deal. and as for the nursing instructor..some are awesome...others are pathetic and try everything in their control to intimidate you. personally, for me, it didn't work. move on.
You'll be fine. Everybody makes mistakes. There are procedure in place to minimize problems. Hold your head up.....move on......and be a great nurse someday!
The only thing that should have happened is that your instructor takes the opportunity to show you how to correctly mark a documentation error. The correct way to strike out a written error is to put a single line through the entry, initial and date it. Technically, one should not throw out any part of the patient record. It is also not acceptable to use white out, scribble an entry out, or mark over in in black marker. A simple single line through the entry with initials and date is the correct way.
Everyone makes mistakes. There is no harm to anyone, you caught the error, and corrected it. There was no issue with patient care or safety. There is absolutely no reason for an incident report. I am sorry that it was blown way out of proportion, when there was no reason for all that drama.
I'm not sure if I'm understanding you. If you charted notes in advance that weren't done yet that is a big mistake. If you just charted on the wrong paper, that's no big deal.
what deb said, about charting in advance?
if you did, please, don't do that again.
as for charting on the wrong paper, your instructor is being waaaaaaay too dramatic...
but, if you are 'counselled', acknowledge your mistake and show them you have "reflected" (they love when you do that) on the situation.
as for the (unprofessional) nurse who told everyone else, don't give it a 2nd thought.
just go on w/your day, and keep that head up, chin out.
no one can make you feel badly, w/o your permission.
I can totally relate to your experience as I had the worst preceptor in the past. You're still a student so you're still in the learning phrase. I think it's so unprofessional that the nurse has told everyone about the incidence. Please don't give up and keep your spirit up !
Time flies in nursing school and when you looked back in the future, you'll realize that it's not a big deal !
GOMER42
310 Posts
Do not quit over this!!!
You made one mistake, that is quite small- in my opinion. I've seen mistakes and this one is NOT a big deal. Your patient was not negatively affected. If anything the instructor should take this as an opportunity to better teach the students where to correctly document.