Patient labeling issue

[sleeplessinnyc]

Hi All, recently i have been called to my managers office because I put another patient's name on a potassium IV that was suppose to be given to my patient. The reason for this oversight is that the other patient was also on potassium IV. My manager gave me a final warning for this error. A union delegate was present and we filed for grievance. What is the appropriate level of discipline for labeling errors? I did all the five rights. Right drug, right time, right route, right patient and right time.

Thanks for your inputs.

[Sun0408, ASN, RN]

Calling it a labeling error does not take away the fact it was a med error and a potentially dangerous one. You did not follow the five rights..wrong patient. Sounds as though your facility takes this type of error as a big deal to give you a final warning. Is it fair, probably not but it is still a huge issue re: safety.

Take this, learn from it and strive to be more careful.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Ruby, didn't I say that this was my first ever write up? there had been no previous warnings, that is why final warning for first write up seems harsh. I come to this comunity to seek opinion and support but you seem to want to jump to the worse conclusion and make assumptions of people that you've never met. I appreciate your opinion on the matter but not on what kind of nurse I am without ever knowing me.

I'm sorry you don't like my opinion. When you come to this community, you may get support and virtual hugs from your peers. But one of the biggest benefits of coming to this community is the free advice you get from more experienced nurses who have been there, done that, and know what it's all about. You -- and I mean the collective you as well as the individual -- have the opportunity to get advice that I could have benefitted greatly from when I was a new nurse but had no way to get. Some of the questions that are asked and answered here are questions I would not even have known to have asked . . . and had to find out the hard way by myself.

As for my opinion on what sort of nurse you are -- I've formed that by the way you present yourself on-line. It may be inaccurate, but hardly anyone who is intentionally forming an inaccurate picture of themselves on-line wishes it to be LESS stellar than they actually are.

[BiohazardBetty]

Ruby Vee: Amen!!!