Please help me, I'm in trouble.

Nurses General Nursing

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Hello. I have been a nurse for about eight years. I have been employeed in a skilled rehab unit for about five years. This past weekend I made a serious med error. I gave a resident another residents medication. I administered oxycontin 20 Mg instead of the ordered oxycodone 10 '=: This was realized at change of shift. As soon as I realized the error I assessed the ot and contacted the doctor as well as told the nurse assuming care of this pt. I told my supervisor that I had made a med error and she said make sure you call the MD. I did not go into details as it wa already two hours past the end of my shift, and you do get written up for being late out. Not to mention that I had twice as many patients as I should have due to staffing problems. Later that same night the supervisor calls me for clarification. I did not fill out the proper paper work. More importantly I wrote in the drug manifest "Wasted" To adjust the count from the pt that I took the meds from. After I wrote that I thought well its not actually wasted so I documented beside my signature "Given to wrong patient" In a very small space. Well long story short a few days later my DON questioned me statng that I falsified the document, I was being terminated and reported to theboard. I am in complete shock.. she said it looked like a cover up. But remember I told the other nurse and called the doctor and no harm came to the patient...thank god. Now im out of a job, will face the board and I don't know how to get a job after being fired. Please please help me.

Wow, she has no right to text you! You are no longer her employee. What a psycho.

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I did polite warn her that any further communication would need to be via mail to not contact me again. You know just last week she said how our company was a big family...well I guess this is the big divorce!

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You go girl!!!! Yes, these are stages of grieving. And you have helped yourself by reaching out to your fellow nurses. We are here because we want to heal and help our fellow travelers on the planet. But most important - we all want to preserve our dignity and that of our fellow nurses. And a lot of us who are responding have had bad experiences and want to share what works for us. It is also VERY therapeutic to help someone else...it helps us take care of ourselves - to step out of our private agony. We get strength from each other. Just know that you are NOT alone. You have a lot of company.

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This is a very powerful post, and you have made me open my eyes and look at the big picture. Maybe this will help all of us come out "from under the covers" and look after ourselves. We all have our individual areas of expertise. Yeah!!!!!! let's turn on the power of our profession. Thanks so much for reminding us of our resources in the government.

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I think I would go to the police and file a complaint about her texting you. That's harrasment. You can save those texts and show the police.

By warning her to not contact me unless its in writing I have opened the legal door to purs action for harassment, and with their lack of loyalty towards me after five hard years of loyal service, I will NOT hesitate. Aparently its dog eat dog out thereand I'm a hungry mutt at this point.

with that said, negatifity behind me. I want only positive energy in my heart and in my life. I AM A GOOD NURSE, I LOVE WHAT I DO AND I RESPECT WHO I AM! NO ONE CAN TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME. I have my dignity and they are not worthy of my self doubt, fear, shame, anguish or pain:idea:. Im going to learn to walk again, one foot in front of the other. I'm going to have faith in God, and myself, learn from my mistakes...and grab life by the B I mean testicals...lol. its a new day and a new me....after all THEY CAN'T EAT ME, CAN THEY?

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I believe cannibalism is illegal in the U.S. I'm going thru something pretty nasty myself right now, so it's good for me to be having these conversations. :twocents:

But this is my favorite quote of all time, and it's a good time to share: "Heroes are not always riding down Main Street on a white horse in a Victory Parade.....sometimes they are hiding behind the rocks, pulling the arrows out"

:sofahider

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I believe cannibalism is illegal in the U.S. I'm going thru something pretty nasty myself right now, so it's good for me to be having these conversations. :twocents:

But this is my favorite quote of all time, and it's a good time to share: "Heroes are not always riding down Main Street on a white horse in a Victory Parade.....sometimes they are hiding behind the rocks, pulling the arrows out"

:sofahider

If you would like ti share your pain with me we could sureky stick together and help one another. As I'm learning, we can all learn quirte a bit from each other with this website, gain insights and benefit from each others struggles as wwell as victories. I'm here for you if I can help. Let's maintain the insanity...I mean sanity!

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Save that text! It is gold. She made a big error in doing that. Be sure your interactions are short and to the point. Don't get into any kind of conversation with them especially that is not recorded in some way. Make sure you also keep a log and document date/time/where/who present and what was said done for each and every little thing that has to do with this. Write it just like a movie script. Be sure even to log in the text in this way for a timeline. Trust me in that this is quite useful for whomever you contact for help. It is important not to ever let that facility know what you plan to do about ANYTHING. There is no law that says that you can't answer a line of text with silence.

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Specializes in NICU, Peds, Med-Surg.

First of all, HUGS to you!!!!! I'm very sorry this happened, and I can only imagine as a single Mom, your stress levels are horrible!!! And forgive me if you or someone else posted about this already, but this thread is too long for me to read every post....

Because you TOLD the doctor what happened and you assessed the patient who was given the wrong med, that is all in your charting, correct? Which means you are covered, AND that shows the PATIENT also wasn't harmed, because----again, you had to have charted in their record that you assessed them and they were okay.....or am I missing something?

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Unfortunately I did Not chart the final assessment or the call to the doctor. I thought, as I was taught at my facility, to not chart an error....and I'm so very wrong. I did assess and did call the doc, the supervisor and on comming nurse. Oh what a dang mess...

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Btw...thank you

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However two hours after I was home I wanted to do a late entry and they said no!

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