Princess Pam

Hi Tweety, I guess hospitals are different. My facility takes medication errors very seriously, in fact so does the state board of nursing. All medication errors are reported via incident report and a counseling is given to the staff nurse in the form of a medication error. That counseling does go into the employees file. The state of Texas requires that if a nurse commits 5 medication errors in a years time, she should go before the peer review committee and that committee decides if she should be reported to the board. Writing up and counseling are two different events. Our facility uses a form called "report of staff concern", staff use this form to write up any incident that warrants the manager getting involved. Yes it is true that the Manager, supervisor, or charge nurse can councel an employee for patient care related issues. In general, being written up is an infrequent occurance.

Has anyone taken the PCCN? Any tips? I've only been able to find review question books for the CCRN, does anyone know if there's anything out there specifically for PCCN?

You can be written up for several things including medication errors, not following hospital policy, failure to carry out orders, not signing off your orders, not doing your shift end chart checks, not meeting the basic needs of your patients, and attitude. Any person you work with can write you up, your manager will be the one to discuss the issue with you and decide if further action should be taken. Just remember to always follow hospital policy and if you're not sure about something, ask. There are no dumb questions and it's better to be safe than sorry.