clarabelle81

Ya the lead up to the incident was a systems failure-i believe some colleague of mine accidentally put back the used tinzaparin in the meds press and i unfortunately was the one who gave it to a patient but the end result is completely my fault and its something that i will NEVER ever forget. i rang my manager yesterday and she told me that everything was fine and not to be worrying. she said look you'll never make that mistake again. i asked would i be brought up before mgt but she said the risk assessment committee might want to meet with you but i have no problem with that at all. all my colleagues have told me of various meds errors that they've made and others that have happened in our facility before but when YOU make the error then its very hard to be rational about it. slept a bit better last night and managed to eat something but i've never been so stressed in my life

thanks everyone.i am going to ring the manager tomorrow and just see what the protocol from here is and hopefully i can try and calm myself a little.

theres never any needles lying open around the ward. but this particular type of syringe comes in little plastic pen type case and we always put it back into the case and then put it in the sharps bin.but its a little big for the small sharps bin.theres not sharp bins in the patients rooms. i'm not looking for someone to say i wasnt at fault-i 100% was at fault. i did not check the syringe was full before handing it to the patient. and i just cant believe i've made such a mistake.i havent eaten all day and keep getting upset. the patient is gone home as of today but will be followed up by the medical team and management.just dreading when they get their hands on me.

thanks gentlegiver yes the syringes are visibly full and i just didnt see that it was empty. i am kicking myself that i didnt go to administer myself and not have let the patient self administer. i just keep going over it in my head. obviously my main concern was the safety of the patient and he's now fine but now i'm focusing on myself and the consequences of my licence. i'm dreading going back to work for my next shift. now our unit has been very understaffed of late and maybe somebody put them back in accidentally but thats no excuse.my colleagues said that they have had experiences of finding these containers used but you just dont expect to find them already used.i've never had an incident like this before and dreading that i will be pulled up in front of management and suspended.

its an acute medical unit. i was giving two patients their anti-clotting and had 2 in the tray. went to this man first so i know i didnt use it before or anything. the actual syringe goes back into the container and thats what we normally do and then dispose of it in the larger sharps bin. but sometimes people have a few to administer and will dispose all at once and unless they put them back into the drug trolley. i'm just dreading the consequences of this even though my main priority was the patient.feel sick and cant sleep.

Hey just wondering can someone reassure me.yesterday at work i was giving a patient his anti clotting (tinzaparin) injection. he asked to self administer it as he normally does it himself at home.so i handed him the container and he took it out and inserted the needle into his upper arm. then he said i think its empty-so he removed it and yes it was empty. now initially i thought maybe its faulty batch and said to the patient that it must be faulty. when i left the room i mentioned it to my colleague and she said she'd never heard of it before. i then went to the box i took it from and found another the same (empty) but i cant say that both werent already used and someone put it back in box the drug press by accident thinking they werent opened. i thought i'd taken them from a brand new box though but couldntn be 100%. i feel so bad. i should have look at the entire container but i just checked the dosage/expiry and handed it over. i then reported it to the manager and the patient had bloods taken. we also filled in an incident report. i just feel i was too slow in identifying that it may have already been used- i genuonly thought it was a dud. anyway he was tested for hep c, hep b and hiv and i rang my facility earlier and they said the bloods came back clear. he's from a medical background himself. I totally accept that this was 100% my fault and whilst i know the bloods came back clear-it still happened and i am so anxious. also i thought the HIV testing took longer. thanks