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Will you quit nursing after making 5 med errors in the first 7 months of being an RN?
TO CB-RNOriginally Posted by Suethestudent
"To be blunt, I would question whether or not you possess the necessary attention to detail that is needed to avoid such errors. That is a high error run-rate, and I hope that no one was hurt. I'm sorry if this is harsh, but you could kill someone if you have an innate inability to follow protocols correctly."
Uh? Are you a nurse yet? If not, I guarantee you will make errors. I hope you aren't as harsh on yourself as you are on OP. Not to mention, juggling 6 patients is way harder than being responsible for 2 or 3 or 4.
The OP asked for an opinion, and I gave mine. Your Uh?Are you a nurse yet? reply is offensive to me. Did I miss the part in her post where she/he wrote " Please only reply and tell me nice encouraging things, and a mention of soft fluffy bunnies and frolicking lambs would be super as well". I think that 5 med errors (of unspecified severity) in 7 months is concerning, and I expressed my concern, so please keep your snide and snotty comments to yourself.
I did not intend to come off as snide and snotty, it was nothing personal to you but I do stand behind my original post, however if the wording was offensive, I do apologize for the wording.
But I reiterate that you were harsh in your reply as well. Nobody wants to paint nursing as a unicorn dancing in a rainbow, I never ever do. Nursing is hard and you make mistakes. A wonderful nurse can make a horrible error in an instant. The real question is why is she making these errors? It would be far more useful to examine that question than to immediately throw out the suggestion that maybe she can't cut it.
Again, no personal offense to you, just a strong disagreement with your opinion, as you obviously have with mine. A great aspect of these forums is that we can disagree. I hope you success in your nursing career and I hope that you remember this post when you inevitably make a med error or three or five or have a near miss.
It is not always on the person, it is often on the process. The responsibility she has is to find out where the process is failing her and fix it before something bad happens.
All the best to you.
TO CB-RNOriginally Posted by Suethestudent
"To be blunt, I would question whether or not you possess the necessary attention to detail that is needed to avoid such errors. That is a high error run-rate, and I hope that no one was hurt. I'm sorry if this is harsh, but you could kill someone if you have an innate inability to follow protocols correctly."
Uh? Are you a nurse yet? If not, I guarantee you will make errors. I hope you aren't as harsh on yourself as you are on OP. Not to mention, juggling 6 patients is way harder than being responsible for 2 or 3 or 4.
The OP asked for an opinion, and I gave mine. Your Uh?Are you a nurse yet? reply is offensive to me. Did I miss the part in her post where she/he wrote " Please only reply and tell me nice encouraging things, and a mention of soft fluffy bunnies and frolicking lambs would be super as well". I think that 5 med errors (of unspecified severity) in 7 months is concerning, and I expressed my concern, so please keep your snide and snotty comments to yourself.
That is a valid question, "Suethestudent". I am assuming your handle means Sue (the name), the student (nurse) and not sue (as in take legal action) against the student (nurse).
I'm not really convinced that IS a high error rate. I think there are MANY out there that make errors and don't even realize it. The fact that the OP actually realizes it and wants to fix the problem is huge. If someone left the Metamucil packet in their pocket on accident and documented that it was given, is that a med error? Sure. Is is a big freaking deal? I would say in 99% of cases, no, and easily remedied (give it when you find it.) Give him/her a break.
I wouldn't quit. I would ask for some help at work, though, maybe double checking your meds with a peer for a while before giving them. Like anything, its a learning process, but its better to catch a mistake that way than by making one on a patient.
Do you have attention problems? If you think you might, that would be worth checking out.
Everyone makes mistakes, including med errors. Everyone. And usually the error is simply the last part of a chain of events. That's why doing the root cause analysis that a previous poster mentioned is important. What is really dangerous is to pretend that errors don't happen. That also means you have to be able to deal with your errors openly and honestly.
Its important to understand why you are giving a medication, and what safe dose ranges are. If you pay attention to those things, the chances are a lot less that you will make a mistake that is actually dangerous.
I went from being a hospice crisis care LPN (where i have one patient for twelve hours) to being an AL LPN and have thirty patients, I have gotten better, but my first day by myself I gave ativan to someone who did have it ordered routinely i just gave it at the wrong time of day, anywho, I was extremely distraught (although able to finish my med pass w/o other error, and being extra careful) but I have a great DON and she understood and really helped me out. What I'm trying to say is, it happens. But life goes on, if you made the errors and you didnt get fired, they must not of been extremely serious if you made them all at the same job.
I have been a nurse just less than one year. I am stunned at the amount of med errors that take place. Most of them have to do with timing, communication and documentation. Unfortunately, we do not have electronic MARs, everything is still paper. I get the 5 rights, but it seems like there is a lot working against you "in the real world".
This is the type of thing I see a lot:
Passing a 2100 med at 2205 is a med error (more than one hour after the time). This is unfortunately rather common, especially when you are short staffed with > 5 patients or have to do aid-type work along with your own. People are in a hurry and occasionally forget to document a given med. Orders are missed, or not timed correctly. Sometimes the handwriting on the MAR is so messy that it is impossible to read. Fluids are turned off and not restarted, or remain on longer than ordered. Sometimes the patient "doesn't want to take the pills yet". Sometimes a bag is hung but not unclamped. Sometimes the aids will tell you a pt's blood sugar is high at bedtime, but sometimes they forget and you forget to double check and the insulin is delayed.
Technically, every one of those things is a med error. Working on a busy med-surg floor has its challenges, and sometimes you just have to do the best you can.
To be blunt, I would question whether or not you possess the necessary attention to detail that is needed to avoid such errors. That is a high error run-rate, and I hope that no one was hurt. I'm sorry if this is harsh, but you could kill someone if you have an innate inability to follow protocols correctly.
And you have been working as an actual licensed nurse for how long?
Yes, that was harsh. The OP realizes that this is a problem. THis is why she posted it in the first place.
THere are also a lot of factors to consider. If you are not actually working as a nurse full time, in a real hospital or healthcare facillity, then I suggest you perhaps avoid making statements such as this until you have been there and done that !
Assuming you will eventually work as a nurse, listen very carefully...you will make mistakes. When you do, how will you feel when a person who has no experience doing what you do, says "watch out, you could KILL a person"...whoa
Very few med errors are such that the would result in a death...if you were working, you would realize that.
Hang in there OP, things will get better. At least you are aware of the problem and want to make it better.
To MissBecky....right on! My thoughts exactly.
and guys, I did chuckle over Sue the Student....especially considering the context.
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I'm not going to sugar coat it - You need to be a heck of a lot more careful of the meds you're giving. EVERYBODY makes mistakes, but that shouldn't be something that makes you feel better about this situation. Giving the CORRECT dose of some of these high risk meds can do a patient harm if not monitored. If needed, TRIPLE check your meds until you get more proficient at it.
I also have a few suggestions for you if you use a Pixis system that helped me out a TON, makes my life a lot easier, and allows me to double/triple check my meds. When you go into work next time, go into the user settings of the Pixis (I believe it's the bottom right button). From there you can select which patients you're taking care of, sort the patients by room number, have the Pixis log you into the "remove" screen (since that's what you're doing most of the time), and the BEST option is to "eject the meds in the order selected". With this option selected, the meds will pop out regardless to "which drawer" they're located (who cares if we're making the computer's job easier??). This option will instead pop the drawers open in accordance to how you selected them from the MAR. This way you can look at your MAR, look at the med packaging, look at the Pixis to ensure you need only 1 pill, and then close it for the next.
All computer systems aren't made the same, but these are pretty generalized options... Select which ones suit you want, and go from there (please note some took a minute to find, and they're not all in the same menu). If you select the "show only my patients" and you want to help someone out, there's an "all patients" button in the remove screen. Finally if you select to show only your patients, you have to go into the user menu screen once a shift and select which patients you have that shift. Our hospital gives you the same patients if you work a few shifts in a row, so it makes things easier.
FINALLY, I'm going to reiterate - YOU MUST pay more attention to your med administration details. It's IMPERATIVE you stop this trend, or the obvious is right around the corner ... you'll either kill or severely injure a patient, or you'll not have a job anymore.
To the lovely ladies that seem to want to turn this thread into an "attack the student" exercise, please take time off from adding frogs to your cauldrons and reread my original post. I said the OP should question whether they have some innate reason for not being able to follow a protocol. Did I say quit? NO. Did I put myself in that person's scenario and then post how I felt?YES. Did the OP ask for opinions?YES .
If the original post had given more detail, then perhaps a different answer would have been appropriate, for example, "I gave meds late 5 times in 7 months because I am the only RN in an LTC with a ratio of 1:60" My answer would have been "You deserve a medal and a place in the Olympics". However I answered the OP with the info given. Sue me.
To the lovely ladies that seem to want to turn this thread into an "attack the student" exercise, please take time off from adding frogs to your cauldrons and reread my original post. I said the OP should question whether they have some innate reason for not being able to follow a protocol. Did I say quit? NO. Did I put myself in that person's scenario and then post how I felt?YES. Did the OP ask for opinions?Since we are talking opinions here
Just saying, In my opinion you can not accurately place yourself in that persons scenario as you do not have the adequate knowlege base and experience to do so. After you have worked for several months with full patients loads come back and reevaluate your statement.
How do you know we are all "ladies"??????????????????????
Hey, come back here....my frog just jumped out......
Peace
Suethestudent
127 Posts
TO CB-RN
Originally Posted by Suethestudent
"To be blunt, I would question whether or not you possess the necessary attention to detail that is needed to avoid such errors. That is a high error run-rate, and I hope that no one was hurt. I'm sorry if this is harsh, but you could kill someone if you have an innate inability to follow protocols correctly."
Uh? Are you a nurse yet? If not, I guarantee you will make errors. I hope you aren't as harsh on yourself as you are on OP. Not to mention, juggling 6 patients is way harder than being responsible for 2 or 3 or 4.
The OP asked for an opinion, and I gave mine. Your Uh?Are you a nurse yet? reply is offensive to me. Did I miss the part in her post where she/he wrote " Please only reply and tell me nice encouraging things, and a mention of soft fluffy bunnies and frolicking lambs would be super as well". I think that 5 med errors (of unspecified severity) in 7 months is concerning, and I expressed my concern, so please keep your snide and snotty comments to yourself.