So Scared

Your fear will serve you well, but do not let it rule you. There are lots of safety procedures you will learn in school and protocols in place at your work. There will be a time when you make a mistake (I have made mine, we all have) and you will learn from them.

Trudge on and follow your heart, do not let fear hold you back!

Tait

There are 4 things that may contribute to what you describe:

1: Ignorance; nurses must have a good understanding of what they are doing and why they are doing it. That is why it is so important, firstly to function within your scope of practice, and secondly to stay abreast of new developments. You refer specifically to medications, and pharmacology is an important aspect of nurse training. However, it is up to the nurse to ensure that she reads up on prescribed meds that she is not familiar with.

2: Failing to check. There are numerous reasons why we counter-check prescriptions and dosages with our colleagues. We need to ensure that we have read the script correctly. We need someone to witness that we have indeed given the correct drug and prescribed dose.

It may also be necessary to check prescriptions with doctors. Sometimes their handwriting is so illegible, you have no option other than to request a translation. Besides that, doctors are themselves only human, and can also make mistakes. There again, it is important that nurses are familiar with correct dosages.

3: Weariness. Sometimes you can be so tired that you become a risk to your patient and yourself. Here again, you must always ensure that you have someone to double-check what you are administering.

4: Failure to identify. Correct identification of patients is vital. Always make sure you have the right person. Verbally identify, and confirm ID with the name band before administering meds.

The advice which you will read repeatedly on this forum, is.....always, always, CYA! (cover your a$$.) That is why it is a recognized rule that a second qualified person must always check meds with you, and that your documentation is always up to date. This may not apply to med passes due to time and staffing constraints, but I remember when I used to do the "medicine round", I used to go through the list of prescriptions before starting, so I had a good idea of who was due to get what. Once in the patient's room I would dispense the meds into the med cups, and re-check the script before going to the patient's bedside; then I would check the script against patient's ID at the bedside, and sign for administration immediately. You work out your own system of checks and balances.

You will have all these basic rules drummed into you in Nursing School, and if you are a naturally cautious person, you shouldn't have any need to be afraid :)

Its good to know the ramifications from a medication error. Your attitute will serve you well in nursing!

Mild OCD is actually a pretty good trait in a nurse. :) Medication safety depends on you being ALWAYS engaged when you give meds. If you develop a personal routine you will be fine. Once you know the meds that can actually hurt someone you are that more careful. As for jail, that would only happen if you did something intentionally.

All good points. Heed them well.

In all honesty, it is hard to kill someone without doing something really beyond what you're supposed to do. The human body is pretty resilient.

If everyone who was afraid of making mistakes stayed out of nursing, doctors would be passing their own pills. Each of us has that fear to varying degrees. You are the same as the rest of us.

Everyone worries about errors, as well we should - its certainly well worth being VERY careful, methodical, and conscientious. Its especially tough when your're starting out, because you lack the confidence and established routines you can build over time, AND it takes time - years - to gain some perspective as to just how dire any given situation is. New folks tend to overreact - it helps to seek counsel from an experienced nurse if you can find one you feel comfortable with.

Most errors are not lethal, AND if you catch your own error and address it appropriately, the risk of harm drops much further.

Honestly, I wouldn't worry about prison.

In my state, filing an Incident Report about an error makes the maker of the mistake SAFER from getting in trouble, as the relevant QA legislation offers protection to encourage accurate reporting and allow systems issues to be addressed. Even if you made the error, often you got tripped up by a systems issue (e.g. lookalike meds stored together ) that could be fixed, allowing everyone do better work in the future.

Finally, if you worry about your license, see if you can look up the license suspensions in your state. I've done it a few times - the overwhelming majority of license issues involved various aspects of substance abuse, not the careless errors we all tend to worry about.

Your fear will serve you well, but do not let it rule you. There are lots of safety procedures you will learn in school and protocols in place at your work. There will be a time when you make a mistake (I have made mine, we all have) and you will learn from them.

Trudge on and follow your heart, do not let fear hold you back!

Tait

I fully agree - WE ALL MAKE MISTAKES - our work is too complex and demanding for perfection to be possible.

What we can and must do:

1) Take responsibility for our errors and address them appropriately

2) Learn from them

3) Do everything we can, individually and collectively, to prevent as many errors as we possibly can. That includes the most valuable approach of all - help find the ways to make it easier for everyone to avoid errors - so-called systems issues. This is the approach that has made flying so incredibly safe.