1st Med Error

Published

I'm sure there is a thread around here somewhere, but I feel like I should share this. I'm still a student nurse and the other day, I missed giving 2 scheduled doses of insulin; I only gave the sliding scale. Nobody caught the mistake until the afternoon shift (I was in the morning shift). The patient was fine; nothing happened to her. But, when I was told of the incident by my instructor, I was devastated ... I mean I cried because I felt like I somehow, failed the patient....

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{{{Eilana}}}

This won't be your last.

You are simply human, not perfect. Learn from this. HOW did you miss the doses? Why? Figure out how it happened, try to avoid it in the future, and move on.

:)

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I agree, this won't be your last. The first is always the hardest to deal with. Learn from it and move on.

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try to figure out why it happened,

learn from this situation

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Mistakes happen, the pt. is ok, figure out how it happened and how to prevent it from happening again. Good luck to you and don't beat yourself up, errors happen to all of us at some time or another.

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Use this incident to develop an organizational system for yourself so you don't forget to do anything crucial for the patient. When you become a nurse, your number of pt tasks will quadruple with added responsibilties and added pt ratios. You will have to juggle even more balls in the air! This was a big shock to me when I first started as a nurse.

To keep from forgetting everything, I developed my own "brains" on my computer and brought them to work everyday. At the beginning of my shift, I mapped out - by the hour - everything that needed to be done for the pt. Then as the day progressed, I would fill in the newly added orders/tasks. When I completed each task, I would cross it off - this way I knew it was done.

And don't beat yourself up about it - everyone makes mistakes - even experienced nurses. You'll make more mistakes too. When you do, just evaluate what happened and how you can avoid repeating it.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

Be gentle with yourself. Figure out what went wrong and learn not to do that again.

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Specializes in Nurses who are mentally sicked.

We all make mistake, but not all are able to learn from it.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

I too just had my first med error at work. An antibiotic dose was not put on the MAR for the next day and the pt ended up getting it late in the morning instead of early. Part of the problem is that I am a new RN--some miscommunication happened...Life must go on. I feel badly that this happened on my watch, but know that I will never forget that third post-op atbx ever again!!!

:nurse:

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Specializes in ICU, ER.

Every time I catch myself from almost making an error, it scares me to think about how many I've made that I didn't know of.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Homecare, UR, Case Mgt.

I have been out of the clinical setting for a long time. The reason I got out was due to a med error, the patient thankfully was fine but I never forgave myself. I wish I had the support you all offer on this thread. When I vented to my supervisor and colleagues even my best friend who is a nurse-they all made me feel like they had never made a med error-which made me felle 100% worse!. I am glad this thread is available to you. Hang inthere and learn from your mistake instead of bailing out like I did. I seriously regret it now!

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

You made a mistake; you are human. The patient was fine and I KNOW you will learn from it!! I remember the horrible sinking feeling after my first med error; hugs to you and don't beat yourself up over it- just learn. Take care!!!

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