1st med error!

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I made my 1st med error today. I've been working at a rehab facility for 2 months now (new nurse). I gave a resident 30ml Kayexalate by mistake instead of Kaopectate. I went home and something made me remember it so I called work. The on call ordered a BMP. The man was ok and actually said he's never felt better upon assessment. I just feel awful about it. I know I'll get reprimanded at work and I know I deserve it. I'm always really careful but I screwed this up. Sorry just needed to vent about it.

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Specializes in CVICU, PACU, OR.

Hugs! :icon_hug: I understand how you feel because I've made a couple med errors my first year as a critical care nurse. Everyone makes mistakes, just try to learn from it. Don't beat yourself up! You did the right thing by admitting it and taking action to correct it.

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Specializes in Psych/Rehab/Family practice/Oncology.

I maintain that if a nurse says he or she has never made a mistake, they are either telling less than the truth or they haven't been a nurse that long. Relax. You did the right thing by calling. Rest easy and learn from it. We've been there!

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Specializes in Adult Acute Care Medicine.

It's okay. Do not be too hard on yourself. I have been a nurse for only 6 months now and have made two mistakes (thank goodness not big ones, but mistakes none the less).

Each time I made a mistake I was in a huge hurry to pass all meds on time and missed some part of the five rights...I have certainly have learned to take things slow and ensure I am being safe even if it means the med is late.

Awesome that you admitted your mistake!!! I know it difficult to do. I was so upset about one of my mistakes (not giving 30 meqs of potassium) that I went to talk to my nurse manager. She was very supportive, and did not make me feel ashamed or belittled in any way. In fact she relayed a story of a mistake that she made when she was a new nurse.

I hope that you also have a supportive environment and that there will be no repremanding.

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Specializes in Emergency.

You will be fine,

I know it sucks when you realize you have made an error, but every nurse has done it ( any nurse who says they haven't is full of it). I made a med error as a student (I gave a pt reglan 10 mg when he was ordered for 5mg). I felt awful, and luckily, the pt was ok. We are only human we will make mistakes. The most important thing is that you are honest about it, and do the right thing.

Use it as a learning experience to ensure you are more careful in the future (I did). I now go sit quietly somewhere at start of shift, and highlight any meds where tablets need to be divided, or liquids need to be measured, so I have the heads up that I need to be aware of what I give. I also look for drugs that sound like other drugs (ex: dopamine vs dobutamine) and highlight them to ensure I have the right med. Even if it takes me longer, we learned those 6 rights of med administration in school for a reason. I follow them to a tee, even if I know the patient, I still check ID, med, route, time, dose, and documentation. I know the pts get sick of me asking them their name and ss#, but I'm just covering mine and the pts rears by doing this, and minimizing room for error.

Your pt was OK, and yes, you will probably be spoken to about the error, but don't let it get you down. Learn from it and move on. I can tell you feel bad about it, this means to me that you care. If you weren't posting about it, that would say to me it's no big deal to you, and that would worry me more.

Good luck! You will be fine!

Amy

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Specializes in Women's Specialty, Post-Part, Scrub(cs).

:smackingfWE have all made mistakes, esp. as new nurses. I made mine within the first 3 weeks of having my license. And OH MY GOSH...I work at a nursing home and crushed the meds. I gave the entire set of am meds to the wrong person. I had to learn 50 people. NO arm bands or id available. 2 residents with the same last name. One diabetic, the other not. The one who was not was given the diabetic meds. When I went to give the diabetic her meds, her card was turned around. Upon thinking about it, I realized what I had done. I quickly took the cart and flew to the other one's room. As I got there, the CNA was coming out with the machine for VS. She said, "I've got to get the other machine, I can't get her BP on this one" I just about had a heart attack standing there. I ran into to the room to find the res. AAOx3. CNA was able to get the VS with a machine that was working properly. I scanned the meds of each and found that they took the same BP meds and the wrong meds included some vitamins...not a big deal there. Accept for the antidiabetics. I told another nurse that I had hit it off with and asked her to go get the DON. The DON, also, scanned the med lists, looked at the vital signs, checked BS, told me to get a mighty shake and recheck the BS every 2 hours for the remainder of my shift. She, also, said and I quote..."We have all done it, the important thing is that you realized what you did and admitted it. We can handle it from here" Yes, I had to fill out a med deviation form, the md and the family had to be notified...but my resident did not suffer any ill effects because I caught it early and admitted to it. While I felt horrid about it happening, I felt better that I was able to divert a possibly catastrophic consequence. I learned from it...BIG TIME

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Specializes in NICU.

There should be no reprimanding for a med error. If a facility reprimands for med errors, then it'll cause people not to report them. Just fill out an incident report.

((((HUGS)))) for you. It happens to even the best nurses. At least you caught it and called them and will learn from this. Hang in there!

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Yes, it happens to the best of us. Everyone has been there and done that if they say they haven't their a bold faced liar or incompetent and don't know when their giving wrong meds. I applaud the way you handled it, you put the pt. safety first KUDOS. Yes, you'll get the :nono: tomorrow, but they've been there too!:redbeathe

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Thanks for all the support. I learned a huge lesson. My DON and other staff was very supportive. The resident is fine. I felt pretty incompetent at the time but happy to know that I owned up to my mistake and thought about my resident's safety and admitted to my mistake. Thanks for all the stories and advice.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I understand what you feel. I'm not medicating yet but I asked my preceptor to let me prepare the meds with him by my side so that he can recheck it. I mistakenly placed lasix in 2000H instead of 2200H!!! Oh my! I'm glad that you had someone to support you, because my preceptor disclose this immedialy to our charge nurse! And the problem is that, some of the people in our unit acts as if they dont commit mistakes!!! As if they didn't start from being probee and already knows everything!!!

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:) yay fortunartely that was just a small error. whew.. goodluck to u and brush it off ur shoulder and pick up the lessons.. enjoy nursing :)

btw with the 5r's... they teach us here ten R's!!!! damn :p i dont even know what the other 5 are.. :p

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Yup! we were also taught about the 10 R's. I think 1 of the 5 is the right documentation

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