Stupid mistake that I can't fix

Nurses General Nursing

Published

We are switching over to e-charting and the program does not have spell check:eek:. I made my nursing note clicked save, and immediately noticed I had put "membrain" instead of "membrane". Of course, there is no way for me to fix my spelling (stupid, stupid) error and it is forever in the echart to be read over and over by my fellow nurses so they can get a good chuckle. ARRRRGH.....I need spell check, and I need to not be doing three things at once so I can write clear note:o I wish I could make a big sign to hang above the computer saying "yes I know I did that, and yes I know it was stupid"

Now I will admit I am not a good speller, but I am usually very careful not to let others know that. I keep a dictionary at work and I look up words, and sometimes I write a preliminary draft of my notes on scratch paper so I can go back over them and make corrections.....I don't know what I was thinking "membrain" geeezzzzzz!

Definitely not a big deal. There has to be some way the note can be amended- what if you were to document something incorrectly? Or write a note on the wrong patient?

We got an email a few months ago because too many of the nurses were charting that the patients had WHELPS-a young offspring of a mammal, such as a dog or a wolf :eek: :yeah: rather than WELTS. :lol2: I wouldn't worry too much about it. :)

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Definitely not a big deal. There has to be some way the note can be amended- what if you were to document something incorrectly? Or write a note on the wrong patient?

We got an email a few months ago because too many of the nurses were charting that the patients had WHELPS-a young offspring of a mammal, such as a dog or a wolf :eek: :yeah: rather than WELTS. :lol2: I wouldn't worry too much about it. :)

That is too funny:D

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Yours Spelling looks like a honest mistake, I know people that tried to spell gangrene and they typed gang green lol

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Specializes in LTC.

So many worse mistakes to make. Despite what management thinks, nurses are humans and if a spelling mistake is the worse thing you've done recently you're doing pretty damn good.

On a funny note I caught myself just in time charting "copious amount of ***** drainage" it was quickly changed to purulent.

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Specializes in Gerontology.

I've seen so many typos etc that this is minor

I read one note done by a Social Worker where the sex of the pt changed from male, to female and back again. First it was "he" then "she" then "he" again.

I've seen notes about how a pt "felled" down.

don't worry about your typo. Everyone who read your note knew what you meant.

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Specializes in Trauma, Emergency.

bahahaha okay when i saw the title of this i thought it was going to be some CRAZY med calculation error that resulted in a pt death or something...i literally breathed a sigh of relief when i saw your "mistake." hahahaah memBRAIN!! that is so something i would do.

whatever, don't be embarrassed, OWN it. that is some funny stuff, take credit for it! :lol2:

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Specializes in OB, Med/Surg, Ortho, ICU.
I have used e-charting for a few years now, and I have yet to see a note that could not be amended. Please check with your educator for the program, usually they don't let you go without support for a long time with the software. You should have an amend button. It does show each time that the note is changed and usually you are the only one who can amend it. Hope this helps.:)

Our version of meditech has a section for notes that cannot be amended. Thankfully, I caught myself before I filed "S@&$ summary" instead of shift summary. I think that was Freudian that day, come to think of it.....

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Specializes in PACU.

No biggie. Odds are nobody will notice. There was a thread recently in which a study that showed that electronic nurses' notes are rarely read by anyone was discussed.

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thank you for this thread, I am laughing until tears are running down my face.

I always enjoy typo's. Before E-charting there were photocopies of mostly MD charting that made the rounds...some of them were. Saw pt. on the floor.

found the pt back on the floor. Pu$%y discharge was another. During Sh%t change. Pt. encouraged to start drinking. chest X-rayted. Eyes shot. Can't think of anymore, but I'm sure other people can remeber some of the others. Take a look around the posts on this site and you'll see some great goofs and creative spelling, esp mind. Just thik, you you brightened someones day.

Oh yes pt on table, examined pt on the floor.

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Specializes in Postpartum, L&D, Mother-Baby.

That's not a stupid mistake!!!!! At least you didn't pass a wrong medication or send the wrong patient in for surgery! If it makes you feel any better, once I charted "Patient care/change of shift report given to day **** nurses......not day shift, day ****......the "f" key just didn't get pressed hard enough.....LIFE GOES ON!!!!!!!!:lol2:

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As people have already stated, this is definitely not a big deal, though I totally understand where you are coming from!! I, too, would go crazy!

I currently work as a scribe while completing nursing school. I can assure you having read nurses' notes day in and day out that this sort of mistake happens daily, but nobody ever seems to notice unless it is something really funny or odd. For example, the other day, we read a nurse's note that stated, "Pt is alert and oriented but disoriented." No, this is not a spelling error, but it is an error made likely for the same reason - writing fast without having the time to double check. On top of that, our nurses can go back and make edits but don't always do so.

Oh, and by the way, for every mistake I find made by a nurse, I can find a funnier one made by a doctor ;) For fun, there are plenty of websites that list doctor chart mistakes, like this one: http://www.snopes.com/humor/lists/doctors.asp

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