Stupid mistake

[Sarina_130]

Hello everyone... am new here but I really wanted to get this off my chest and maybe have some advice.

I've been a nurse for almost 5yrs and been working in paeds for 1yr.

So I had to give paracetamol to a kid and the doctor specifically ordered to give it IV. Now as I frequently attach bags of IVI which need to be taken to the last drop I must have gotten confused and forgot to check the dosage and put it in my head that I needed to give the whole bottle of 1g.... he only needed to take170mg.

The pump was found still running 3hrs later, fortunately the rate was slow but he still got 3 times more the dosage!

Obviously doctor was contacted and through some research we discovered the overdose was not enough to cause harm.

We wrote an incident report and everything and it is making me feel as if I'm a piece of crap nurse. To make matters worse last yr another incident happened which was not my fault but I still had to write another incident report. For now they gave me a verbal warning and a month of being shadowed by another nurse.

I feel so defeated now. I know I deserve all the repurcussions but how do I stop myself thinking that I'm the worst? That all the other nurses are judging me? I'm afraid that the tiniest problem now will get me in serious trouble and probably fired :-(

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

You learn from it. You realize you're human and make mistakes but what can you do to prevent this from happening again??? You can double check your orders, double check your settings, double check all the things you're supposed to double check. You can either sit and dwell on it and be miserable and whine and mope, or you can pick yourself up, hold your head up and learn. I would choose the latter.

[Daisy4RN]

Everybody makes mistakes because we are all human. The question is, are you going to learn from it. That is all you can do at this point, and please choose to do so. You do have to be careful with meds and treatments, of course because you don't want to harm anyone, but don't beat yourself up about it. I am sure that if they are honest the other nurses make mistakes too and therefore are not judging you, if they really are then that is their problem, not yours. Do your best, double check, ask questions and I am sure you will be fine. And remember not everything needs an incident report and you should keep them to a minimum. Don't keep worrying about it because it will just make you anxious, just try your best, good luck to you!!

[NurseLife88, ADN, RN]

I recently did this with a laxative and felt horrible. I had given it many times using the full package but this particular kiddie was ordered half of a normal dose due to some other meds. My pt. was fine and suffered no effects other than those intended in the first place but it still made me feel like I was a failure at my job. It took me a few days to realize I'm human and we all make mistakes, now I will be using this as a learning experience and reminder to always double,triple, and quadruple check all meds. Learn from your mistake, move on, and don't beat yourself up over this one incident.This by no means makes you a bad nurse just a human who made an error. We can be our own worst enemies in life so don't put yourself down for something almost all of us have done at some point. Pick your head back up and just keep on keeping on, you got this:)

[KIMMIEKAY11868]

I hate incident reports. We are human and therefore not infallible. There is a video on YouTube about this so doctor who killed a patient. Accidentally, of course. But, he goes on to talk about how the medical field employees are held to a God like standard of zero mistakes ever. We are not God. We do all we can to avoid mistakes and hope they never occur but if they do then we need to forgive ourselves! Watch that video. It helps with perspective. I always wonder how many errors go untold because we are made to feel like will be punished.