stupid stupid stupid mistake. Advice on how to handle it?

[KaeliF]

Well tonight I did something REALLY dumb. I have been working night shifts now and have never really adjusted. I still just feel like I'm at work in the middle of the night when I SHOULD be sleeping! Anyway last night I was particularly exhausted (for no apparent reason, I had slept that day, my body simply will not adjust) And in order to make it easier to waste an IM medications I DILUTED IT and then wasted part. Fortunately, this was for a psych patient and I needed an extra nurse to help make sure I didn't get hit while trying to administer it and he pointed out my mistake. However, the fact that I forgot something as BASIC as "dont dilute IM meds" Is really scary to me. My charge nurse just said she would like me to show her my IM meds before I give them for a while, but I'm expecting I'll get a call from my director about it. Any advice on how I should handle that call? Ugh this is the first thing I've done that's really made me question whether or not I'm in the right career.

[tnbutterfly - Mary, BSN]

Moved to Nursing and Patient Medications for more response.

[MattRN81]

When you get the call, Just own it. I wouldn't say anything about night shift, or lack of sleep or anything like that. Managers hear all kinds of excuses like that. I would just say, I did make a mistake, I have been made aware of it, and it will never happen again. I would also add that you assessed the patient after administration of the med.We all make mistakes, and a good supervisor understands that. Nobody is perfect. I actually made a mistake a few weeks ago and my supervisor called me to her office. When I admitted it, you should have seen the look on her face! It was priceless! I think she was expecting some sort of excuse. I could have easily told her that nobody told me where the used o2 tanks go( which they didn't) but instead I just owned it. After the shift, she actually came up to me and thanked me for my honesty! You will be fine!

[KaeliF]

Thanks that makes me feel better! The med never actually made it to the patient, it got caught, and I made sure to keep my composure and thank the nurse that caught it before coming home and freaking out. Also, since then I've had a pharmacist tell me that diluting an IM med wont change the absorption rate? Which is really the only problem I could imagine with it (other than if it ended up being >2ml) I mean I guess there's never really a situation where you need to dilute it, I was just acting out of habit and grabbed a 5ml syringe (the size I used for most pushes) and wasting what I needed to was easier if I diluted the med first that way. I could have just as easily grabbed a 3ml and avoided that whole situation *sigh* but I digress... I guess you could dilute an IM med if you for some reason had to at some point?