Ugh so upset!!

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Sorry I just need to vent. It was a terrible day at clinical today. I made my first med error. I thought it was the 21st so I accidentally gave a sunrise med.(levothyroxine) I pretty much got chewed out by my teacher and have to write a paper about the 6 medication administration rights due Monday and I have to finish my pharm and mental health homework. I know med errors are not to be down played or anything but everyone makes them and if you were to make a med error levothyroxine would be an ok one to make it on because it doesn't do much harm. My teacher just made me feel like an idiot. My clinical teacher is also my pharm and mental health teacher and he told me that I talk too much in class and I need to focus...I'm really sorry but I come straight from work to class I work 12 hour night shifts at a hospital so I'm pretty dead I don't talk.. If anything I'm trying to keep myself awake during his lectures. When he said that last part that's what really made me upset. Sorry it's a really long rant and thank you for reading

Sounds strange that your institution doesn't have an RN double check or cosign med administration. If a patient had an adverse events and it was audited by dept of health or jhaco, how is the institution going to respond? They are certainly NOT manning unlicensed personnel (students).. They'll get pwned for sure. So what if you're rotation is in the ICU and your assignment is a pt titrating pressors? Just saying.. Kind of questionable.

Either way, when you are working in the future it's your own license you have to protect. No one is gonna cover you, double check for errors, unless a signature is noted so just be extra careful while you're in school.

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Specializes in Cath Lab & Interventional Radiology.

I gather you must be doing a clinical rotation in a nursing home. It can be overwhelming doing med administration as some patients can have a ton of meds. You might see the nurse just pop, pop, pop the pills out of the packets. It is VERY easy to make a med error, especially if you are not 100% focused. Just be very conscientious of your medication check rights, so you don't make a mistake again. In my clinicals we would have a partner to double check our meds with us and also quiz us on each med. Mistakes happen! It seems you have learned from your mistake, and that is what is important.

If you can cut down on your work hours, I would do it. I couldn't imagine that you are learning to your full potential after working a night shift. I really hope you are not having clinical after working a night shift either. Good luck to you!!

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Specializes in Hospitalist Medicine.
he should have cought it. The med had been given earlier and I misread the day (they still use paper charting) I thought it wasn't given..it was an honest mistake something to be learned from

You should have caught it. Yes, you need to be supervised as a student. However, you are learning to be vigilant about passing meds and it's your job to be 100% sure you're following the 5 Rs. Luckily, the honest mistake wasn't a deadly one.

I can't believe an institution would allow nursing students to pass meds unsupervised. They have drilled in our heads from day 1 that no meds whatsoever are to be passed to patients without a clinical instructor or preceptor in the room with us.

I also doubt your prof would have a perception of you as talkative if you weren't talkative in class. You may have been tired one day, but that type of perception doesn't build up over night. Spend less time making excuses and more time focusing on what you need to do to improve.

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Specializes in Going to Peds!.

When I was in school, a med error was automatic clinical failure. And that means you repeat that class.

Sent from my HTC One X using allnurses.com

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Think about other means of financing school if you were tired on the floor. This could cause other errors also, and it creates undo stress.

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You should have caught it. Yes, you need to be supervised as a student. However, you are learning to be vigilant about passing meds and it's your job to be 100% sure you're following the 5 Rs. Luckily, the honest mistake wasn't a deadly one.

I can't believe an institution would allow nursing students to pass meds unsupervised. They have drilled in our heads from day 1 that no meds whatsoever are to be passed to patients without a clinical instructor or preceptor in the room with us.

I also doubt your prof would have a perception of you as talkative if you weren't talkative in class. You may have been tired one day, but that type of perception doesn't build up over night. Spend less time making excuses and more time focusing on what you need to do to improve.

+1,i agree.

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I did catch my mistake right after I gave it to the pt and I owned up to my mistake a lot of people wouldn't and there have been others in my group that has made either a med error or some other type of error but I was the only one that had to write a paper on it. If we as students have had errors I don't understand why he isn't going over the meds with us before we passed also I wasn't tired that day I got to sleep I think what happened besides getting the date wrong I was being too careful about my meds. You know how when your too careful or when your concentrating too hard you miss over things? If not then it might just be me...

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Here's my .02... yes it was a fairly harmless mistake THIS TIME but what if it's not next time? what if it wasn't this time? You owned up to the mistake and that's awesome but I think doing a paper on the 6 rights is the least of your worries because if you were at my school you'd be done with nursing school

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I made a med error when i was in RN school, and i was an LPN already. I never forgot it and I still have to stop and put everything else out of my mind to recheck the meds and identify patient. I dont even like to talk when getting meds ready.

if any nurse who's been working for any reasonable length of time says that they have never made a med error, they are lying. and that includes the AN hen mafia.

50 of them will say the same thing over and over and tell you exactly what you need to do and how to do it , they will also tell you what your school needs to do and how to do it to prevent this med error from occurring again. :cheeky:

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Specializes in Forensic Psych.

As someone that's accidentally overdosed on thyroid meds (physicians mistake, not mine ;)) I can attest to the fact that it isn't a benign error. It could kill someone. So you're right...don't downplay it. It could've been worse, but that was just luck on your part.

That being said, I'm sorry the whole thing happened. It sounds like you're under a crazy amount of stress, and some of the OPs are right...we're human and we all make mistakes. Unfortunately our mistakes are a lot more direct and dangerous than many other professions. All you can do now is learn from it - do your triple checks, make triple sure you have the right date, and all that good stuff.

I'm kind of wondering where your clinicals are..I don't think it would even be possible for me to make that error without having to override the system. Also, my professor or my nurse would always check meds with me...I could probably find a way to make a med error, but it would be difficult to make a "time" error.

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As someone that's accidentally overdosed on thyroid meds (physicians mistake, not mine ;)) I can attest to the fact that it isn't a benign error. It could kill someone.

I have accidentally double-dosed myself.

I was on 100mcg at the time so I actually gave myself 200mcg about an hour apart.

Totally forgot I took it.

Can we say anxiety and heart palpitations?

And even though, in this case, it was 50mcg, I'm sure that in some people, accidentally getting 100mcg by mistake could cause some problems.

It would depend on how hypo they actually were.

An overdose of levothyroxine could cause thyroid storm which means the body is thrown into a hypermetabolic state, which can be fatal.

This is rare but it can happen.

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I made a med error when i was in RN school and i was an LPN already. I never forgot it and I still have to stop and put everything else out of my mind to recheck the meds and identify patient. I dont even like to talk when getting meds ready. if any nurse who's been working for any reasonable length of time says that they have never made a med error, they are lying. and that includes the AN hen mafia. 50 of them will say the same thing over and over and tell you exactly what you need to do and how to do it , they will also tell you what your school needs to do and how to do it to prevent this med error from occurring again. :cheeky:[/quote'] I appreciate you saying this being bashed again and again doesn't make me feel any better this is a student forum and as students we make mistakes and to say you haven't is a lie and even after your out of school you still make them and if you say you will never make a mistake your only lying to yourself what you do with that mistake is important...whether you own up to it or not I agree that writing a paper is appropriate in this situation and I'm not going to forget this feeling and I'm going to be more careful about it and I feel like having go through this I will be a better nurse because if you make a mistake that doesn't mean your a bad nurse and you should give up it only teaches you how to be better
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