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

some other common errors to avoid /nrsg students Error-prone conditions that lead to student nurse-related errors

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Specializes in Public Health.

That's why we have eMAR systems. Also I always wait for my nurse bc I don't want to be in your position. I'm sorry this happened. Good luck

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some other common errors to avoid /nrsg students Error-prone conditions that lead to student nurse-related errors

Thanks for the tips. It helps to know so one is extra careful.

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I'd like to just say there's a lack of accountability with the OP. Don't EVER EVER downplay a mistake. Don't care how relatively small you think something is, double that up and you could be asking for trouble as some others chimed in. YOU should have caught it, and YOU have the right to say you want someone to check your meds. And stop working the night before you have school, make arrangements for something else if you are going to say that will contribute to your ability to function in class or clinical. Accountability....it takes you places. stop blaming

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School is where you are learning. Its okay to make mistakes; school is where you should be making them so you don't do it in practice. Your instructor should be catching those mistakes, stopping them, and going over why they happened with you. What's unbelievable here is that you were allowed to pass a med unsupervised. Every clinical instructor I've ever had would never allow a student to give anything to a patient without them. And for that matter any clinical site I've been to would never allow a student to pass meds alone; they only allow two students per day to pass meds with the instructor. Whenever we give meds we must explain what we're giving, how it's given, why we're giving it, and possible side effects and interactions before our instructor lets us take it out of the Pyxis never mind give it to someone. Your instructor should be explaining to the site and your school why they weren't supervising their students like they're supposed to.

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Unfortunately they don't have a Pyxis at this nursing home and they don't have an emar just paper and pencil what really ****** me off though is this girl in my group stuck herself with a dirty needle after giving insulin and you know what the instructor said...oh bless her she's so sweet...and no U no paper no disciplinary measures she just got sent out to get her blood tests done even though he had to inform a lot of people and do a lot of paperwork...I don't mean to sound whiney but I'm pretty sure he's playing favorites

He is a lazie-fare type teacher when it comes to passing meds yes we have to do our drugs and write out what each one does but he lets us give them by ourselves and just has us tell him what patient were giving meds to...he tells us all the time that he used to be the administrator of the facility and still works for the company and is an administrator at another one of their nursing home he sits and the station and chats it up with the other nurses honestly there's no one to tell him that he needs to pay more attention to his students or tell him what he needs to do because he doesn't give a **** this is his last semester teaching and he's made it clear and there are only three teachers for our program and one of them is the head

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Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.

In all honesty, you come off as making excuses, avoiding responsibility, and whining about it.

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In all honesty you come off as making excuses, avoiding responsibility, and whining about it.[/quote']

In all honesty I'm not making excuses I didn't avoid responsibility I owned up to my mistake I cought it but unfortunately it was after I gave the med it could have been more dangerous but why didn't the instructor do anything about the other student who made an equally dangerous error???

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Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.
In all honesty I'm not making excuses I didn't avoid responsibility I owned up to my mistake I cought it but unfortunately it was after I gave the med it could have been more dangerous but why didn't the instructor do anything about the other student who made an equally dangerous error???

You have taken partial responsibility for it, and you did own up to your mistake. You still seem fixated on two things: assigning some blame to someone else and comparing yourself to others.

Let's be clear about something, first and foremost: it could not have been "more dangerous", it perhaps could have been "more harmful" and you are/were very lucky it wasn't. Mistakes happen to everyone, but hopefully we learn from them when we make them. If you are assigning the blame to others you don't learn from it. Ultimately you were responsible for administering that med (right or wrong we could debate).

As far as the others, don't worry about them. Worry about yourself. Just because they made a mistake too it doesn't make your mistake less of a mistake. Getting a needle stick is not the same as a med error.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.

You have taken partial responsibility for it, and you did own up to your mistake. You still seem fixated on two things: assigning some blame to someone else and comparing yourself to others.

Let's be clear about something, first and foremost: it could not have been "more dangerous", it perhaps could have been "more harmful" and you are/were very lucky it wasn't. Mistakes happen to everyone, but hopefully we learn from them when we make them. If you are assigning the blame to others you don't learn from it. Ultimately you were responsible for administering that med (right or wrong we could debate).

As far as the others, don't worry about them. Worry about yourself. Just because they made a mistake too it doesn't make your mistake less of a mistake. Getting a needle stick is not the same as a med error.

THIS...:yes:

This is where the previous posters were trying to make you see, and your response is that "posters are beating up on me."

There may have been extraneous measure apart from you, however, the focus for YOU is accepting the mistake and moving on-PERIOD.

What another cohort and the attitude of your instructor has no place in your practice; that what the posters are getting at; as a nurse, the buck stops HERE. If you catch a med error, and speak up for it, you alone are responsible. If an incident happens, you are responsible for catching and documenting, on your watch; even if it was someone "helping" you; you can't pass the buck. :no:

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I agree with LadyFree28 and BostonFNP. What is done is done and now it is time to move on. We are all only human and mistakes of some form are bound to be made. Take this as a learning experience and put your best foot forward to conquer the field of nursing.

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Move on. Learn from it. You ain't even in the real world honey. Who cares what the other teacher says about the other students mistakes. Worry about yourself and what you do or don't do. Seriously. It will save you time and stress. How old are you btw? Usually older students don't go off on teachers like that. Just wondering cause it would explain a lot of the responses. Nursing school teachers can be great or complete hell. Bottom line is you're stuck with what you get. Suck it up and do what you gotta do. Or - get out.

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