Will I ever get over this? Personally or professionally.

OCNRN63, RN · Mar 8, 2012

I just wrote a very lengthy reply to the OP's post and it went "poof."

OP, you handled the situation in an appropriate and professional manner. Any administrator who would fire you for your first mistake is not good enough to have you as an employee. For future interviews (which you will get), when asked why you were terminated/left, I would just give your interviewer a level gaze, take a deep breath and calmly tell them exactly what happened. Then tell them what you plan to do in the future to prevent repeating it.

Nobody died, and no one was harmed. Hold your head up. You will survive this.

diligent-trooper · Mar 8, 2012

Group One should be available for review of the employee as well. Nothing can be put down unless it is truthful, which means "Proof". If there is no proof, or if it is gross exaggeration then the is defamation. That is illegal. My two cents:banghead:

hecallsmeDuchess · Mar 9, 2012

I'm sorry you lost your job but I'm also proud of you for the integrity you displayed.

OTH, at my facility we draw up only lispro and second check it with another nurse before administering it, all the other insulins are prepackaged by pharmacy and we don't have to second check with another nurse since pharmacy already checked it. For those pre-packaged ones I still make sure the unit marked on the label is what's actually in the syringe and the worst I ever saw was 20 units too much.

Just take this as a learning experience, wipe your eyes, chin up and move on to better things. Hugs to you...

mazy · Mar 9, 2012

Wow, I've seen a lot of posts about Group One lately. I know they've been out there for a while, but I didn't realize they had become such a big deal. It seems like recently everyone is expressing a lot of concern about Group One. Have they ramped up their presence? Or are employers just threatening this more?

Kind of scary.

DoodabuzzRN · Mar 9, 2012

thank you all so much for the words of encouragement! i feel much better about what happened and i talked to a couple of friends that assured me the resident was fine on 2nd shift and was up to her normal antics. yes, i was working ltc and was very overwhelmed! 40 residents to 1 rn and 4 cena's. where i worked, they didn't wake people up for meds so i couldnt just go down the line. i had a med pass at ur (upon rising) so i had to watch people as they came down the hall to the dining room and catch them as they passed then move on to those that ate in their room. this meant a ton of remembering names and room numbers. the insulin is not double checked because its ltc and most residents get a routine dose of 70/30, levemir, or lantus plus are on a sliding scale for regular. all the insulin for all the residents is kept in one drawer. i am not excusing what happened, but its easier for me to see how this happened and not blame it on sheer stupidity or negligence. i didn't want to work ltc but it seems the only place that hires new grads (adn) is ltc at this point. i have a bunch of aps in for hospitals and acute rehab facilities and am hoping to get into one of them. again, thank you all so much! hearing it from other nurses is really awesome! my husband said the same things you have said, but hes a mechanic....what does he know about nursing? :thankya:

:bow: you are all amazing!

NurseStephie · Mar 10, 2012

I have been an RN for a little less than 2 months and I was terminated from my first job today and I havent been able to stop crying since 8am. I made the worst mistake ever and could have killed someone. I gave a resident 66 units of Regular insulin and she was supposed to receive 66 units of 70/30. Not only did I draw up the wrong insulin, I administered it. Her BGL was 134 before the dose and I almost passed out when I realized what I had done. I had her stay with me and gave her applesauce, apple juice and pudding by the time the CCC showed up and took my head off (which I totally deserved). When I left at 9:30 she was ok and had had no ill effects from the mistake. She was eating breakfast and denied feeling bad at all. However, I am having a hard time forgiving myself. I am an emotional disaster and I am so scared that I wont be able to find another job. I only worked there for 4 weeks so Im not even putting them on my resume, but I am seriously freaking out. I feel like I may never recover from this. And its not because I lost my job, I deserved that; but because I made a mistake that could have been fatal and now Im second guessing everything I know about myself and my abilities and desire to be a nurse.

Just wanted you to know that I have been a nurse for 1.5 years and I recently made a very similar error. I gave a pt that was NPO his scheduled 28 units of NPH...when when he was eating that AM he had a BG of 54 and I still gave it. He ended up having 2 BG of 37 and 38 so I did have to treat it but I too owned up to it immediately. I knew I made the mistake the second I pushed the pluger in. I wanted to pull it back SOOOO hard but hence I could not. I know what you are going through it is ok. My patient was also fine I gave him some IV glucose and he survived but again I learned a huge lesson. I will now think before I give any insulin "is my pt eating? what was their last BG". It will be forever ingrained in my brain.Do not stress, you should not have been fired we all make mistakes, I have worked LTC my self and it is rough...be thankful that you are not at a facility that does not support you even in times of error. Good luck to you.

hurleygirli1 · Oct 28, 2013

I am so sorry you are dealing with this. I am currently in hot water as well over a few late meds and a documentation error (they say I should have been more elaborate. I started my job in May and have been off orientation for 6 weeks. I don't know if I will lose my job yet as they are still currently investigating, but even if I don't, I have been advised by other nurses that I will be highly scrutinized if I remain working and to prepare for that. :poop:

mtngrl, ASN, RN · Oct 28, 2013

Nursing is just a scary job in that there's always that huge weight of when you will make a mistake and how bad will it be. It is a job with a huge responsibility...since we are all human and we WILL make mistakes. That really got to me so I went into case management nursing, thinking I won't have that problem. Well, wrong, I still constantly worry since I work in a government ruled program and boy they do NOT like mistakes of any kind so I feel like my job is always on the line. I never thought about all this much in nursing school, the responsibility doesn't really seem real until you are actually on your own.

wishiwereanurse, BSN, RN · Oct 31, 2013

:hug: I'll tell you a story about a friend of mine who was my co-worker (so he's also a nurse!). He is diabetic, and while he was at home one day during his day off, he drew up 40 units of regular insulin, gave it to himself, then he realized that he gave himself regular insulin instead of lantus. So he started panicking and he said he raided his kitchen for every bit of sugar that he can find cuz it scared the heck outta him especially since he lived by himself...so he survived that ordeal and lived to tell me about it...that said, you did really good, nurse. Everybody makes mistakes, even diabetic nurses who have been taking their insulins for years...we're all just human. So go ahead and cry it out, then when you're done, come up with solutions to keep this error from happening again. In our workplace it is policy now to have someone double-check insulin with another nurse for 5 rights before taking med to the patient...all because we learn from mistakes...i agree too that it seems harsh that they chucked you out, in my workplace they don't do that...our nurse manager seems more understanding than that...take care!

jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B · Oct 31, 2013

Chin up, move on, we all make mistakes. Everyone was alive when you left the building. It says a great deal about your content of character that you owned up to the error and took immediate steps to ensure patient safety. Which is a heck of a lot more than others have done in LTC.

Widen your job search to include home health, hospice, school nursing, MD offices....Just because you can't get into a hospital position doesn't mean there's not other options besides LTC.

Best of luck in your future endevours!!

NurseOnAMotorcycle, ASN, RN · Oct 31, 2013

:hug: I'll tell you a story about a friend of mine who was my co-worker (so he's also a nurse!). He is diabetic and while he was at home one day during his day off, he drew up 40 units of regular insulin, gave it to himself, then he realized that he gave himself regular insulin instead of lantus. So he started panicking and he said he raided his kitchen for every bit of sugar that he can find cuz it scared the heck outta him especially since he lived by himself...so he survived that ordeal and lived to tell me about it...![/quote']
I work I'm the ER. We see this all the time. OP, give yourself a break, take several giant slow breaths whenever you start to think about it and realize that YOU DID EXACTLY THE RIGHT THING when you realized what happened. Then breathe some more.
You were honest and reacted like a nurse. Taking action, Reassessing, Communicating and continued monitoring. Good job putting the patient's safety first.

Blackcat99 · Oct 31, 2013

So DoodabuzzRN you wrote this thread on March 7 , 2012. How are you doing these days? Did you ever get over it?