Will I lose my job ?

[Stunurse1235]

I'm a nursing student currently working as an aide finishing up school. This past week has been great(just got engaged) nothing can bring me down . Well until today that is. Today we had 3 nursing assistants on our floor which never happens so while they did vitals I did all of the fingersticks, no big deal. The last patients fingerstick I had his mar wasent showing on the scanning device so when that happens it has to be manually typed in. I knew his name but when we started talking I guess somehow I was distracted and typed in the wrong patients mar. I preformed the glucose and it was 100. About thirty minutes later the rn asked me why he wasent showing in the system as being checked and I realized my mistake. So I checked the right patients glucose but put him under a different name. I was literally in tears I made such a foolish amature mistake. The r.n told me not to worry and that she wasent going to say anything to anyone because no harm no foul but the other nurses aid decided to write a note for the super( which is fine I take full accountability) . I'm just worried because I want to be a nurse so bad and I'm working so hard I would hate to be fired and my dreams be squashed before they even happen. I have been crying all day. Just wanted some opinions on this from my superiors in the field and what steps I should take. If they think I will be fired for this? If I should resign now...

[bankssarn]

You will not be fired for this. At least, you shouldn't be (unless, of course, glucose checks are outside of your scope of practice). From time to time nurses will chart on the wrong resident/patient. It happens. As long as the resident/patient wasn't given insulin incorrectly, and there were no adverse effects from your actions, it shouldn't be an issue. Best of luck in the rest of your schooling!

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

It's a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes. When you realized your error, you tried to correct it. You communicated your error to the correct person. That's what you're supposed to do. When your manager talks to you about it -- if she does, she's looking for some indication that you realized that you made a mistake, that you immediately set about to mitigate the potential damage to the patient, that you admitted it, that you communicated with the right person about it, and that you realize how serious the potential consequences could have been. She's not looking for excuses, but she is looking for you to take full responsibility for your error and to come up with a plan for not repeating it.

Good luck!

[Hygiene Queen]

That other aide needed to butt out.

The nurse was handling it.

You made a mistake and you know it was a big deal.

Ask yourself:

How did this mistake happen?

What can I do to prevent it from happening again?

Most important: What could have happened to the patients because I made this mistake?

Thinking about the worst case scenario makes you truly appreciate how important it is to get things right.

I wouldn't say, "Oh, nothing happened! Forget about it!"

Someone could have gotten insulin they didn't need.

You shouldn't get fired but should be given a chance to learn from your mistake.

If you do it again... well... that's another story.

We all make mistakes... we just make sure we get the message to slow down, read more closely, pay more attention, or whatever... and don't do it again.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

In my organization, this would be called a "good catch" - stopping an error before it happens. From you description, you have already figured out what happened... you were distracted rather than focusing on your task. Based on my own experiences, this is a lesson that will stay with you much longer than anything you have ever learned in a classroom.

[miasmom]

Depends on unit. Some will punish for a almost mistake