Top 10 reasons we get fired!-Medication Errors

LPNs / LVNs also make medication errors.

Yes they do, edited to use the word nurse

Quote from madwife2002We are only human, and humans make mistakes, this is not taken into consideration when you make a mistake in the hospital. Upper management will act swiftly. Nurses do get terminated quickly when mistakes happen, especially when a death occurs. It is the first response by management and the legal department of the hospital. At times the error is investigated, with the RN in question being suspended-normally without pay. Times are changing, with Hospitals encouraging staff to report near misses and errors, with the aim to prevent medication errors

Quote from Ruby VeeIt has not been my experience that nurses are terminated quickly when mistakes happen, especially when a death occurs. Nor has it been the first response by management and the legal department of the hospital. On each of the several instances I have witnessed a fatal medication error, the nurse was counseled by management and in two instances found a job in a less acute area of the hospital. (In one of those instances, the nurse involved worked in the SICU step-down for two years and was welcomed back to the ICU with open arms. She became an assistant nurse manager, then a manager.) One night, a new nurse on her first day off orientation gave 5 mg. of digoxin to a patient with predictable results. Even if you DIDN'T know that the correct dose of digoxin is 0.125 to 0.5 mg, what would possess you to open TEN vials of medication for ONE dose? She's the nurse who eventually became a manager. By all accounts, she's a very good manager. The nurse who gave Mrs. Roberts' blood transfusion to Mrs. Thomas is also still employed . . . and about five years later gave Mr. Charles' transfusion to Mr. Gregory. Again -- still employed even though he made the exact same fatal error a second time. I have seen nurses put on administrative leave while a drug error is investigated -- albeit WITH pay. I'm not saying that your scenerio of immediate leave without pay or termination doesn't happen -- it's just that in 35 years, I've never seen nor heard of it happening. One of my former managers explained that Risk Management views such as an admission of wrongdoing, which they'd like to avoid if possible.

Quote from Ruby VeeIt has not been my experience that nurses are terminated quickly when mistakes happen, especially when a death occurs. Nor has it been the first response by management and the legal department of the hospital. On each of the several instances I have witnessed a fatal medication error, the nurse was counseled by management and in two instances found a job in a less acute area of the hospital. (In one of those instances, the nurse involved worked in the SICU step-down for two years and was welcomed back to the ICU with open arms. She became an assistant nurse manager, then a manager.) One night, a new nurse on her first day off orientation gave 5 mg. of digoxin to a patient with predictable results. Even if you DIDN'T know that the correct dose of digoxin is 0.125 to 0.5 mg, what would possess you to open TEN vials of medication for ONE dose? She's the nurse who eventually became a manager. By all accounts, she's a very good manager. The nurse who gave Mrs. Roberts' blood transfusion to Mrs. Thomas is also still employed . . . and about five years later gave Mr. Charles' transfusion to Mr. Gregory. Again -- still employed even though he made the exact same fatal error a second time. I have seen nurses put on administrative leave while a drug error is investigated -- albeit WITH pay. I'm not saying that your scenerio of immediate leave without pay or termination doesn't happen -- it's just that in 35 years, I've never seen nor heard of it happening. One of my former managers explained that Risk Management views such as an admission of wrongdoing, which they'd like to avoid if possible.

Quote from subeeWhat is management's interest in keeping thoroughly dangerous (and the dig. incident - just down and stupid) nurses on staff? Wonder what they had to do to keep their jobs....hmmmm.

From the Institute for Safe Medication PracticesFREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (Faq) What is a medication error?A medication error is “any error occurring in the medication use process.”

I'll tell you- the customer service thing and med administration do not go hand in hand. I constantly worry and double check everything I do, because I am CONSTANTLY interrupted when I am giving meds. Call lights must be answered with so many seconds. pt that Im going in to give meds say they have to go to the bathroom NOW, not after their pills. of course that is a 15 minute fiasco, and no one else is around to help , as they are doing the same thing with the other pts.We used to have a sign to not disturb the nurse when they were getting meds. Well, that's gone. And it's not getting the meds, it's administering them. You can tell these patients til you are blue in the face that you cant do that ( whatever their request is) right now, as it's important you dont make any mistakes with your med pass. NOPE, they don't want to hear that.They don't care. It's the me me me thing. No wonder more mistakes aren't made

Quote from flashpointLPNs / LVNs also make medication errors.

For those of you in Nursing school who want to freak out and annoy your instructors, state the 'five rights' as "TRAMP... Time, Route, Amount, Medication, and Patient",.Or not.

We were taught TRAMPED (same as above with the addition of Expiration date and Documentation)

Has been almost three years and is still my *favourite* (if that is the proper word) example of a medication error and the actions that followed that took the gold for running, standing and jumping. Nurse's suicide highlights twin tragedies of errors - Health - Health care | NBC NewsWe shall never know the full story behind the situation surrounding nurse Kimberly Hiatt. But that a well seasoned nurse with nearly a quarter century of experience under her belt could been treated so badly by her hospital, and apparently the state BON and or everyone else in the profession in that area speaks volumes. Even worse that this same experienced nurse chose to end her life rather than deal with what she saw as the real prospect of being never able to practice again also speaks volumes.