experience –
First big nursing mistake....need some supportRating: (votes: 0) I will say to you what my charge nurse said to me after my first "big mistake". I would be worried about you if you didn't feel like you do; but that you are feeling this way shows me that you will never make this kind of mistake again. You will always remember what happened -- not the patient's name necessarily but the circumstances will be just as clear 20 years from now as they are today. You will make other mistakes and you will learn from them too, but you will not make the same mistakes over and over and that's what will make you a great nurse!Take care of you and be kind to yourself! Comment:
Just don't beat yourself up about it in front of anyone you work with. They'll beat you up plenty themselves without any help.
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Just wondering, don't you need another nurse to witness and co-sign the blood with you? (to catch the mistake with you?)Everyone makes mistakes, you'll learn from this and become an even better nurse. No one is perfect and it really would not have mattered who made the mistake, people will still talk! Hang in there, be positive and I wish you luck in overcoming this (and you will!)
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FLArn says it all, except that if mistakes were against the law we'd all be in jail.
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Always, Always ask questions if you are not sure. Reading an order is so vague at times. Depends on the way it is written, if it is legible??, how receptive your mind is ( are you at the end of your shift or how busy you are). Thank God your patient did not have a reaction. But yes usually you do need to have another nurse co-sign/check the blood the you, unless it is an autologous transfsuion from TKR.
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no Biggie, I had my ICU RN coworker make the same error. Turned out the blood did the pt good and it never went further than an incident report. No one thinks less of her. Now I know of another error where someone hung a heparin drip instead of 250cc saline with blood..hmm.Thats a real one.
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Quote from FLArnI will say to you what my charge nurse said to me after my first "big mistake". I would be worried about you if you didn't feel like you do; but that you are feeling this way shows me that you will never make this kind of mistake again. You will always remember what happened -- not the patient's name necessarily but the circumstances will be just as clear 20 years from now as they are today. You will make other mistakes and you will learn from them too, but you will not make the same mistakes over and over and that's what will make you a great nurse!Take care of you and be kind to yourself!
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I'm glad you made that mistake now, early in your career, especially since there wasn't a bad outcome to the patient. You needed to know that you don't walk on water, that you're just like the rest of us - imperfect. Now the best thing you can do for yourself and your patients is to come back to work with a willingness to question. Pay attention to what your hearing your inner voice say. Why was it asking you to reread the order several times ? Next time you hear it turn to a coworker and ask her/him how they interpret the order. Nursing is a collaborative practise.And please do not bore your coworkers with repeated apologies for your mistake. Believe me, we all have made mistakes. Learn from it and move on. This is another step in your maturation as a nurse.
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Nobody's gonna beat you up, honey-if they try, just send 'em to ME!And no-one's gonna talk about you behind your back either-they're too busy worrying about the mistakes THEY made, or the things THEY forgot to do, or the people THEY p****d off during the course of the day.Your seniors sound wise enough to realize that you are an excellent nurse and will not hold a silly mistake like that against you; they probably know that mistakes serve one useful purpose, and that is to make us better people.You remind me of a child who was in school with my daughter. She used to cry if she wasn't top of the class. Please don't stress yourself out because you're not perfect. Perfect beings do not reside on this planet!
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you sound like a lovely woman, and am very glad to hear you work in such a supportive environment.and yes, it's good that you feel badly.i think maybe you're right, in that others may be keeping an eye on you...BUT, it'll be because they're being protective of you, and NOT because they think you're incompetent.as others have said, you will remember this forever, so take comfort in knowing this will never happen again.it's all good, honey.you're in a good place with good people.keep on shining.leslie
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I agree that you should try not to feel too badly about this although your concern shows how much you value patient safety. The patient however doesn't sound like they were in any way harmed from this. The incident report is not to say you did anything wrong, it is to say that the process failed. They institute processes to keep us from making mistakes, when a mistake is made it is usually not one persons fault but a long list of mistakes that lead to the eventual error. For example, in our hospital, we have to order the blood in the computer system for blood bank to release it to us, then we have to verify it with blood bank, we then have to verify the order, consent and blood with another nurse. Even if you didn't catch the mistake somewhere someone should have, that is why there are double checks on low volume high risk meds/procedures.
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Unfortunately, any nurse with some experience has made a mistake. Believe me, I'm sure people aren't really talking all that much about it. Unless you're a nurse who continually makes mistakes, well, then those are the nurses that are really being talked about. Try not to beat yourself up over this and like others have said it'll just cause you to be a little more careful.I'm sure there was some amount of blood loss with the surgery and there was no harm done. That is really great that you have that much support from your co-workers and manager.
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