This is my opinion only, but I believe every nurse has made at least one medication error in their career. If they answer no, then they were never in practice, they did very little medication administration, or they didn’t even realize that they made the error.
I believe I am extremely careful and have still unfortunately made mistakes with medication errors, which I do report. There are so many articles on med errors and how under reported they are. It’s a terrible feeling, but it does happen. That’s why there are so many safeguards with barcoding, automated dispensing systems, and the 5/8/10 (it keeps changing) medication rights implemented. Yet, we still make errors because we are human. There are so many factors that play into medication errors (e.g. similar packaging being near the same pockets in automated dispensing drawers) that nobody wants to be a part of, but unfortunately continues to happen. I do believe there is much improvement from when I first started nursing though and am grateful for the technological advances.
Even administering meds late is a med error so I would venture to say we all have. This is why ratios, safe staffing, etc. is so important!
Yes - reported it as soon as I realized it. My priority is the patient.
yes and believe many of us have done so...
yes reported myself to leader and physcian
Yes. We are all human. I worked at the bedside for 18 years. Now there are lots of safeguards in place. These safeguards are a direct result of process improvement driven by the honest reporting by the staff. However, short staffing, overworked nurses, sicker pts, and more emergencies increase this risk.
All nurses of every skill level have. Pharmacy studies show that the error rate is 10%. Most med errors aren’t noticed by anyone, including the nurse. The system of checks in place will reduce the number of harmful errors
Yes. As soon as I realized it, I went straight to my manager and told her what happened. We then notified the physician and filled out an incident report. The patient was not harmed, thankfully.
No
Yes
