Alex Why medication errors are not reported?
Healthcare practitioners and consumers report medication and vaccine errors to ISMP with the hope that future errors and patient harm will be prevented. We rely on the details you provide in your reports to identify the causes and contributing factors of the event.
What do you do if you have a medication error?
If the patient tells you it is the wrong medication or treatment, stop and check the order. Check physician orders for changes, and if you are unsure of a dosage, ask another nurse or the pharmacist to double-check your calculations. Double check to makes sure equipment alarms are set appropriately.
Who do I report medication errors to?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) receives more than 100,000 U.S. reports each year associated with a suspected medication error. FDA reviews the reports and classifies them to determine the cause and type of error.
Can a nurse be fired for making a med error?
Sure some nurses just don’t get it and need to be fired. But a good nurse should never be fired. There are always extenuating circumstances when things go wrong. Any nurse who says she’s never made a med error is either lying or dangerously unobservant of her own practice. Few things are worth repeating but this is one.
What happens when you make a medication error?
I screwed up tonight, plain and simple. I had meds pulled for two patients and started giving meds to one patient. I pulled the pills in their packages out of the cup and told him each med and their dosage. The second after he put the cup to his lips, an “oh ****” comes out from under my breath.
What causes a nurse to give the wrong medicine?
What caused a nurse to give the wrong medicine. The factors vary from look alike, sound alike, drugs, to too many interruptions when a nurse is getting medications ready, to simply re-educating that nurse, etc. Sure some nurses just don’t get it and need to be fired. But a good nurse should never be fired.
What was one error I made as an inexperienced nurse?
One meds error I made as an inexperienced nurse was avoidable but the room assignment should never have been made in the first place, according to the NM. The first patient was AA and the second was Caucasian. When I made my error, Mrs. Smith, in bed 1, was out of the room. If anyone should be fired, it is the person who made that assignment….
Sure some nurses just don’t get it and need to be fired. But a good nurse should never be fired. There are always extenuating circumstances when things go wrong. Any nurse who says she’s never made a med error is either lying or dangerously unobservant of her own practice. Few things are worth repeating but this is one.
I screwed up tonight, plain and simple. I had meds pulled for two patients and started giving meds to one patient. I pulled the pills in their packages out of the cup and told him each med and their dosage. The second after he put the cup to his lips, an “oh ****” comes out from under my breath.
What caused a nurse to give the wrong medicine. The factors vary from look alike, sound alike, drugs, to too many interruptions when a nurse is getting medications ready, to simply re-educating that nurse, etc. Sure some nurses just don’t get it and need to be fired. But a good nurse should never be fired.
Who is most at risk for medication errors?
Nurses are the most exposed to making medication errors Nurses have always played a major role in preventing medication errors. Research has shown that nurses are responsible for intercepting between 50% and 80% of potential medication errors before they reach the patient in the prescription, transcription and dispensing stages of the process.