I have had a few near misses and medication mistakes as a nurse. I have learned how scanning medications and closed loop communication are very important. I had a hyperglycemic patient and the doctor ordered a bolus of Normal Saline. I took a bag out of the cabinet in the room, ripped it open, and started to prime the tubing. While doing so, I looked at the bag and it said D5W…
When I was a new nurse, I had an elderly gentleman who was very anxious. The doctor said he would put in 1mg IV Ativan. I was sitting by the computer waiting for the order to go in when the patient’s wife came up to me and kept asking if I was going to give him something. As a new nurse I didn’t want to bug the doctor to put the Ativan order in so I decided to just grab the Ativan from the pyxis and give him the 1mg then scan it afterwards…
When I was a newer nurse, I had a schizophrenic patient come into the ER. He needed to be medically cleared to go to the psychiatric ER connected to our hospital. Blood needed to be drawn. When I went to the patient he kept calling me “Kathy from Acme”. I calmly said “Sir, I am not Kathy” and told him my name and that I was his nurse. He kept saying that I was Kathy and I just looked different and changed my appearance. His tone was getting a little aggressive…
I had a patient who was hyperkalemic with a potassium of 6-something. The doctor ordered the typical insulin and dextrose combination. I was busy with other patients, but asked the tech if they could check the patient’s blood sugar in about 20 minutes. About 45 minutes to an hour later the technician came up to me to let me know that the patient rang their call bell and seemed a little out of it. I go into the patient’s room and she was acting loopy then just passed out…
One night, this early 20s male came into the ER for belligerence and aggression towards the police. The doctor decided to give him haldol and ativan, so I drew the medication up. We had about 5 people holding him down so I can give him the shot. When I was giving him the shot in the thigh, all of a sudden I realized the patient’s arm reached over and was trying to pull the syringe out of my hand. I tried to hold on to the syringe, but the patient was able to rip it out of my hands…
A doctor put in an order for 1 inch of nitroglycerin paste. I was a new nurse and have never given that before. I somehow thought that I could visually measure 1 inch of paste when I squeezed it on the patient’s chest and rubbed it in with my glove. The patient’s blood pressure was in the 160s systolic before the nitro paste, then 5 minutes after it was in the low 100s systolic…
There was a man who came into the hospital quite often. He was an alcoholic looking for some IV Ativan to help make him feel better when he was withdrawing from alcohol because he could not afford any. When he first started coming in, he would be violently puking. We would give him some ativan and haldol, but he would continue throwing up…