So, last night I think I had the biggest OOPS ever in the history of coming to this hospital!
I have CF related diabetes that started last year and when I am home and not sick in the hospital it is very well controlled. When I am home the only insulin I usually get is 10 units of a 24 hour insulin called lantus. I check my sugars at meal time and if they are over 120 I use more insulin to cover for the food I eat (luckily when at home I usually don't need to do this because they are never over.) When I am sick and in the hospital my blood sugars usually get crazy and I require more insulin through out the day than normal.
Last night, my nurse came in to give me all my pm meds, check my blood sugar, give me my 10 units of lantus, and hook up my lipids that I told you I get. Around 10:45pm she comes back in apologizing up and down that she is so sorry but she looked at the med sheet wrong and she had accidentally given me 20 units of lantus! She said that she had already called the doctor and he said to stop the lipids and begin running fluids (basically sugar water) so that my blood sugar wouldn't bottom out during the night while I am sleeping and oh yeah....she is going to have to check my blood sugar every hour through out the night! Needless to say I didn't sleep at all!! He also stopped ALL insulin today and the lantus I am supposed to get tonight because my sugars have been low all day. He also said as long as my sugars are above 80 before I go to bed tonight they only need to be checked every 4 hours tonight and then tomorrow we can go back to my normal schedule.
Now, I partly blame myself for this happening I usually pay good attention to everything the nurses do and the ONE time I just have faith that I don't have to hold there hand...look what happens! And I know they are supposed to get a "second" pair of eyes to check they have the right amount in the syringe so what happened? Did she just skip that step or did the second person just look without actually knowing what she was looking at?? Who knows...
I don't want you to think that I am in a hospital full of idiots cause thats not the case there are SEVERAL nurses here that I am personally friends with and they are great nurses! (and I am sure they are reading this and they know who they are!!) :)
There are just a few that you would swear got there nursing license like yesterday and you wonder how they ever graduated.....and I am not kidding! Oh well, I guess this just means I am gonna have to be a pain in everyones you know what to make sure I get the right meds.
Hopefully tonight I can get some rest and I won't be a zombie tomorrow...I need to get some work done!!
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2 comments:
Jen, I NEVER feel sorry for asking the medical staff to do their job, and to allow me to verify that patient rights are being upheld. The Joint Commission (JCAHO) has a program called "Speak Up" that is supposed to improve patient safety, and any certified hospital should be aware of this initiative. There are about 10 brochures, but the two I think most important/useful are:
Know Your Rights and
Help Prevent Errors in Your Care.
Since you have your laptop, save the PDFs to your desktop or something, or get them printed out. Sometimes just having them on your table will prevent the, "Oh this patient is such a pain for asking about their meds everytime I give them," attitude. (You'll just get the, "Oh this patient is an informed pain and I should be prepared for them asking about everything I give them." ;)
I know you know your way around all this - just wanted to make sure you knew you had support from all over on this!
Hey Jen! I know you commented to me once before, and I just got around to writing back to you. I know this is an older post but I have to say, as a senior nursing student, you are taught to look and look and look again when it comes to medications. What happens after time though is that nurses get too comfortable and don't think a med error can happen to them. That was foolish of a nurse to do and it is situations like these that make me realize that I can't just simply become "comfortable" with the care I'm giving.
I just wish we could be able to get our medication without double checking it ourselves. But thanks for this reminder, because had that been any other medication, it could have been fatal. (Even insulin, but lantus is probably the least worrisome insulin to deal with, you were lucky!)
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