Nursing Errors: What to do if the Unthinkable Occurs?

The nursing job is surely one of the noblest among all the professions. Nurses tend to play an influential persona in patient care and wellness. Nurses working in any profile should evolve and develop a safety outlook. They must execute and implement the evidence-based exerts in order to protect the patients from critical errors. Attaining the level of perfection is the fundamental necessity in medical occupation. There is no room for a slight imperfection or flaw as the doctors and nurses tend to treat the most valuable asset of all and that is called life. Saving a life is the pinnacle priority of nursing profession.

6 Nursing Errors and How to Prevent Them

Errors with Medication

The most common error in nursing is to hand out the wrong medication to a patient. There are many such similar errors like giving a wrong dosage of medication, or dispensing a wrong prescription to the patient etc. These flaws are some of the critical errors in nursing that can even turn out to be fatal to the patients. It should be noted that these issues are unavoidable by the concerned and higher authorities. No matter if you are fresher or experienced in this field strict actions can be taken against such carelessness. A mistake in medication cannot be beard at any level. For fresh and new nurses joining this particular profession, the most common reason to make such a terrible mistake is lack of experience; pressure to perform good and lack of presence of mind as well. Facts and studies suggest that administration errors can elucidate up to 32% of medication errors. However, there is a way to avoid such issue.

• Patient-specific identifiers can be used to avoid any confusion regarding a patient’s identity
• Checking for any allergies before dispensing medicines to the patients.
• Shed light on the critical diagnosis before delivering the medication.
• Updating the medicine lists of the patient at regular intervals.

Falling Accidents of Patients

This scenario is considered to be the worst for nurses. Patients can slip or fall by any chance when they try to rise up from the bed in order to pick something up on their own. Or they even get up just to move around when they are shaky and feeble. It has been observed that most of the patients tend to feel conscious and awkward in asking for help from nurses. This results in the accidental falling of patients when they try to move around or pick something up in the absence of anyone. These incidents generally take place when there is no one round to attend them. The serious trouble arises when a slight fall results in severe injury and hurt to the patients. It may even lead to legal issues for that particular hospital as well as the nurse. New nurses cannot calculate how consequential such situations may turn. The perfect manner to shun and avoid this error is to keep a steady and persistent check up on the patients and special attention must be given to them who are at higher risk as compared to others. Be certain and sure to keep the essential things within the reach of the patients so that they don’t need to get up and reach their by themselves. On top of that, make the patients comfortable enough to ask help from you, let them know that you are there to help them.

Infections

Due to weak immune system patients can catch infections very easily. There had been many instances of patient catching dangerous infections because of a lack of clinical hygiene around him/her. Infections are said to be the most common issue in hospitals. Nurses are expected to be highly clean and following great hand hygiene while practicing on any of the patients. Nurses must utilize the clinical skills to combat such errors and infections. As a nurse, it is your job and responsibility to enable and expedite the patient recovery along with curtailing the chances of infections. Most of the nurses take hand hygiene for granted and consequently patients catch the serious infections. Prevention must be taken in order to keep such infections at bay. Nurses must always disinfect and cleanse the medical equipment immediately after use. Aseptic technique should be followed to clean the equipment from time to time.

Documentation Faults

Generally, at the time of training nurses get to know numerous clinical aspects but the thing they tend to skip is the relevancy of maintaining proper documentation of every patient. The significance of paperwork and patient’s documents tends to be overlooked by some nurses and it costs them a lot in the future. Documenting the crucial and vital reports of the patient should never be missed. Maintaining a chart should be most important for the nurses and it should be a part of their routine tasks. Keeping the chart of a patient’s detail plays an effective role in assessing the performance of a nurse. However, sometimes it turns out to be a puzzling task as nurses already have so many other tasks to perform in the hospital. This keeps them away in writing down the essential details about the patient during their particular shift. Look at some of the things to consider while charting for a particular patient:

• Record the detailed information about health and drug
• Write the proper medications
• Chart any terminated medications or procedure
• Record the alterations in the patient’s medical condition

Failing to Determine Priority

With a span of time nurses learn and practice the art of prioritizing the tasks. Through experience they gain skills to determine the urgency of any medical task on their duty. However, lining up the task according to the need of the time is a vital art that must be possessed by each and every professional nurse. One should understand the fact that nursing always takes place in collaboration. Never assume any outcomes without consulting to others in your field. Nurses must inquire and ask the support system if they are unsure of anything while taking care of the patients. Performing each and every task alone may lead to confusion and serious errors. Delegate the tasks and duties if you find it difficult to manage all alone. If you are unsure of anything just ask the higher authorities before taking any big decision just for the sake of completing your duty. Nurses are also human beings who can commit such mistakes but it should also be understood that such mistakes can lead to a patient’s downfall.

Equipment Injury

Equipment injury is one of the most common errors in nursing. Equipment perpetually alters and changes with regard to patient care ambient. Nurses possess a great duty and responsibility to keep an active check on such vital changes and to be proficient in exercising the essential equipment. In this scene, nurse educators also play an effective role in certifying and securing that all nursing get trained.

Some basic steps to prevent equipment injuries

• Appealing for training on a particular equipment
• Analyzing all equipment and evading it if found flawed
• Notifying and reporting any defects to the associated department as well as the higher authorities in action.
• Detailed documentation of any damaged equipment.
• Follow the instructions and guidelines before using any new equipment.
• Use the equipment only if it is recommended by the authorities or senior doctors.

Following these steps carefully can easily help you prevent the deadliest nursing errors in your whole career.