Thursday, April 14, 2011

Don't Just Double-Check, Triple-Check

Wow, it's been a long time since I've written. What's to blame? None other than nursing school of course. It's been hell ever since I finished my Psych rotation. Today I had my cardiac simulation. Simulations were created for nursing students to practice certain scenarios before actually encountering them in real life. Well, I could say that my simulation went pretty well, but... I'd be lying. I forgot one of the most basic and essential things performed in nursing care. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS identify your patient with the MAR (medication administration record) and check your medication 3 times for the 7 rights (patient, reason, documentation, med, dose, time, and route)! I forgot to do that. My patient was having chest pain, I got so caught up in treating the chest pain that I forgot about making sure I had the right client BEFORE I gave the medication!!! Well, well, HUGE mistake on my part. I will hopefully never ever make that mistake again. Lesson learned, check the patient. Don't you wanna know who you're taking care of? I do. Time to catch up on the rest of my homework.