to hear your nurse (or student nurse) say..........

This is a TRUE story. There are no names to protect the innocent. Allow me to share with you a small snippet of my career as a nurse.............

Go with me now to a kinder, gentler, more forgiving time. The year is 1976. I was an eager, wide-eyed 19-year old student nurse. Proudly clad in my stiff, over-starched Big Bird-yellow student nurse's uniform, I began my medication administration rotation in the local hospital.

Until now, we had only been the caretakers of infirmed and feeble nursing home patients. But now, we were intrusted with younger, more critically ill patients; patients, that is, who might actually survive our hands-on care.

It was everything I had dreamed of...the smell of alcohol, disinfectants, poop, puke, and shoe polish. OK, I over-did it on the shoe polish to attain that "Nurse Ratchet" image.

Our patients were assigned to us and we were responsible for knowing all the ins and outs of their admitting diagnosis, plan of care, and their medications, to include: intended action, adverse reactions, dosage, frequency, generic and brand name, and drug interactions to name a few.

I knew my patients like the back of my hand. I was ready. I was confident. I was scared to death!

With my stiff, white cap atop my fact-filled head, my clinical nursing instructor, a fellow student and I approached the room of my friend's patients. For the sake of convenience, and since we would have two patients apiece, each of us was assigned the two patients in two different rooms. It seemed to be a good idea at the time.

Keep in mind that drilled into our heads concerning Medication Administration were the "5 Rights," which were/are: 1. The right patient. 2. The right medication. 3. The right dosage. 4. The right time. 5. The right route. We all could recite them in our sleep, and many did.

The instructor carried on a tray the medications we were to dispense to our unsuspecting, fully trusting victims--uh, I mean, patients.

My "I've got it all under control" buddy was to take care of her patients first. She began with the "A" bed patient, which is the patient nearest the door.

She confidently gathered up the patient's medication,(having already briefed the instructor concerning the hows and whys the medications were ordered) trading for it the patient's chart she had carried to the room with her.

Approaching the patient with a smile and a soft voice, she asked the woman, "Are you Mrs. Smith?" The patient reciprocated with a smile, and an affirmative nod.

The medication cup was handed to her along with a fresh glass of ice water. Down the hatch it went...quickly, effortlessly, and erroneously.

Almost as an afterthought, my self-confident classmate peered at her patient's armband. It was then she realized she had given the A patient B patient's medication.

Immediately, she got in the dear, sweet, hard-of-hearing grandmotherly patient's face.

"Oh! Ma'am! Can you puke that up???!!!"

Needless to say, our instructor whisked the poor student out in to the hall and made QUITE clear that one was NEVER to ask someone to "PUKE UP" MEDICATION that you had just administered!

Corrective measures were taken such as verifying medication allergies, drug interactions, informing the physician, and filling out a Medication Error form, and the patient was unharmed.

As you might guess, I have been "anal" about the identity of my patient BEFORE asking them to take their meds.

A lesson learned, and a memory burned!

Scary to think that your story is probably the most benign of all the millions of medical errors made in the profession.

Thanks for sharing

TY for sharing...