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Recently you have passed from a nursing school or college. You have learned a lot in nursing school or college and experienced clinical practices. Now it's the time to apply your learning on patients care.
Even though you gained huge knowledge and skills in nursing, still you may do mistakes during your hospital duty. If you make any mistake, don't become demotivated because mistakes may happen to anyone and still you are not experienced in hospital care. Always remember that we are nurse, human being and we may make mistakes as everyone else does.
But you should not ignore your mistakes. You should learn from your mistakes and try to avoid it in future. In this article, we will know some most common mistakes made by new nurses.
1. Calling wrong name of a patient -
This is one of the most common mistakes among new nurses. Sometimes professional also does the same mistake. In this condition almost there are no harmful effects while we are communicating with him but problems come when we are administering medications. Because of the wrong name, you can administer the medication to the wrong patient at the wrong time, wrong dosage, frequency and route.
• Lesson - Always be careful when administering medications to a patient. Ask the patient's name, check with his ID card and records to avoid medication errors.
2. Medication errors -
Committing a medication error can be harmful to a patient. Administering the wrong dosage and wrong time are the common mistakes for most of the nurses. Sometimes nurses get mistake with medication names which are almost similar to other medication.
Medication errors can change the patient's health, make him ill and in critical condition, even death may happen.
• Lesson - Before administering any medication check medication name, dosage, route and frequency according to the doctor's prescription. If you committed any mistake, don't hide it, immediately inform to senior nurse or physician.
3. Calling a doctor without complete information -
This is a common mistake for the new nurses because they are not experienced about updating a doctor. Generally, they call a doctor without complete information and without any preparation. Because of this mistake, you can forget to inform any important information which is necessary for the patient's health.
• Lesson - So, before calling a doctor, be prepared with medication data, lab data and imaging data. Along with this, you must know about patient health condition and issues and must inform the doctor.
4. Following an incomplete infection control measures -
Nurses can be an important factor in spreading infections if she doesn't follow standard infection control measures. Generally, nurses are dealing with many patients who have various types of disease conditions which can lead to nosocomial infection (hospital-acquired infection). That's mean without following infection control measures, a nurse can spread infection from one patient to another patient easily.
• Lesson - To avoid the spreading of infection a nurse must follow standard infection control measures. Frequently wash hands with disinfectant, follow aseptic techniques and standard precautions.
5. Incorrect documentation -
As a nurse the most important part of your career is documentation but nurses are making mistakes when they are documenting. Documentation errors include recording the wrong data or not adding data. Documentation errors can prevent the improvement of the health of a patient.
• Lesson - You are going to record a patient's data, before that you must know about the patient's history properly. Your documentation must include patient history, history of medication administration, nurses role, any issue and side effects.
6. Not asking questions because of shy -
As a nurse and health care worker, you cannot know all the skills and knowledge. Especially for the new nurses, they have to learn a lot from others but they feel shy to ask any questions. Never feel shy to learn which you don't know. Your learning from others can improve patient's care.
• Lesson - Always clear your confusion by asking questions. If you don't know ask for help. Especially for some skills or procedures, take assistant and learn effectively.
Special consideration if mistakes happen
1. Don't hide your mistake -
Mistakes may happen to anyone. So, never to try to hide it. It may lead to a harmful effect on the patient's health. Instead of hiding a mistake, inform your senior nurse or doctor or follow risk management protocols.
2. Be responsible to fix your mistake -
If you commit any mistake don't ignore it, instead, try to fix it as soon as possible. If you can't fix it alone, take the help of someone who knows how to fix this mistake. In this condition don't become demotivated, you should learn from your mistake.
3. Understand the causes of your mistake -
Once you committed a mistake, first you should fix it and think why you made this mistake. Your mistake may lead to a harmful effect so try to avoid repetition. Understand your mistake and find out the causes of your mistake so that next time you can avoid it.
4. Express your feelings -
Don't become demotivated and depressed because of your mistake. Remember that mistake may happen to anyone and you are one of them. You should share your mistake to your close one and express your feelings to them. By hiding your feelings, you may feel more stressful, depressed and irritate which can disturb your normal work habits.
