Nobody’s perfect; that much is clear for everyone. We are human and we’re prone to making all sorts of mistakes in our daily lives. However, some mistakes have different implications than others. For those who deal in human lives on a daily basis and whose decisions and actions will determine who lives and who dies, the pressure to perform perfectly is understandably heavier than in other people.

Each day, thousands of people walk into the hospital seeking aid; some of them with mild issues and others with emergencies that must be dealt with immediately. In this sense, nurses always have to be at the top of their game to provide the best aid and to prevent undue complications from issues that can be avoided.

In this article, we will try to go over several mistakes that most nurses make at the workplace in hopes that, for those who can relate, they can assume an active role to improve the quality of their service.

Medication Mistakes

Did you know that medicine administration mistakes account for around 32% of all medication errors? These mistakes can happen to both new and veteran nurses alike. After all, you don’t need a degree to read the doctor’s indications on the patient’s chart and to fetch the appropriate medication. Furthermore, all it takes to commit such base mistakes is a slip of the mind; maybe there are troubles at home or problems with a spouse. Whatever the cause, these personal issues can definitely detract from the nurses’ focus at work, and contribute towards making simple mistakes, such as administering the wrong medication. Nevertheless, this doesn’t make the mistake less dangerous, as these errors can sometimes have fatal consequences for the patient.

The best way to maintain a proper focus at all times during work hours is to leave all your personal problems at the front door and concentrate entirely on treating your patients. If you’re still having problems in this regard, you could adopt certain habits, such as giving your patients some mental identifiers that you can keep in mind to relate them to their medication.

Furthermore, there are some proper practices that you can maintain to ensure that the patient is receiving the proper treatment for their condition. For instance, you should always double check if the patient is allergic to any of the drugs you will be administering. Also, you must always assess any critical diagnosis or conditions that would impede the procedure. Lastly, you must also check that the medication list is updated and that the patient’s height and weight are correct as this will determine the dosage of the medication.

Failure to Maintain Proper Hygiene Standards

A common occurrence in some hospitals, especially those in underdeveloped countries, is the failure to uphold certain standards of hygiene in public hospitals, which increases the risk of infection among patients or in the staff. In the United States, hospital infections account for over 99,000 patient deaths in hospitals As the person who will be regularly interacting with the patient, it is your duty to practice proper hygiene measures to minimize the risk of infection. In this sense, you can provide proper care to your patient, while also reducing the risk of complications. Iatrogenic infections that usually result from negligence can always be avoided by adopting proper safety and hygiene techniques such as upholding standard precautions, aseptic techniques, performing proper cleaning and disinfection, and applying strategies for infection prevention.

Communication Mistakes

There will be times when the information in the chart will be incomplete, or when the patient is hooked up with many unlabeled tubes, some of which will need draining. In these situations, it’s easy to become confused and stressed as you don’t know how to properly proceed. Before stressing out, however, make sure to double check the chart for any pieces of information you might have skipped. If you can’t find anything, it falls to you to ask the treating physician for the information you need to do your job.

When you consult with the doctor, make sure to bring the patient’s chart and all relevant information with you. Also, make sure to write down a list with all the questions that you might have; doctors rarely have time for idle chit-chat, so be concise and get to the point as fast as possible. In this sense, both of you can get back to your duties and provide better care to the patient.

Breaking Down After a Patient’s Death

Remember when we said that the patient’s life is always on the line and that it falls down to you to determine who lives and who dies? Well, in some cases, there will be nothing you can do to keep death’s clutches away.

The death of a patient is hard for everyone, including for the nurse who was tasked with caring for them. Nevertheless, you must never break down in front of the patient’s family. Dealing with death is an unwelcome hazard of the trade; one which you’ll have to learn to deal with in your own manner. If you’re finding it difficult to keep it together after a patient passes away, try to consult with a veteran nurse for methods you could use. However, if you’re going through feelings of inadequacy, or find that you’re struggling to keep it together after the death of a patient, you might need to seek professional help.