How to react to mistakes

[july]

---

Members do not see this ad.

When I was an intern, I was treated very badly by pharmacists in one particular store I worked. They acted as though they were better than me and were so hard on me, especially when I made a mistake.

I am now a pharmacist and don't want to repeat this pattern. I treat techs and interns with respect. However, I don't know how to react when I catch a mistake. My inclination is to say "oh it's ok" but sometimes it's just NOT. For instance, someone used the wrong chemo agent which could have killed someone.

Any advice on how to point out a mistake without beating up on the person or downplaying it so much they think it's no big deal?

 

[Aznfarmerboi]

Pull the person to the side, explain the severity of it, say something bad, and then say something good. Once they learn how to respect you, then you can be their friends. Other than that, they might take advantage of you. If the problem is consistant, work with the intern/technician to find out why it is happening and find a solution to it.

 

[npage148]

With me, telling me I made a mistake and showing me what I did wrong is fine. I don't need you to explain the severity of the mistake, I'll know when I see what I did how "bad" of a mistake it was. I can get defensive and having a pharmacist explain to me that filling a rx as coumadin 10 instead of 1 could be deadly would make me feel like you are belittleing me. I know it could kill them. I will make get mad at myself if I made a serious mistake.

But I guess if the intern/tech is clueless why their mistake is bad then some gentle explaining would be in order. You'd probably have to adjust your reaction depending on who made the msitake

 

[twester]

Having a mistake pointed out should be a positive learning experience. If that means that an intern needs to learn about the severity of the mistake, so be it. But there must also be a collaboration between the intern and the pharmacist to figure out how to avoid the mistake in the future, if there's not already a procedure in place.

I made an error earlier this summer in the first days of my internship, that would have resulted in a HIPAA violation. The pharmacist pointed it out, said "that's bad" and reviewed with me the procedures that I needed to follow. I've never made the mistake again.

 

[ZpackSux]

Bringing up an error should be done very gingerly.

Here is my approach...


"Hey you...c'mere... When I was an intern, I used to make this mistake all the time... but here is the right way...

 

[cycloketocaine]

Bringing up an error should be done very gingerly.

Here is my approach...


"Hey you...c'mere... When I was an intern, I used to make this mistake all the time... but here is the right way...

Are you going to be that nice to me when you're my preceptor?? 😛

Oh, and BTW, my pops made Entrepreneur Magazine's Hot 500. Pretty cool.

 

[ZpackSux]

Are you going to be that nice to me when you're my preceptor?? 😛

Oh, and BTW, my pops made Entrepreneur Magazine's Hot 500. Pretty cool.

I kids you not...I was reading the list this morning. My 8 year old daughter subscribes to it. Or should we say the subscription is on her name.

Me...nice to an oakie? Oh Please.

 

[cycloketocaine]

I kids you not...I was reading the list this morning. My 8 year old daughter subscribes to it. Or should we say the subscription is on her name.

Me...nice to an oakie? Oh Please.

pssssshhhhhhhhaaaaaaaa

 

[sdn1977]

I'd add there are different kinds of mistakes & they take different approaches.

The pharmaceutical ones - wrong drug, strenth, directions - I agree needs to be handled first - PRIVATELY!!! then, depending on the experience - with an appropriate amount of firmness. A P1 is expected to make more mistakes than a P3.

The procedural mistakes - initialing in the wrong place, forgetting to note the fridge temp, doing an expired stock check on time, etc.....those you can treat more lightheartedly. I take Zpaks approach - we all make these, but they're like taxes - we have to do them...kind of way.

But - there are some folks & I have worked with (AM working right now with...) someone who no matter how often I correct the person - its like water thru a sieve - and this is a pharmacist and these are pharmaceutical errors of significance!

I don't get angry. I just point it out, tell the individual what I had to do to correct it (or if I've just found out about it, I make the individual do the correcting - call the prescriber, refund the amount or take it out of the computer, write up the incident report, etc..) My dop & DM don't tolerate "excuses" - we have to take responsibility for our errors & there is no excuse for them - they are just experiences we learn from & hopefully don't do again. But, they're not forgotton - just forgiven.

Unfortunately, if the errors continue to occur, they are documented & with enough of them, they can result in termination. I've known about 4 cases of this happening.

But - fortunately, the climate is much differerent. We try to share our errors, at least in my hospital, in an anonymous fashion so we can learn from them. It has helped!

 

[MountainPharmD]

I like to take a very diplomatic approach. I point out that everyone makes mistakes except for me. I realize not everone can be perfect like me so I will try not to hold you to that standard. With that said you screw up again I will take you out back and beat your a$$. Understood?

Just kidding.....I figure there are good mistakes and bad mistakes. As a manager I get to deal with them all. By a good mistake I mean simple inputing errors that all techs, interns, pharmacists, who ever will make because we are human and to err is human right? These are easy to catch and simply bringing it to the responsible persons attention is enough. Now if you get a whole bunch of these, especially by the same person they can quickly move into "bad mistakes".

By bad mistakes I mean those that could potential cause great harm and are due to lack of attention to detail and/or some violation of company policies or state or federal law. I get very upset and turn into a not very nice person when these happen. These types of mistakes usually warrent a serious discussion between myself and the person involved. I will admit at times I am very blunt and not very nice but I feel I need to be this way to get the seriousness of my point across.

As far as the person who used the wrong chemo drug. They would have gone home crying and I don't care if they were male or female. That would have warrented me seriously getting into someones butt and it would not have been pretty.

 

[vida]

During the first week of me working in retail pharmacy (I did not have any pharmacy experience before, 24hour store, 2 pharmacists, one super tech, one ok tech and myself) I was entering scripts and I literally translated the sig how to use suppository ...for "PR". I was never told what my mistake was...instead one pharmacist said "today we are going to kill lot of trees for paper", super tech said (addressing to his favorite pharmacist) "Is this why they go to pharmacy school, *****s" and the next 4 hours of my shift I was the scape goat. 😳

I would have appreciated even if any one had corrected me and told me what the wrong was instead making these hurt full comments indirectly.

After two years now I realize its not only them but happens a lot in pharmacy world😱 and at some point even I have to learn to do so if want to survive!