OP - again, you've found yourself lucky some on here have given you help on your assignment and since you've not returned, perhaps you are working on them right now.
However, I think perhaps some have missed the reason I & some others have chosen not to give you suggestions on rectifying your mistake. Since almost all of you are students, I'll give you some examples of exhaustion & real life pharmacists. Perhaps your community preceptor should have addressed this with you at the time your sleepiness occurred, but as some have pointed out in other places - not all pharmacists are educators.
I'll give you some very, very real examples -
If you work in a teaching hospital, a new set of residents comes on every July. Many studies have documented the medication error rate, which are caught by the way, go way up during this period of time. Most are caught because they have more senior residents who don't allow drug orders to be signed off until they are reviewed. But, at the end of the year, they are given a bit more leash, deservedly. However, again - the error rate goes up & it is up to pharmacists to catch these errors. As busy as a hospital pharmacist is, there is plenty of "downtime" to get sleepy & often repetitive work - which also equals inattentive. This combination of residents (who work 24-30 hrs at a stretch) and pharmacists who are also inattentive because of sleepiness can (& has) resulted in pt morbidity.
Now....talk to anyone who is a parent. Each one can recount the number of times they've been up at night with a sick &/or fussy child. If we're lucky, we have a co-parent who can help relieve us. But, on occasion, it will sometimes happen that you've both been up & you both have to be at work (for whatever reason - you have pts scheduled (my SO) or I'm the only pharmacist on at 6AM (my situation)...you have to be able to be alert & attentive because again.....the pt is at risk. You have to find ways to stay alert in the worst of circumstances.
Finally, I'll give you the biggest & most recent, in my memory, incident of fatigue combined with other factors. In 1995, a community pharmacist misfilled an rx which should have been Ritalin with Glynase for a child. The child died. This pharmacist had filled this rx at the end of his 12 hour workday in a 60 hour workweek. The pharmacist had also lost his wife the previous month to cancer, so was preoccupied as well. (He was inattentive "only" because it was the end of the shift & he was still grieving - similar to your "only I was up late studying"???) There were mitigating factors which resulted in the final decision, but the end result was, the family was awarded $16 million dollars for pharmacist negligence & poor supervision of this pharmacist by his employer. The pharmacist lost his license, job & retirement - and a child died.
The whole point of the lesson here (forgive the length) - is you indeed made a mistake which you admit to. Your supervisor did what she had to do - she reported your mistake, which if employers have learned nothing else from the case in 1995 - they must do this one thing (this has NOTHING to do with the preceptor gaining the respect of the student!!). The suggestion to sue is meaningless & won't end up with you learning anything, yet further alienating those who are trying to teach you something.
Altho you took responsibility for your mistake, you are wanting help in finding topics on which to rectify your mistake. Just like managing sleepiness, which we all must do at times (sick children, tired residents, poor work schedules), you must also take responsibility for finding a way to rectify your lapse. Coming up with topics is the professional part of taking responsibility. Did you get that part?
Altho many have given you suggestions on social topics, I'm guessing your advisor is wanting something specifically on some professional responsibility. Had I been your preceptor, I would want you to prepare & give an inservice to me & all your classmates on drug errors, the ways pharmacists are causative &/or facilitators in them & the ways to mitigate them. This is in no way a public "punishment", but a way to educate & hopefully give suggestions to those who've yet to experience &/or get "caught" in the same bind you find yourself. In fact, this is the reason most employers make their incident reports available to the staff - as a learning tool.
Again, I'm sorry to be harsh & I'm sure your community preceptor was as well - thus you were not confronted at the time. But....this is truly very serious business we're in & there are times we do have to burn the candle at both ends - not our choice. But...you've definitely learned your lesson on the tired part, now....go and learn your lesson on the professional part - do this one on your own. Perhaps, you'll find yourself educating some of your colleagues as well & finding something within yourself you didn't know you had.
As hard as this is, it will make you a better pharmacist & perhaps a great preceptor one day.
I do wish you the best of luck!
