Shame, Guilt, Incompetence And Failures

[Gonidae]

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Share your most shameful, guilt inducing, sleep depriving, malpractice stories as a practitioner/clinician.
I ask this because I want to help a friend that had her first failure that resulted in the death of the dog (at least that is the way she perceive it). She is hunted by it, I try to make her think about all the lives she saved (the very next day she saved another dog from euthanasia by insisting on continuing the treatment while the owners and another colleague were ready to give up) but still she is torn by guilt, shame and feelings of incompetence. I hope that if she sees other stories she might get over it. Please feel free to share your thoughts.

 

[No Imagination]

erghh, not sure how I feel about this thread. Really think that comisserating, or seeing that other people f-up is the way to make someone feel better?

But, whatever. I (as a tech) apparently didn't latch a kittens cage well enough. They got our, fell (a good 5-6 feet), and got attacked by a GSD. 1 kitten died, 2 had punctured lungs and other ailments.

I saw a vet aspirate H2O2 into a dog accidental. Dog promptly died.

 

[StealthDog]

Does she have VIN access? The Professional Communication/Stress board is a great place for support and empathy in dealing with tough situations like this.

 

[Gonidae]

The idea isn't to make her feel BETTER but to help her see that it is a "normal" prat of practice. And thanks for sharing.

 

[Gonidae]

No, she doesn't have a VIN access.

 

[BeagleOne]

If she's not a VIN member, she ought to be. It's a great resource and I can't imagine practicing without it (and no, I don't work for VIN). A lot of practices will include the membership fee in their benefits package but if she has to pay for it herself, it's tax deductible. The stress board is a great place to vent and no one but VIN members will see it.

It's human nature to remember our failures more than our successes. It's a good idea to keep thank-you notes from clients and go over them when you're feeling down. It might also help her to go back over what she did (or didn't do) in this case and see if she could have changed anything. If she's being too hard on herself, that may help her realize it. If she did make a mistake, she can learn from this bad experience (and all vets have had them) and not make the same mistake again.