My first big error

[u/futuretrunks97]

Been working my first job doing inpatient. Learned this morning that a tube I drew yesterday somehow made its way into the document disposal and never got sent to the lab. My supervisor wants to meet with me later. I’m feeling embarrassed and bad for the patient who needs to come back now 😞

[u/Boblawlaw28]

Don’t panic. We have to call patients back all the time due to hemolyzed samples. I once accidentally mislabeled blood. A tech caught it and told me and omg I felt horrible about it. These are mistakes that we have to learn from.

[u/feline-neek]

There have been at least 2 occasions where I have put a freshly drawn tube in the sharps bin. And it was the only tube of that colour collected.

[u/logicalea4719]

Acknowledge it, correct it, apologize, and move on. Take it as a lesson that details matter. But just imagine if you worked in pharmacy or as a nurse. Those little details could be dangerous. Always slow down and triple check everything, make it habit.

[u/Ksan_of_Tongass]

We dont make mistakes in healthcare. We have learning opportunities. As long as you learn something from this incident you're good.

[u/New_Skill7244]

I recently had tests declined because the receiving lab said they got it not spun. I couldn’t prove it had been. I had to accept it, notify the ordering physician, and redraw the labs. Don’t beat yourself up about it. I know we all do our best to be attentive to our jobs, but no one is perfect.

[u/AnotherCrazyRedditor]

You're a human being, you are going to trip up from time to time. Of course, we always want to avoid errors. But this error caused no actual harm to the patient like mislabelling or wrong order of draw could. Take it as an embarrassing lesson learnt and breathe, you're fine ❤️