Help: Gave her overdose medication

Help. i work for a care agency and accidently gave one of my clients overdose medication. I am relitively new to the role.

My mind just zoned out. I did not realise i gave the client midday medication alongside tea time medication when she was only meant to take the miday medication.

I got in trouble when the daugher of the client realised

I am sacred of the conequences

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

arminvanpite

When this happened, did you admit to it straightaway or not say anything?

Reply 2

AmmarTa

Original post by bloodredbeat

When this happened, did you admit to it straightaway or not say anything?

Did you call the daughter / emergency services or try to cover it up and potentially have caused the accidental death of the poor person?

Reply 3

GreenBell

How can we help you? You need to speak to the people there and ask them for what's going to happen.

Reply 4

Anonymous #1

Original post by bloodredbeat

When this happened, did you admit to it straightaway or not say anything?

yeah i addmited.

it was my mistsake my mind was jut not there when i administered it.

Reply 5

Anonymous #1

Original post by AmmarTa

Did you call the daughter / emergency services or try to cover it up and potentially have caused the accidental death of the poor person?

her daugher was there all along and she said she will notify the agency.

what will happen to me

Reply 6

AmmarTa

Original post by Anonymous

her daugher was there all along and she said she will notify the agency.

what will happen to me

I'm not going to sugarcoat it, one of the times one of my grandma's carers accidentally gave my grandma an extra pill and she was "sanctioned accordingly" (words of the agency). Haven't seen her since so I assume she's either been fired or suspended?

Reply 7

Anonymous #1

Original post by AmmarTa

ohhh right but suspended for good or just with your grandma?

Reply 8

AmmarTa

Original post by Anonymous

ohhh right but suspended for good or just with your grandma?

Not sure about that one, I assume with my grandma.

Reply 9

Anonymous #1

Original post by AmmarTa

Not sure about that one, I assume with my grandma.

okay.

Do you know if the suspension time last more than a week orwill i be fully fired.

i guess everything depends on my aganecies policy.

Since the daugher already said she will inform the agency, do you think i should do so myself just in case?

@Claireestelle

you are sacred :colone:

Reply 13

moonkatt

Have you made sure the person you gave the medication to in error is ok?

You should be informing your line manager and reporting this as an incident through whatever system your employers have.

Have you had specific training in medication administration? (you should have) actions to be taken in a medication error would have been covered in this. There should be a policy for this too, which should include what may happen to you.

Reply 14

ANM775

unfortunately you just cannot make these kinds of mistakes in your type of job, they could have serious consequences.

while it does seem to me like you did not do it deliberately, i still feel you should be suspended or even sacked ..because people's lives literally are at risk, and if a person is prone to making these kinds of mistakes they shouldn't be working in such a role.

If you end up coming out of this with your job still intact then count yourself lucky and make sure to never let it happen again...

Reply 15

Anonymous #1

Original post by moonkatt

The person seems to be ok, she was supported by her daughter.

I am relitively new to the role and there was no training with regards to medication.

The training i underwent was food hygine safety and manual handling, nothing to do with medication.

In fact, before i started the job, i had no idea one of my responsibilities would be to give out medication to the clients i see(obviously only those who take medications)

I always thought medication is something that should be administered by a nurse or someone like the parent etc of the person i am looking after or i should be suprevised.

I know i cannot afford to be making these sort of mistakes and i should be sanctionedaccordinly but i do not know my agencies policy about this situation.

The daugher of the person was there and said she will tell the agency about this etc.

So does this mean i should dtill tell the agency myself? The thought of having to explain the whole stuation to my manger is giving me butterflies.

I am scared AF

Reply 16

Anonymous #1

Original post by ANM775

Obviously i did not do it deliberately, i had no intenstions to give an overdose, it just happend accidently, like i cannot even explain myself here as to why. :frown:

I am not prone to making those kind of mistakes because i have been administering the same sort of medication to the same person every day last week.

It was just that moment in time where i zoned out and accidently gave an overdose.

I know i cannot afford to make these kind of mistakes but do you think being sacked for this is ustifiable? a suspension to me sounds more justifiable.

Anyways, i am scared AF :frown:

Reply 17

Anonymous #1

Original post by ANM775

What happens when a person gets sacked? since i am relitevely new to the job role(i have never been a carer before) what will happen to me? will i still be able to get another job as a carer, in the care sector or any other jobs irrelelevant to care work.

Reply 18

ANM775

Original post by Anonymous

Obviously i did not do it deliberately, i had no intenstions to give an overdose, it just happend accidently, like i cannot even explain myself here as to why. :frown:

Either a sacking or suspension I wouldn't object to.

yes, you didn't do it deliberately ..but intentional or not the consequences could have been very serious. I would not be surprised if this fell under gross misconduct.

Personally I would not feel comfortable with you looking after my mother/gran after having made such a mistake. I would insist on a new nurse/carer for them.

It's like a Coach driver falling asleep at the wheel. Yes he probably didn't mean to do it, but the consequences could be severe..

Reply 19

ANM775

Original post by Anonymous

I know a person who is a carer and got sacked.

He is now working in a call centre. I do not know how easy/hard it is to get another job in that same field once you've been sacked.

I think he got sacked over lateness or something like that...