5 common clinical mistakes to avoid as a nurse

by APSense News Release Admin

What is nursing?

Nursing encircles communal people of all ages, families, groups, or communities, sick or well and in all conditions. Nursing includes health promotion, cure from illness, and care of ill, disabled, and people suffering from life-taking diseases.

Nurses offer a complete assessment of the health of people. Their 24/7 observation redirected towards your health helps the doctors make better diagnoses and suggest better treatments.

Mistakes can be committed by anyone unknowingly. It is not that the experienced nurses or doctors do not commit clinical errors, but the probability becomes higher when one has just started the profession. Nursing mistakes could be dangerous that they could take the lives of the patients.

What is the importance of nursing?

Nurses play a crucial role in the lives of people who seek medical attention due to health issues. Appointing a skilled nurse for a patient can be beneficial in many ways. Some of the significant advantages are:

Nurses spend more time with patients. It could make the family feel relaxed as they could be assured that the patient is safe.
Nurses also act as patient advocates as they spent quantity time with them. They can quickly understand their actions and know what they require at a particular time.
The primary function of a nurse involves continuous monitoring of a patient's health. They inform the doctors about the condition of the patients frequently.

Top 5 clinical mistakes to be avoided as a nurse!!!

It is essential to be professional enough when it comes to medical occupation. One cannot afford to become careless when the patients show trust to them for their lives. Carelessness could be very dangerous because medical professionals deal with the most delicate commodity.

1. Medication errors

Wrong medication could become a severe problem as each medication has some side effects and cannot complement every patient. Suppose a medical professional prescribes the wrong medicines to a patient, dispenses an inaccurate medication dosage, or mistakenly handing out the prescription to the wrong patient. In that case, it could be fatal to the patient.

These mistakes are pretty common and could be committed by both newcomers as well as experienced. The reason for such errors could be lack of presence of mind or work pressure.

Some valuable tips to ensure you do not commit such mistakes are:

Ask the patients about their allergies or reactions before prescribing the medicines.
Do not overlook any conditions or critical diagnoses before administering medication.
Please check whether the list of drugs the patient is on is regularly updated or not.
Do not forget to measure the weight and height.

2. Infection Issues

Have you ever suffered from the issue of infection after a treatment? It happens because of medical ignorance by the medical team. Being a nurse, one must be careful enough to avoid such issues as you have the chance to reduce the risk of infections acquired in a hospital. You can utilize your expertise gained throughout your service years or use the skills gained during the training.

You must help the patient in recovering without any complications faced after the treatment. Infections could be fatal in many cases.

Maintaining cleanliness in the hospitals and taking care of proper hygiene are essential to minimize infections.

Tips to get rid of infections are:

Taking standard precautions
Aseptic techniques
Cleaning and disinfection
Strategies for infection prevention

3. Documentation Errors

Usually, when nurses are trained, they are taught to keep their records up to date. When the patients enter the hospital for the treatment, their details must be recorded and kept well-organized. It is significant to keep the paperwork updated. Sometimes, the professionals make mistakes in the documentation of the patients. When you know the pitfalls of the documentation, it could help you avoid those errors.

Tips to follow while charting for a patient:

1. Record health and drug information

2. Record the list of medications

3. Record any discontinued medications

4. Record nursing actions

5. Record variations in the condition of the patients

6. Record the instructions given regarding the patient's care.

4. Calling for aid without the accurate information

Calling for the assistance of the physician without having the correct details could risk your career. It is not fatal or life-threatening for the patients, but it could create other problems. You would look amateur in the eyes of other medical staff. It could waste the precious time of the doctors and other staff if you call for help unnecessarily.

5. Falling accidents involving patients

Patients who are lying on the bed could fall accidentally in an attempt to move. It could be the nurse's fault on duty as she is responsible for closely taking care of the patient. Nurses should always be there for patients when they want to get out of the bed or move around.

Even a minor fall could cause a significant injury to the patients. The family of the patient is liable to take legal actions against the hospital. The nurses are responsible for constantly monitoring the patient's health during their work hours. Ensure that the requirements of the patients reach them without any hassle.

In some cases, the patients could hesitate to call nurses for help. So, the nurses need to be attentive to them. You must also ensure that patients know you are available for them. Please be polite to them so that they feel comfortable around you.

Final word

The nurses need to be alert and be extra attentive to the patients. Try not to commit mistakes while attending to the patients as it could be dangerous for them. Knowing the reasons for the errors, you can try to eliminate the chances of the mistakes. The medical field is always critical as the lives of the patients depend on the doctors' treatment. It would be best if the nurses complete their training successfully and learn all the technicalities required to handle patients. Nursing assignments can get challenging for students. LiveWebTutors offer reliable nursing assignment help services to assist the students in Nursing Essay Writing, assignment, or homework writing.

About Author:

Soraya Lee is a contributing writer to Livewebtutors. He is a podcaster, style coach and has been a blogger and a professional blogger writing about educational skills, personal development and motivation since 2010. He has her own blogging website and well-established blog.