Everyone in every profession makes mistakes – it’s certainly not something that’s isolated to the nursing industry. However, making a mistake at work can be particularly stressful for nurses because these mistakes involve the health and well-being of a patient. Although these mistakes can be distressing, how you recover from them is much more important. Knowing how to respond to mistakes you have made is the best way to learn, giving you essential life skills and building resilience.

When you make a mistake at work, it’s important to know – no matter how big the mistake – you can get through this. Here are our tips on how to recover when a slip-up occurs.

It’s ok! Mistakes happen

Have you ever heard of anyone in nursing who hasn’t made a mistake? I think we can all confidently say no, and anyone who says they haven’t is a bigger liar than Pinocchio!

The healthcare industry has always been a high-pressured one, but it has reached a boiling point, with natural disasters such as the Eastern Australia floods, bushfires in multiple locations over the country and the COVID 19 pandemic.

Think of making mistakes like this - if a family member or friend made a mistake, would you think they are not worthy or stupid? Most of us would answer no. Be kind to yourself. You will make mistakes - especially those in their first few months or even years of nursing. So, the next time you make an error of judgement, don’t dwell on it. It doesn’t define you as a nurse.

Own up

Making a mistake is never fun. Often you can feel like you want the floor to swallow you whole, so you don’t have to deal with it. In situations where no one is around, it might even be tempting to ignore it or not own up. If no one knows, it won’t hurt, right? It’s important to remember that you need to admit to a mistake and face the consequences - silence or denial will only make things worse.

To make mistakes or be wrong is human. To admit those mistakes shows you have the ability to learn (Donalds L. Hicks). The cardinal rule of nursing is that patient safety trumps everything else, including your pride, your job and your nursing licence.

Get help

As nurses, patient wellbeing is ahead of our pride. Embarrassment may tempt a nurse to keep quiet. However, you should always own up. One of the best things you can do is seek help immediately. The quicker you acknowledge your mistake and rip the Band-Aid off, the better. Seek help from your manager, director or charge nurse and report the error immediately. There may even be a chance of fixing the mistake if you get help early enough. It also means you don’t have to work through your mistake alone.

When reporting your error, be honest. Describe what happened and ask what to do next to rectify the situation. If there was a witness to your mistake, make sure to involve them in the reporting process, including documentation.

Learn

Every mistake made is a learning curve. Errors will only help you grow and evolve as a nurse. People who make few mistakes make little progress (Bryant McGill). You can also use mistakes as an opportunity to teach others. For example: imagine incorrectly programming an IV infusion. As you catch the error, you fix it to the best of your ability and inform management immediately. Collectively, you, your colleagues and your management team can determine the root cause of the mistake and develop strategies to prevent nurses from making the same error.

Mistakes are not just clinical misjudgements

When thinking of mistakes, we tend to just think of clinical errors. However, communication errors are a huge part of the industry as well. Nursing can be stressful, and many workers are overworked, tired, and stressed. This can result in a lot of staff having short tempers.

You might be the head nurse on a busy Friday night. You haven’t had time for a coffee, so you’re cranky and exhausted. A graduate comes and asks you a question that you might think is common sense, so your answer might come across as abrupt or rude. Many factors may influence this snappy remark, but this isn’t always clear to an outsider. Because of this, the graduate nurse might go forward being apprehensive about asking questions. The best thing to do in this situation is to make things right by sincerely apologising.

Nurturing positive relationships in the workplace is so important within the nursing industry. The last thing you want is a stressful job and an awkward break room. We all make mistakes every now and then, and life isn’t always smooth sailing. It’s important to acknowledge when you’re wrong, own up to what you’ve said or done and apologise sincerely.

Forgive yourself

Lastly, forgive yourself! Fixating, obsessing, rehashing, or dwelling on a mistake can be debilitating. It can cause negative effects on your mental and physical health. This can hinder us from achieving goals and becoming the best we can be.

Ways you can get over a mistake include:

• Journaling - get all your feelings out.
• Talk with a close friend – it’s amazing what talking it out can do.
• Mindfulness – mindful breathing, going on a walk outside or meditation.

Relatable mistakes we’ve all made

Mistakes in nursing happen often. These are some of the most common mistakes you might be able to relate to:

• Forgetting to turn on the bed alarm for a patient at high risk for falls.
• Incorrectly programming an IV pump resulting in underdosing or overdosing.
• Failing to report a change in a patient’s condition.
• Medication errors.
• Inaccurate documentation.

Admitting your mistakes and rectifying the situation using the above strategies will only make you a better nurse. Hopefully, this blog has put some anxious minds at ease and helped frame the mistake-making process differently.

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