7 Ways to Continue Patient Care After Medical Errors

As a nurse practitioner, it’s inevitable to make mistakes. These mistakes not only impact your patients life; it impacts your emotional, mental, physical, and professional life. Even though the medical profession can be rewarding, it involves fear of medical errors. There is an unrealistic expectation in the medical field to be perfect. Being accountable for your mistakes and apologizing for them can lead to a malpractice claim. This constant fear creates a lot of stress and anxiety when treating patients. Especially if the diagnosis or treatment causes injury, harm, or even death to a patient.

These fears are valid, but it’s impossible to always be right about a diagnose and treatment plan that works best for your patient. Sometimes it takes trial and error before discovering what’s right for your patient. The body is very complex and unpredictable. Even when you feel your diagnosis and treatment plan is right, the body may not respond to the treatment as expected. Instead of burying yourself in the guilt/shame, and punishing yourself for your mistake, give yourself permission to be human. It’s not realistic to expect it to be right every time.

Do the best you can before diagnosing a patient. If you’re not sure, consult with other colleges and ask for help. Make sure you’re well rested, clear-minded, and focused. If you are struggling with burnout or trauma, it will make you prone to medical errors.

If you have covered all your bases and a medical error does occur, there are ways to cope and overcome them.

1)    Be accountable for your mistake. There will be patients and family members who will get angry and file a malpractice lawsuit, but most will be understanding. Asking them for forgiveness will allow them to see you as a human being who’s doing their best. For those patients who survive the error, discuss the possible recovery process. This recovery plan can benefit both you and the patient.

2)    Forgive yourself. Forgiveness doesn’t justify your mistakes, but the regrets won’t consume you. Punishing yourself will only prevent you from providing quality care for the patients you can help and save. There will be patients that you are not able to help. Not everyone is meant to heal or survive. However, if in your childhood you were punished for your mistakes, or shamed for your behavior, you’ll most likely struggle with self-forgiveness. That’s where a trained trauma coach or therapist can assist you in discovering what’s preventing you from letting go of the shame, guilt, or fear. Working through your emotions, will give you the resilience and courage to face the consequences of your mistakes.

3)    Speak to an attorney about litigation or expected litigation. It’s human nature to assume the worst. Having clear knowledge and understanding of what you’re facing, can minimize uncertainty, and help you create a plan that feels safe for you. The legal ramifications may not be as serious and damaging. If they are serious, seek support from your colleagues and loved ones. You may not be able to control the ramifications of your mistake, but you can control how you respond to them.

4)    Learn from your mistakes. Mistakes are a master teacher. It reveals what doesn’t work. It allows an opportunity to refine yourself and your skills. Think back on all the times you made mistakes yet learned from them. Either you choose to punish yourself or learn from your mistakes. It’s easy to immediately default to beating yourself up for your mistakes, but that won’t benefit you or your patient. You’ll lose your confidence as a nurse practitioner and won’t be able to clearly assess how to recover from the mistake. The reality is we learn from our mistakes; without them there is no growth. Recognize that you’re doing the best you can with the knowledge you have. Allow the medical error to reveal a strategy that will prevent the error in the future.

5)   Remind yourself of all the patients you have successfully treated. You chose this profession with the intention to heal the sick and not hurt them. If you compare the amount of patients you have successfully helped versus the ones you couldn’t; the ratio is favorable. If you struggle focusing on all the good you have accomplished, speak with a fellow colleague who can provide support and a positive perspective. When speaking to someone who understands it can relieve stress, fear, and isolation. This will help you challenge intrusive negative thoughts that prevent you from focusing on the good that outweighs your mistakes.

6)   Take care of yourself first. Even though this is contrary to what you are taught in medical school, it’s essential in preventing medical errors. Not getting quality sleep, eating well, lack of exercise, and pushing your feelings away, will affect the quality of care you provide. Make it a priority to take care of your emotional, mental, and physical needs. This will give you the clarity and focus needed to properly diagnose your patients and prevent medical mistakes.

7)   Heal the trauma. Making mistakes that negatively impact your patient’s life can be very traumatic for you and the patient. Not addressing the trauma can result in mental health issues such as; post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety. Healing the trauma will allow you to overcome the inadequate feelings and promote inner peace. Letting go of the guilt and shame will move you through the suffering into acceptance. It will give you a newfound perspective that will carry you through any ramifications.

The reality is, making mistakes is inevitable. It’s vital for you to discover ways to accept and deal with them. Something that is overlooked is the patients journey. Illness can reveal a lot to a patient. Sometimes it’s a wakeup call towards making significant changes in their lives. A lot of patients don’t take care of themselves or communicate effectively their symptoms. It’s easy to miss something when the patient isn’t able to articulate what’s going on. Some medical mistakes stem from patients lack of communication. The mistakes are not always your full responsibility. Just as there are lessons to learn from your mistakes; your patients learn from those mistakes too. Most important, be kind to yourself. You are doing the best you can with the knowledge you have.

 

Yanira Crespo