Scenario

A student makes a medication error, such as administering the wrong dosage or wrong medication to a patient.

Handling Strategy

Immediate Correction and Reporting

Check-in with the student’s emotional wellbeing. Ensure the student follows the facility’s protocol for medication errors, including reporting the error to the necessary healthcare team members and documenting it appropriately.

Reflective Learning

Use the incident as a learning opportunity, discussing what went wrong and how it can be prevented in the future without assigning blame. Identify root causes such as interruptions, system failures, lack of clarity, time pressures.

Supportive Follow-up

Monitor the student’s emotional response to the error and provide support, emphasizing that errors are part of the learning process and the importance of learning from them.