Disciplinary hearing.

[Esmeralda67]

I have worked in the NHS in different clinical roles for almost 30 years. Had promotions and no issues from clinical or behaviour point of view in that time. Clean record. Last year I made a serious mistake and a patient could hve died as a consequence. I recognised what I had done and accepted an investigation was necessary. However I have been repeatedly told that I now could face a summary dismissal for gross misconduct and I don't know how to go on. I fully accepted my mistake and feel destroyed by the whole process. Not one person in the organisation has offered any support and the stress and anxiety is killing me. I have my hearing soon and I honestly feel suicidal at the prospect. I have lost my career my good name and risk losing my income. I have support from friends but feel so isolated and ashamed.

Just because you have an issue with staff staying a long time doesn’t necessarily mean you are a supportive employer . You have said you are specialist; staff tend to get stuck in specialist areas. It could be shift patterns, location, any number of things.

I haven’t said it’s because we are particularly supportive. I’ve not been in long enough to know how things were 10/20/30 years ago. Stop trying to put words in my mouth.

Someone else commented about high levels of newly qualified nurses. We don’t have that problem because the very experienced nurses don’t leave, which causes all sorts of other issues.

Disciplinary is a last resort. Not a change tool.

I sincerely hope this thread has shown some posters how easy it is to make an error of judgement. Sadly for those of us in frontline healthcare is isn’t as easy to correct as asking Mumsnet to remove posts. Yes, the stakes are high and some clinicians shouldn’t be practicing but most of us face so many challenges which are all too easily dismissed by those who aren’t living it.

Highway, I hope it will for some people. My experience though is that people who don’t live it, as a massive generalisation, find it much easier to believe that mistakes are made by ‘bad’ people rather than understanding that error makes us human and will happen and that we need to look critically at the systems we have in place instead to try to reduce risk.

I have had 2 investigations in my career.
1 years ago, found not at fault in any way and no disciplinary action required or taken. Then 2 years later, whole thing dragged back up and disciplinary action taken. 2 nurses, 2 unions. Were told we could be sacked and struck off. Went through absolute hell and back. Were told that when we came to our final meeting we had to accept a permanent note on file OR a 6 month written warning (which meant any other incident= immediate dismissal). Went into final meeting absolutely green. Manager cried while we were waiting as she was so stressed out by what was being done to us. They then decided to say “you’ve been through enough. No further action”. Was talking to an expert witness who was involved at a later date and he made a quip about something. I asked if he knew that the trust had taken disciplinary action and he was horrified and said the inquest had ruled out any wrongdoing by anyone involved in care so how exactly could they take action?
Second case- again 2 of us. Very short staffed. Accidental error not noticed by either of us. 50 years experience between us and unblemished records. Both absolutely horrified when error picked up by day shift. Filled in statements etc. Patient told under duty of candour. Patient stated had not felt any ill effects and had never felt so well cared for, wanted no action taken against staff, rather pointed out horrors of that particular shift. Patient’s family felt the same way.
Investigation concluded that there WAS an error made but as neither of us tried to hide it or deny it at any point and we tried to assist in every way possible with investigation that the investigating officer agreed no personal action against us was necessary. All senior staff looked at the situation and looked at staff involved and actually stated in their statements that if it could happen to us, it could happen to absolutely anyone and that we were both renowned for being knowledgeable and supportive of junior staff. Very experienced. Very safety conscious. Always the nurses that people want to come on shift behind as all work up together, patients safe and happy and ward clean and tidy.
Both of us work in very different areas now although in unit’s next to each other and neither of us will ever forget that error.
I have been very lucky to only have these 2 situations. I read the mid staffs report. It was awful.
OP, I hope all goes well for you. You should have counselling available to you through your trust.

Last year I made a serious mistake and a patient could hve died as a consequence.

I know you're upset, but by your own admission a patient could have died as a result.

I don't think you're fit to be practising if you're putting lives at risk.

Patients’ lives are at risk every day in the NHS due to understaffing or poor staffing and dangerous systems.

Errors are inevitable; we need to look at how these can be spotted before they reach the patient.

They then decided to say “you’ve been through enough. No further action”.

Say what now?

@Sunlov

Have you ever made a mistake at work?

It's a 'protect your own' mentality isn't it. Never mind the victims of your negligence.
No sympathy for you. None whatsoever. It's a life that is being toyed with.

Not one that nearly kills someone no.

Do you work in healthcare?

Or indeed any industry where the decisions you make can put people's lives at risk?

I think we all know that's a no!

Yes, an industry that puts people behind bars when they endanger someone's life.

Sunlov who on this thread has defended negligence? Have you even RTFT? If you want to understand something about errors in healthcare then I'd recommend reading something by Atul Gawande or The Naked Surgeon by Sam Nashef. Unfortunately healthcare workers aren't immune from making errors, because they're human, however much you would like them to be superhuman. The key, as others have said, is understanding why they happen so that systems can be put in place to prevent them. Negligence is rarely the reason. I can't imagine you'll bother though; far easier just to pretend to yourself that only bad people make mistakes.

You can't make mistakes in healthcare as it is a life at stake. So whatever the OP did, another person made the same mistake while checking.
Sorry you'll lose your job OP, but you can't be working when you're not capable.

Everything needs to be double checked because of the risk of human error. So it's quite unusual for 2 people to not pick up on a mistake.

Oksana - would you want the OP to be administering your meds?

You just sound naive and ignorant.

@Sunlov - they actually shouldn’t have taken disciplinary action in this instance. There was an initial investigation which proved no error and no negligence and then a further investigation 2 years down the line when it finally got to coroners court. Inquest weighed up all the independent experts who stated the same things there was a bug which killed someone which lay dormant for a week and then when it rested nothing anybody did would stop it.
It was a new director of nursing trying to stamp authority and vilify nurses AGAINST evidence and advice. Hence our manager being in tears. We had done no wrong. But she had dragged this shit on for a whole year so had no way to say “oops, my mistake” so that was her only way to back down. Moo. I wasn’t sorry when she put her diary down on the desk one day and walked out never to return.
But that’s ok, you judge away. I’m sure you have read all the pertinent information.
I’m sure you realise that very very few people set out in the morning/evening to cause harm to another living being but sometimes it happens and it is due to many factors.
There is a very interesting YouTube film called “a routine operation” where a husband and son lost their wife/mother in a terrible case. He used this event to improve things within healthcare by teaching us about safe systems of work used by the airline industry. Previous to this case I worked somewhere where we used a system to escalate which was adapted from processes used by Honda in their manufacturing.
We are (mostly) all keen to learn and update all the time and anything which keeps our patients safer is usually welcomed.

Oh and also @Sunlov there was a study released a few years ago which showed that when two people are checking something together, errors are MORE likely to occur. So we now check blood products 1 person at a time before we go to the patient and then 1 person checks patient and wristband while the other does form and blood bag.

Thinking it is unusual for two people to miss a mistake shows a total lack of understanding of how errors happen. As Gibble says, it can help but can also make errors more likely.

Human factors and errors are complex.

I would absolutely be happy for OP to give me meds. She / he would probably be super safe having learnt from the incident.

Ok, so I gather it was a blood transfusion.

I've had one and three people had to check everything separately. Not together - separately.

I presume you gave the wrong blood to a patient?