Made a mistake at work and not sure how to move forward.....

[Akrotiri1]

Hi,

I work in the care sector and yesterday I made a mistake that could have potentially caused harm to a service user, and bring the care company into disrepute.

I can't disclose any more details due to client confidentiality, and the situation has at least been resolved, and at the moment no further action looks like it will be taken.

However I feel sick to the stomach that I made this mistake. Up until now I have been well liked and respected within the company, but because this mistake was bought up on a group forum, all my colleagues are aware and worried that I am now being judged and gossiped about, and my reputation is now under scrutiny.

The week leading up to this mistake has been hard - we lost out mil at the end of last week and I spent my day off on weds in A&E with chest pains, so have maybe not been so 'on the ball' as normal. Only a few of my colleagues know this though, and although relevant, really don't want to use my home life stresses as an excuse.

I am due to go into work this afternoon and am dreading it - I am not sure I can move forward from this but cant afford to quit (which is what I feel like doing).

Any advice?

Thanks for listening.

Mistakes happen. If there's likely no further recourse then I think you may be over dramatising it. (I'm saying that gently).

Everyone makes mistakes. Most of your colleagues will have too.

Anyone can make a mistake, OP. We are all human. It doesn't sound like the error that you made was due to a lack of care. All you can do now is learn from it and put measures in place to ensure that nothing similar happens ever again.

Your colleagues probably aren't judging you. If they think anything about it at all, they're probably just glad that it wasn't them. Talk to your manager about how you're feeling and about what you can do to minimise risk in the future.

I deal with the carers for my elderly aunt. They are amazing people who do a stressful job. Please don't beat yourself up about this. Whatever happened, it sounds like no harm was done on this occasion, so try to see it as a valuable learning opportunity - perhaps not only for you, but for your colleagues as well.

Mistakes do happen. The service user was not harmed. There is no further action being taken. Your colleagues understand as they also make mistakes. From what you said you have learned from this.

My sympathies on your loss.

Everyone makes mistakes and versioning within the NHS there is a big push to be transparent about this, avoid blame and learn from the error. Don't beat yourself up. Unless you did something deliberately to cause someone harm, it will be accepted as an accident. Maybe write a reflection on what happened and how you would avoid a recurrence and share with your manager.

Meant currently,not versioning!

I'm sorry for your loss OP.

Yesterday I was involved in a situation where two of my children were potentially caused harm by a service, so I can see it from the other side. For me, as long as the situation is resolved and the service has learned from the event then that's all you can do. I'm assuming apologies and explanations have been made as far as possible?

Mistakes happen OP, be kind to yourself

@secretbumworms useful and generous reassurance for op.

Agree - we’re all open to error just the fact of being human.

Because you care, you will learn from this, and be a good team member.

Your colleagues are all too aware ‘there but for the grace of god go I’.

It’s all about the recovery when a mistake is made.

Be kind to yourself and others.

The only thing your colleagues will be thinking is that they're glad it wasn't them who made ffs mistake.

We all do it, it'll be forgotten very soon. I'm sorry for your loss

You're only human. You can learn from the mistake and make extra sure it never happens again. The work you do is challenging and underpaid. You have had a lot going on personally so give yourself a break, metaphorically. Or literally. If you feel you're too stressed get a sick note for a week or two from the doctors? You don't need to quit your job over one mistake that was rectified.

Acknowledge it, apologise and move on. It sounds like you have already done the first two. And remember to look after your own needs as well as others. I'm sorry for your loss and your health troubles, take good care of yourself.

Thank you - I missed something that should have been obvious, despite checking it, and what makes it worse, documented it to say that I had checked it.

I am just so relieved that the client seems ok.

I am not new to care but haven't worked with an homecare agency before - the tight call times and amount of responsibility can be quite overwhelming, but the job is very rewarding when things go right.

As everyone else has said, mistakes happen. You can in fact turn it into a positive in that it's a situation that went wrong but you have learnt from it. Reflective practice in action. I'm a nurse and have used a similar situation to learn from.

Following! I also made a mistake 😭 and I’ve been waking up in the night worried about it.

Nobody got hurt but I just hate the thought of the Project Managers thinking I’m shite!

Honestly?

I think it'll be tomorrow's chip paper

Oh bless you, offering a 'hand hold'.

Sleepless night here too - hope everything is ok for you and you can take heart from some of these replies.

This is why there are checks and balances in the system - because mistakes happen. Whatever was in place to catch mistakes clearly worked - and if it did not, there needs to be a process in place in case a mistake happens again. Dont beat yourself up, see what they have to say. But your company should be used to deal with situations like this - as a manager I would be much more worried if you were not bothered.

In situations like this I think the best thing you can do is own that you made the mistake, be honest about how and why it happened, and look at ways you can avoid it happening again. We're only human, people make mistakes. And it sounds like it was in the middle of a really tough few days.

Try not to be so hard on yourself. If this happened to a colleague of mine I would be thinking 'god I hope she's OK', along with 'mental note not to do that myself'. I wouldn't be thinking badly of you at all and I doubt any of your colleagues are either.

Thanks OP! 💐

These replies are bang on. We don’t have the processes in place to catch big mistakes. I caught mine manually and then there was a misunderstanding.

I take real pride in my work and value processes and am thorough. So I’m disappointed in myself.

On the other hand, we simply don’t have the right processes and we’re decades behind in project management software. Our competitors are way ahead of us. No wonder they perform better

Sometimes I think that thinking about the problem is the worse bit. Once you’ve admitted it, and any sanctions/remedies have been made, then you can move forward. Yes, you’ve made a mistake, but use it constructively, learn from it and move on.

You own it, apologises where necessary and make sure it doesn't happen again.
Then you hold your head up and get on with your job because you made 1 mistake and it wasn't a disaster anyway.
Anyone who judges you on 1 mistake can just fuck right off