"When I first became a nurse, I was nervous and probably too chatty and talked way too fast. I remember one patient just looking at me and nodding her head. She was an elderly woman and a little confused at times, and she was saying she didn't like the pink pill. I smiled and chatted over her and just really didn't stop to hear her, and she always took the pink pill so I didn't think anything about it. I was encouraging her to take her pills when her daughter spoke up and said, 'I think the doctor discontinued the Prozac which was the pink pill today!' My patient was trying to tell me something about her pill and because I didn't listen closely, I almost made a medication error!
I didn't make the error, but I still reported the incident to my nursing supervisor as a near miss. The doctor had just left the room and had not entered the order yet, but I still should have listened to my patient. I apologized to her and her daughter, but I learned an important lesson that day, and that is to talk less and listen more to my patients."