Nurses’ Long, Hectic Shifts Can Lead to Mistakes and Affect Patient Care
Rayna Letourneau, a nursing industry leader, introduces a discussion forum on a medical news website popular with healthcare workers, with the note that the “countless tasks, decisions, and interruptions” nurses have to deal with on shift can lead to cognitive overload — and that can lead to mistakes.
“Cognitive overload can lead to lapses in information processing that result in difficulty concentrating,” Letourneau writes. “This can have significant consequences for nurses’ well-being, as well as for patient safety.”
Nurses were quick to post instances in their own work where cognitive overload, inexperience, or fatigue from a too-long shift led to mistakes. For these professionals, jeopardizing patient safety could cost them their license and spell the end of their career. The Professional License Defense Team at the LLF National Law Firm represents and advises nurses at every stage of a licensing board investigation, adjudication, and, in some cases, appeal, helping them ensure their board understands their side of the story when something’s gone wrong.
If you’re a nurse who’s made a mistake or been accused of making a mistake, call our offices today at 888-535-3686 or send us a message online.
From the Front Lines: Nurses Share Their Stories
The responses to Letourneau’s invitation to discuss experiences where cognitive overload led to a mistake, or near-mistake, are moving. They talk about giving patients the wrong meds, or giving them the wrong way, or in the wrong dosage. Above all, they talk about the terror they felt for their patients’ safety when they realized the mistake.
They also talk about what was going on during the shift where the error occurred. One nurse adds that, “in addition to the interruptions, multitasking, emotional drain, etc.,” there is the toll on the body that comes with “not having time to eat, hydrate, or even go to the bathroom.” At one point in their career, the commenter notes, on a shift that started at 7:00 in the morning, they rarely found time to eat or drink until late afternoon — and would eat or drink again until they arrived home at 8:00 p.m.
“Our brains only have so much capacity,” another commenter writes, “and when we push beyond those limits, we suffer — and so does patient safety.” It’s a testament to the professionalism, intelligence, and care of nurses in every setting that, working in these kinds of conditions, mistakes don’t happen more often than they do.
Defending Your License When a Mistake Occurs
Clearly, reforms are needed to improve nurses’ working conditions — and by extension, protect patients. In the meantime, nurses are still going to face allegations that their mistakes have harmed the people under their care. Those allegations can be career-ending. Professional nurses need to manage their licensing board’s investigation into the allegations carefully, ensuring that investigators follow due process, and they need to be able to present the full context of a mistake.
The LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team helps nurses in every state do just that. Your license is more than your livelihood; for so many professional nurses, it’s a badge of their core identity as highly trained and supremely competent caregivers. We want you to carry on with your important work. Call us at 888-535-3686 or send us a message online, and we’ll get started.