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What drives you to keep going after a mistake?
As a physical therapist when you make a common mistake how do handle it?
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Beth’s Answer
Hi Lucas,
I’ll throw in my perspective. Donna’s answer is the perfect process if the mistake involved patient safety. We all make mistakes all the time. Most of the time you catch it yourself, you correct it and move on. If someone else brought it to your attention, you thank them for letting you know, and you correct it, you learn from the experience and become a better clinician because of it.
Healthcare is moving more towards processes with checks and double checks to prevent mistakes which affect patient care and quality of service. One of the great things in PT is that we rarely make a mistake which truly injures someone ( nursing, doctors, paramedics can give a wrong medication and cause big problems). We might make someone sore, or very fatigued. Big mistakes are rare. However, your patient might fall, or you stretch too hard and tear something, it happens sometimes.
Embrace your mistakes, they are a great learning tool, and make you a better person. Accept that you made the mistake, own it, seek advice to correct it, learn from it, but don’t let it rule your life.
Practice gracefully accepting correction, even for spelling errors.
Think of previous mistakes and what you have learned, make it a learning experience rather than a disaster.
Do not dwell on your mistakes, dwell on the lessons learned
I’ll throw in my perspective. Donna’s answer is the perfect process if the mistake involved patient safety. We all make mistakes all the time. Most of the time you catch it yourself, you correct it and move on. If someone else brought it to your attention, you thank them for letting you know, and you correct it, you learn from the experience and become a better clinician because of it.
Healthcare is moving more towards processes with checks and double checks to prevent mistakes which affect patient care and quality of service. One of the great things in PT is that we rarely make a mistake which truly injures someone ( nursing, doctors, paramedics can give a wrong medication and cause big problems). We might make someone sore, or very fatigued. Big mistakes are rare. However, your patient might fall, or you stretch too hard and tear something, it happens sometimes.
Embrace your mistakes, they are a great learning tool, and make you a better person. Accept that you made the mistake, own it, seek advice to correct it, learn from it, but don’t let it rule your life.
Beth recommends the following next steps:
Updated
Donna’s Answer
Let's hope there aren't many mistakes made (!) but sometimes accidents or unexpected events can happen during patient treatment. If this happens, you will be required by your employer to complete an "incident report" (this form goes by different names and there are different kinds of incident reports) that asks you to recount the incident from your perspective. The patient is typically examined by a physician relatively quickly and adds his/her findings to the report. Further levels of investigation are done by "risk management" department (again, goes by different names) and they would determine outcomes of the investigation. The goal is to improve patient safety and the quality of patient care.
While this process may seem intimidating or scary, it is essential that you honestly report any accidents or incidents during patient care immediately to your supervisor and begin this process.
While this process may seem intimidating or scary, it is essential that you honestly report any accidents or incidents during patient care immediately to your supervisor and begin this process.
Updated
Linda’s Answer
HI Lucas,
Donna's answer is spot on. I will make a more general comment.
When you asked, "when you make a common mistake"? My first thought is, what would you consider "common"? And, Does this mistake happen with a patient, parent, co-worker, or vendor? Was the mistake in person or technology-type communication?
For a more general answer when a person makes a mistake, with professionalism, forethought, and graciousness.
Donna's answer is spot on. I will make a more general comment.
When you asked, "when you make a common mistake"? My first thought is, what would you consider "common"? And, Does this mistake happen with a patient, parent, co-worker, or vendor? Was the mistake in person or technology-type communication?
For a more general answer when a person makes a mistake, with professionalism, forethought, and graciousness.