When I was in nursing school, I was assigned to a pediatric clinical rotation at one of our local hospitals. It was a pediatric floor, with an intensive care unit all its own, connected to the main inpatient area. It was a busy place, where I learned a great deal.
One of the best lessons I learned was to not believe your own thoughts, at all times. If you have any doubt, double-check or consult someone else, to have it viewed with fresh eyes. What you believe may not, if fact, be reality!
HOW I learned that was through the mistake of a fellow student nurse.
At the end of each clinical day, the nursing instructors met with their respective student groups, which consisted of approximately 6-8 students on each clinical floor. We would discuss our patients' cases, ask questions, and so on, per routine.
But, on this particular day, we were discussing drug dosages and how to calculate them for pediatric patients, both by age and by weight. We had done this in class, calculating for adult examples, and figuring out IV drip rates.
We listened, as our instructor gave us a hypothetical, where a three month old infant was to be given codeine. The number of milligrams per milliliter was given. The instructor told us the infant's weight and said to give "X" number of milligrams per kilogram of body weight. (By the way, this is where algebra class finally paid off!)
When we were done, most of us answered with the correct dosage on the first try. However, by one student's calculation, the infant would have been given one hundred times the correct dose. This would have been a fatal mistake! When she gave her answer with a straight face, the instructor tried to appear unfazed, yet what she said was deadly serious.
She looked directly at the student nurse and said, "What is frightening is not just that you got the dosage so wrong. It is MORE disturbing that you did not see your mistake. The number you came up with should have jumped out as a red flag as soon as you saw it."
I have never forgotten that. There have been plenty of times that I've asked a second nurse to double check my math, especially before drawing up an injectable medication, as they tend to be more potent and work more quickly, offering less chance to mitigate the impact of an error on the patient.
Today, as I watch members of Congress, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, say ludicrous things, I am reminded of my instructor's words.
"It is MORE disturbing that you did not see your mistake."
When Greene said in a committee hearing that one elementary school received five BILLION dollars in Covid funds, that was LUDICROUS!
But, Marjorie did not see her mistake; she didn't see that it's completely unrealistic that any one school would get that amount of money.
When this Congresswoman was spreading QAnon conspiracies and talking about Jewish space lasers and Hugo Chavez, she didn't see her mistake. Instead, she has pulled back since then, but with the explanation that she was "taken in, like so many others".
The most disturbing part in my mind is that Congresswoman Greene is NOT "like so many others". She is in a very powerful position in the House of Representatives and its so called "Freedom Caucus". She is in a position to create laws we all must abide by. She sits on important and powerful committees, including Homeland Security!
We must not elect leaders who can't see when their own ridiculous thinking needs a double check, a fresh set of eyes on the problem.
Just as we couldn't ignore the danger of being cared for by doctors or nurses who can't consider that they may be making an error, we also can't be led by Congress men and women who don't have the wisdom to realize when they, too, are mistaken in their thinking.
In healthcare, an error in thought or judgment could wreak havoc in one or a few people's lives.
A mistaken notion in Congress can affect over THREE-HUNDRED MILLION lives, and THAT is something we cannot afford to have go unchecked!
