One difficult learning situation involves an entry level nurse in the area. The said nurse had a near miss in giving medication for the patient. Our head nurse and chief nurse talked to the new nurse and advised her to submit an incident report. The nurse submitted the incident report late and for multiple times because the nurse was asked to either revise the incident report, change the format, correct the grammar, and include missing details needed. I was then asked by my chief nurse to talk to the entry level nurse as to why she was having difficulty in her incident report. I talked to her personally, ensuring that her that it was a safe space and that she can tell me honestly what was happening. It turned out that it was her first time to do an incident report and admitted that she does not know if there is a prescribed format in doing the report. She was also scared in doing the incident report because she feels that it would put a mark on her professionally and she was scared that other nurses might judge her because of what happened.
I then told her that I can guide her and teach her how to do the incident report and that this is a safe space, she can ask questions and help if she does not know something so that we could turn a situation into a learning opportunity. I also reminded her that an incident report is a formal written document that records the details of an event to capture factual information about the incident for investigation, legal protection, improvement of procedures, and accountability and not merely victim blaming.
After talking to her and teaching her how to properly write an incident report, she was able to do it on her own and even showed it to me for feedback. She also updated me that she personally submitted the report and talked with our Chief Nurse to share what had happened for her understanding.