Which of the following is NOT an example of a slip?

• A. Nurse neglects to change the dose of medication as requested by the resident
• B. Physician mistakenly dismisses early signs of congestive heart failure as asthma due to allergies
• C. Pharmacist mixes up medication labels causing the wrong medication to be given to a patient
• D. Nurse prepares an infusion pump drip and executes every step except pressing the start key to initiate the process

Answer: (B)

Slips are execution errors: the plan you intended to carry out is correct, but something goes wrong in the act of performing it. In healthcare, that often shows up as omissions, missteps in carrying out steps, or mislabeling during the hands-on process.

The physician’s scenario describes misinterpreting early heart failure symptoms as asthma because of allergies. That’s a faulty diagnostic judgment—a mistake in thinking or planning, not an error in the action taken. The clinician’s action (assessing, diagnosing) was not carried out correctly due to flawed reasoning, rather than an incorrect step during execution.

The other options illustrate slips: the nurse omits adjusting a medication dose (execution of the intended plan is incomplete), the pharmacist mislabels (an execution error during the labeling/check process), and the nurse goes through the steps of setting up an infusion but forgets to press start (a missed action during execution). These all fit the idea of performing the right plan but slipping in the actual execution.

So the item that is not a slip is the diagnostic misjudgment, which is a mistake in planning rather than an error in performing the plan.