10 shocking medical mistakes

(CNN) -- When you're a patient, you trust you're in good hands, but even the best doctor or nurse can make a mistake on you or someone you love.

"Mistakes are happening every day in every hospital in the country that we're just not catching," says Dr. Albert Wu, an internist at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Medical errors kill more than a quarter million people every year in the United States and injure millions. Add them all up and "you have probably the third leading cause of death" in the country, says Dr. Peter Pronovost, an anesthesiologist and critical care physician at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

The harm is often avoidable, and there are strategies you can use to help doctors and nurses get things right.

Here's a list of 10 shocking medical mistakes

1. Mistake: Treating the wrong patient 
• Cause: Hospital staff fails to verify a patient's identity.
• Consequences: Patients with similar names are confused.
• Prevention: Before every procedure in the hospital, make sure the staff checks your entire name, date of birth and barcode on your wrist band.

2. Mistake: Surgical souvenirs
• Cause: Surgical staff miscounts (or fails to count) equipment used inside a patient during an operation.
• Consequences: Tools get left inside the body.
• Prevention: If you have unexpected pain, fever or swelling after surgery, ask if you might have a surgical instrument inside you.

3. Mistake: Lost patients
• Cause: Patients with dementia are sometimes prone to wandering.
• Consequences: Patients may become trapped while wandering and die from hypothermia or dehydration.
• Prevention: If your loved one sometimes wanders, consider a GPS tracking bracelet.

4. Mistake: Fake doctors
• Cause: Con artists pretend to be doctors.
• Consequences: Medical treatments backfire. Instead of getting better, patients get sicker.
• Prevention: Confirm online that your physician is licensed.

5. Mistake: The ER waiting game
• Cause: Emergency rooms get backed up when overcrowded hospitals don't have enough beds.
• Consequences: Patients get sicker while waiting for care.
• Prevention: Doctors listen to other doctors, so on your way to the hospital call your physician and ask them to call the emergency room.

6. Mistake: Air bubbles in blood
• Cause: The hole in a patient's chest isn't sealed airtight after a chest tube is removed.
• Consequences: Air bubbles get sucked into the wound and cut off blood supply to the patient's lungs, heart, kidneys and brain. Left uncorrected the patient dies.
• Prevention: If you have a central line tube in you, ask how you should be positioned when the line comes out.

7. Mistake: Operating on the wrong body part
• Cause: A patient's chart is incorrect, or a surgeon misreads it, or surgical draping obscures marks that denote the correct side of the operation.
• Consequences: The surgeon cuts into the wrong side of a patient's body.
• Prevention: Just before surgery, make sure you reaffirm with the nurse and the surgeon the correct body part and side of your operation.


8. Mistake: Infection infestation
• Cause: Doctors and nurses don't wash their hands.
• Consequences: Patients can die from infections spread by hospital workers.
• Prevention: It may be uncomfortable to ask, but make sure doctors and nurses wash their hands before they touch you, even if they're wearing gloves.

9. Mistake: Lookalike tubes
• Cause: A chest tube and a feeding tube can look a lot alike.
• Consequences: Medicine meant for the stomach goes into the chest.
• Prevention: When you have tubes in you, ask the staff to trace every tube back to the point of origin so the right medicine goes to the right place.

10. Mistake: Waking up during surgery
• Cause: An under-dose of anesthesia.
• Consequences: The brain stays awake while the muscles stay frozen. Most patients aren't in any pain but some feel every poke, prod and cut.
• Prevention: When you schedule surgery, ask your surgeon if you need to be put asleep or if a local anesthetic might work just as well.


Read moer : cnn..com 

10 Design Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make in Your Kitchen

A lot of life happens in the kitchen. No matter how different our lifestyles may be, a lot of activity revolves around the kitchen: Cooking , preparing a quick snack, eating breakfast or a 3-course dinner with family or friends. Not only do we socialize in the kitchen, getting together with family and friends over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, the kitchen is one place that needs to be both beautiful and functional. This raises a double challenge of do’s and dont’s in kitchen design. Because of this specialists warn us about the 10 mistakes we should avoid in order to achieve both practical and elegant kitchen design.

1. Don’t obstruct access to the kitchen triangle.

Specialists refer to the sink, stove and refrigerator as the kitchen triangle, the area of greatest activity which requires careful planning and unobstructed access. Of the three, the sink will see the most action and should have easy access to the stove and refrigerator, as well as your countertop workstations.

Sinks need to be installed in close proximity to the plumbing, but often kitchens are designed with the sinks installed right above the plumbing or in a poor location. Instead of making this kitchen design mistake, consider hiring a plumber to relocate the drains and the plumbing to accommodate the best placement for the sink.

Regardless of kitchen size or layout (L-shaped kitchen, galley, U-shaped or Island style), the sum of all the legs in a work triangle should not be less than ten feet and greater than twenty-five feet. If the sum of the legs in the work triangle is too small, people will be tripping over each other and if too large, food preparation could be a very tiring task.

2. Don’t waste storage space.

Kitchens typically contain lots of stuff. Not only that, but items often concealed behind built-in kitchen cabinet doors can be oddly shaped and require a lot of space, such as food processors or stand mixers. Finding a home for your kitchen stuff while keeping it easily accessible can be a tricky proposition. Because built-ins are expensive and the overall size of the area you’re working with may be limited, one big design mistake is not including enough storage.

Almost every kitchen design has wasted space, but this can be minimized with adequate planning and forethought. If the kitchen is small, consider installing extra long upper cabinets with molding for extra storage space. Place lighting or greenery along the molding to draw the eyes up. Also remember to always install cabinets over the refrigerator. Not to fully utilize the space above the refrigerator is a waste of potential storage space for large or seasonal kitchen items.

Install shelves across the backs of the lower kitchen cabinet as they will save you nearly a 2 foot by 2 foot or 4 square foot potential storage area. Otherwise, the kitchen will feel smaller than it is because you will constantly be trying to find more storage space.

3. Don’t ignore counter-top work space.

One of the biggest complaints about kitchen design is the lack of counter-tops. Consider all the kitchen activities that require a counter-top, as well as appliances that are permanently located there, you might want to fit as much open horizontal surface areas in a kitchen as possible. This may be achieved by adding an island or breakfast bar to an L-shaped kitchen.

4. Poor lighting.

The kitchen is one room where you can’t afford to have poor lighting. It’s not only a matter of design and atmosphere, but also a safety matter when it comes to handling sharp kitchenware. Rooms generally need three types of lighting: general lighting for overall illumination, task lighting, and accent lighting. For the kitchen you especially should evaluate the work areas and focus on how you can provide each spot with the light it needs. Consider adding lighting directly above all the main working areas, use pendant lights or a series of mini-pendants in areas where these can enhance the lighting and beauty of the kitchen. Pendants look great above kitchen sinks, while a series of mini-pendants enhance the appearance and lighting of breakfast bars and kitchen islands. Also, install under-cabinet lighting as an additional way to ensure that the counters have sufficient lighting for common kitchen tasks. After all, the more light you have in the room, the better you can show off all of those amazing design elements you’ve added to the space.

5. Don’t forgo a back-splash.

While budgeting or designing a new kitchen or kitchen remodel, sometimes the backsplash considerations slip to the end of the list. Occasionally, the backsplash area is completely left out of the plan. This is one mistake that saves you money on the short term, but on the long run costs you a lot of time and effort. Imagine the steam, high humidity and grease content in the kitchen and you will understand why installing a backsplash behind the oven and extending it above all the counters throughout the kitchen is a smart idea. It is much easier to clean grease off a backsplash made of tile, metal, or plastic, than wall paint or wallpaper.

6. Don’t forget to ventilate.

The best of kitchen design fades in the presence of bad smelling air. If you’ve ever walked into someone’s home and smelled last night’s fish&chips lingering on the stale air, you’ll understand the importance of good ventilation. Inexpensive range hoods simply circulate dirty, stale air, while a good ventilation system will help improve the quality of your indoor air and also help keep your kitchen cleaner.

Effective ventilation systems also help extend the life of your appliances and although they can be an investment, if you have a kitchen that opens to a living area or family room, they will make life easier, cleaner and more pleasant for everyone.

7. Don’t choose a wrong kitchen island.

When it comes to  kitchen islands we generally think of additional storage, preparation and serving space in the kitchen, but the fact of the matter is that kitchen islands can waste a lot space. Choosing the wrong island or placing it in the wrong spot can be a disaster, especially in a work area that can get over cluttered. Islands that obstruct the flow of traffic to and from the sink, refrigerator, stove and primary workstations will create bottlenecks and major hassles. At minimum, an island should be 4 feet long and a little more than 2 feet deep, but it must also have room for people to move and work around it. Specialists recommend that unless the kitchen is at least 8 feet deep and more than 12 feet long, one shouldn’t even consider an island.

8. Don’t ignore your recyclables.

These days, with the advent of recycling, dealing with trash in kitchen design has gone beyond sticking a bin under the sink. As recycling is here to stay, be prepared to manage your trash efficiently and incorporate trash sorting bins into your kitchen design.

9. Going too trendy.

Although it’s not necessarily a mistake, choosing the latest kitchen designs and high-end equipment may not be the best of choices. The most stylish colour of the season and trendy designs have a short half-life, and you may never get your return on large investments in the latest kitchenware.

10. Avoiding professionals.

Taking over a kitchen design project on your own to save money is a common mistake which can waste more money, time and energy. There are some jobs where, for safety and quality work, a professional is not a whim. Kitchen designers possess the latest trends, ideas, and manufacturer’s details, help you identify your specific needs and translate those details into an efficient plan according to your taste.

Read more : http://freshome.com/2012/10/23/10-mistakes-you-dont-want-to-make-in-your-kitchen-design/

7 reasons why not making mistakes is the biggest mistake

The FEAR of being nothing, achieving nothing and becoming nothing should be way bigger than the fear of making mistakes.

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Here are 7 reasons why not making mistakes is in fact the biggest mistake you could ever make.

1. MISTAKES HELP US DISCOVER WHO WE ARE

With every mistake that we make we discover more and more about ourselves, about who we are, about our limits, about our capabilities, about what we can and cannot do. They help us be more compassionate and more tolerant with ourselves and others.

There is a power inside every human against which no earthly force is of the slightest consequence. ~ Neville Goddard

2. LIFE LESSONS – MISTAKES TEACH US VALUABLE LIFE LESSONS

By making mistakes you will in fact learn valuable life lessons and you will become a happy learner. There is so much we can all learn from our mistakes, and the moment we see them as lessons rather than mistakes, we will no longer have this crazy fear of encountering them along the journey.

Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it’s a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from. ~ Al Franken

3. FORGIVENESS – MISTAKES TEACH US HOW TO FORGIVE

One of the greatest lesson you will learn from making mistakes is forgiveness. With every mistake that you’ll make, you will learn how important it is to forgive yourself and many of the people around you. You will understand that you are not perfect and that perfection doesn’t really exist, only our intentions of doing our best. And who wants to be perfect anyways? Perfection leaves no room for improvement.

The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that that situation is over, you cannot move forward. ~ Steve Maraboli

4. FREE FROM FEAR – MISTAKES HELP US LET GO OF OUR FEARS

NOT MAKING MISTAKES - isn’t that actually the biggest mistake you could ever make? Life isn’t about avoiding mistakes but rather embracing the idea that mistakes will come your way and being willing to learn from these mistakes. Let go of your fears and allow yourself to really experience life.

There are some people who live 70 years, and there some people who live one year 70 times, repeating what they’re doing over and over in the name of the gold watch or whatever. ~ Wayne Dyer

5. LIVE WITHOUT REGRETS

Believe it or not, if you play it safe you will have more and more regrets about the things you did not do rather than the things you did do, you will regret not making more mistakes. Personally, whenever I hesitate doing something because of the fear of making mistakes, I imagine myself on my death bed ( I know, a bit too crazy but it works ) looking back at my life on what I achieved. By doing so I realize that if i don’t take action NOW, I will have regrets.

I would much rather have regrets about not doing what people said, than regretting not doing what my heart led me to and wondering what life had been like if I’d just been myself. ~ Brittany Renée

6. GROWTH – WITH MISTAKES COMES GROWTH AND PROGRESS

If you don’t make mistakes how can you expect to GROW and to EVOLVE as a human being? How many of us get stuck because they allow the fear of making mistakes to paralyze them? How can we expect to learn anything new if we don’t allow ourselves to make mistakes?

What do you first do when you learn to swim? You make mistakes, do you not? And what happens? You make other mistakes, and when you have made all the mistakes you possibly can without drowning – and some of them many times over – what do you find? That you can swim? Well – life is just the same as learning to swim! Do not be afraid of making mistakes, for there is no other way of learning how to live! ~  Alfred Adler

7. MISTAKES ARE STEPPING STONES TO HAPPINESS

You gain confidence, courage and experience every time you make a new mistake in a very narrow field and in time you will get better and better at the things you love to do. Remember Thomas Edison? He failed more than 10,000 times while working on the light bulb and in the end he succeeded.

When you know exactly what you want and when you are able to see this something in your mind’s eye, nothing can stop you from moving forward, nothing can stop you from achieving your dreams and allowing happiness to enter into your life.

I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed. ~ Michael Jordan

THANKS : http://www.purposefairy.com/6464/7-reasons-why-not-making-mistakes-is-the-biggest-mistake/

15 Life Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make

One of the benefits of watching the years go past in your life is the ability to look back and see where you screwed up.

If you look back often enough, with a discerning eye and an open heart, you can often self-correct along the way. Or at the very least, you can learn from your screw-ups and become a bit wiser and stronger in other areas of your life.

You probably know from your own life experiences that mistakes are painful but very useful ways of learning. However, there are some life mistakes, that if avoided in the first place, will save you a whole load of heartache and misdirection.

These are the mistakes that stem from a lack of knowledge, infrequent self-reflection, or little solid emotional guidance as you grow and enter adulthood. These are the mistakes that can stick with you for a lifetime if someone or something doesn’t gently (or often abruptly) help you self-correct.

Although I’m sharing these mistakes with you, and some ideas on how to fix them, I haven’t been immune from them. In fact, I’ve made every single one of these mistakes, and I can proudly claim that now in mid-life I am beginning to make a dent in a few of them!

So here they are — 15 life mistakes you don’t want to make:

Mistake #1: Losing Sight of What Makes You Happy

Remember when you were a kid, and pure, unadulterated joy was part of most every day? We didn’t have to ask ourselves, “What makes me happy?” We just knew and made it our mission to do those happy things. But adulthood and responsibilities take us farther and farther away from the pure happiness of our youth. We get so caught up in the work of life that we lose touch with the joy of living.

The Fix: 

Go shut yourself in a clutter-free, distraction-free room with a pen and paper. Think about all of the things you did as a child, a teenager, and a young adult (before you had major responsibilities) that brought you happiness. Write them down. Now think about some things you’ve done in recent years (whether in work or life in general) where you have felt really happy or content. Write those down as well.

How can you make space for more of those things that make you happy back into your life?

Mistake #2: Giving Power to Fear

Fear, which was once an appropriate reaction to real and present danger, is now the reaction to any imagined negative outcome. Fear is mostly a product of our imaginations, almost always without any true basis in reality. We fear failure. We fear success. We fear the future. We fear the past. We fear possible scenarios with only a shred of evidence to lead us there. The more we think about what we fear, the more we feed the fear. Then fear begins to control us, limit us, and ultimately overtake us.

The Fix:

Examine your fears under a magnifying glass. Break them down and study all of the parts. How much truth is there really in each fearful thing? What are the odds that the fearful thing will come to pass? Leave no fear un-probed, until you become bored with fear. Become practiced at seeing fear as a weak and capricious companion, only useful when you are dealing with reality.

Mistake #3: Believing You Are Right

We put a lot of stock in our beliefs. We’ve spent a long time cultivating them, supporting them, proving to others that we  have the last word on the subject. We do this with our beliefs about religion, politics, sexuality, child rearing, money, lifestyle, and any number of lesser areas of life (where we still feel compelled to take a stand). But once we are firmly lock in to a point of view, we lose. We lose perspective, kindness, and a learner’s mind.

The Fix:

You don’t have to give up your beliefs — just your attitude about them. Open yourself to other points of view. In fact, seek out other points of view. Look at the topic from every angle and be discerning. You will be a more interesting and understanding person.

Mistake #4: Pleasing Others at the Expense of Yourself

Helping other people, being there for friends and family, finding ways to serve your community — these are all positive things. Until you find that you have lost yourself in the process. Do you please others out of obligation? To feel better about yourself? To avoid abandonment or loss of love?

The Fix:

Examine your motives for giving of yourself. Does giving fill you up or drain you? Are you pleasing to find love? If so, shift your pleasing efforts to yourself for a change. Find ways to love and please yourself. Then you will create authentic love to give others.

Mistake #5: Complicating Your Life

Life is full of opportunities and choices, and for some reason we must grasp at all of them. With every success comes more . . . more tasks, more stuff, more paperwork, more events, more distractions. With each passing year, our lives become exponentially complicated and full. We are stretched to the limit and drained of energy.

The Fix:

Begin simplifying your life. Start with clutter. Then material things that you no longer use. Then start chopping unnecessary tasks and events. Pare down. Trim back. Craft your life into the purest essence of exactly what you love the most so that your precious time is spent in the best way possible.

Mistake #6: Staying Stagnant

You’ve grown up, secured your job, created a steady income, have a nice place to live, have a pretty decent lifestyle. Now that your life is in good shape, what’s the point of shaking it up? You may feel restless or bored, but things could be a whole lot worse.

The Fix:

And they could be a whole lot better. Life is change. Staying stagnant stunts our potential for happiness. We are born with an enormous capacity for continued learning, personal growth, and new ways of living in the world. With every “life stretch” comes thrilling new opportunitiesand experiences. Where can you stretch yourself through change?

Mistake #7: Not Facing Realities

Life experience has taught us to put our head in the sand when we don’t like what we see. If things look unpleasant, if people let us down, if we fail to meet expectations — we spend precious energy finding ways to obfuscate, hide, deny, and pretend. The painful truth seems too scary to face, so we wear ourselves down trying to avoid it.

The Fix:

Denying unpleasant truths in life causes tension and internal pain for as long as we deny. Facing the truth may cause brief pain, but the relief and freedom of living honestly is liberating and allows us to move on in life with renewed hope and energy. Where are you denying reality? Pull the band-aid off quickly. It will sting, but not forever.

Mistake #8: Giving Away Your Power

When life is overwhelming, tedious, or frightening, it seems easier to let someone else take over. Sometimes it’s better to let someone else make the decisions or call the shots. But when we do that too often, or when someone intimidates or manipulates us into acquiescing, we give away our personal power. This can lead to depression, anxiety, and despair.

The Fix:

Examine your life and look at ways you may be giving away your personal power. Being empowered means taking responsibility for all of your actions and choices. This can sometimes be hard or painful, but the reward is your freedom and self-respect. Reclaim your personal power, even if there is some fallout.

Mistake #9: Neglecting Relationships

We all claim that our relationships are the most important parts of our lives. But quite often our most valued relationships get neglected as we allow less important for more demanding activities fill our time and attention. An untended relationship will eventually wither and die, leaving us unwittingly holding the bag.

The Fix:

Be honest with yourself. How might you be neglecting your most prized relationships? Are you truly offering the love and attention these people deserve? Begin to re-prioritize your actions and agenda so you can cultivate and care for the relationships you value.

Mistake #10: Feeling Guilty

We make a mistake and feel guilty. We hurt someone and feel guilty. We lie or deceive and feel guilty. We don’t do what someone wants us to do and feel guilty. Even after we apologize, we often still feel guilty. For some reason we believe that ongoing guilt will absolve us — that we deserve to feel bad to make amends for our sins, regardless of how large or small.

The Fix:

Guilt is our psyche’s way of letting us know when we’ve acted against our integrity. It can also signal that we are allowing ourselves to be manipulated by someone. If you have done something wrong, apologize and do what needs to be done to make it right. If someone tries to make you feel guilty, state your truth with confidence. Then consciously work to disengage from guilt. Once a situation is properly addressed, guilt does absolutely nothing for you except cause pain.

Mistake # 11:  Spending Mindlessly

We often spend money on impulse, buying to satisfy a brief whim, to fill a void, or to impress. So much of what we spend money on doesn’t offer any long term happiness or fulfillment.Overspending often ties in with complicating our lives, creating more stuff, more tasks, and more responsibilities that we don’t really want.

The Fix:

Question yourself every time you make a purchase. Why am I buying this? Does it meet a need? Does it offer long-term satisfaction? Can I truly afford this? Focus your spending primarily on real needs, experiences, and soul-enhancing material things.

Mistake #12: Over-Thinking

Many of us who are analytical or who dwell in ideas and possibilities, spend a lot of time in our heads, pondering problems and solutions. We ruminate and pontificate, believing we can think ourselves to a result or resolution. But over-thinkers can get stuck in thought, living on a mental treadmill that leads nowhere.

The Fix:

If  you are an over-thinker, you must hop off the treadmill and begin taking action. Sound thinking followed by regular action is the most powerful combination in the world. And action doesn’t need to wait for thinking to be “complete.” In fact, action can lead to some of the best ideas you will ever have.

Mistake #13: Neglecting Your Body

A body that is poorly nourished, overweight, and out-of-shape will make you feel bad in every way. Routinely neglecting your body is one of the worst life mistakes you can make.

The Fix:

Fortunately, it is always a correctable mistake. You know what to do. Move your body and eat healthily.

Mistake #14: Not Managing Your Anger

Like all emotions, anger comes and goes. But too often we attach truth and meaning to our angry feelings that aren’t necessary. So we feed the anger because we feel justified, unheard, or disrespected. Then the anger feeds ill-health in mind, body, and spirit.

The Fix:

If you are able to look at your anger, see the senselessness of it, and simply disengage, then by all means do that. If you are unable to disengage, seek help from a counselor so your anger doesn’t destroy you and those around you.

Mistake #15: Never Giving Yourself Time

So many people never take the time examine themselves to see where they are making these life mistakes. Without awareness, change is impossible.

The Fix:

Give yourself the gift of time to reflect on these mistakes in your own life. If you haven’t made them, how can you prevent them? If you are living one or more of these mistakes right now, are you willing to take action to turn yourself and your life around?

What is your experience with these life mistakes? What other life mistakes have you encountered and self-corrected along your own personal journey?

Thanks: http://liveboldandbloom.com/06/self-improvement/15-life-mistakes-you-dont-want-to-make-and-how-to-fix-them-if-you-do

How to recover from a mistake on the job

(CNN) -- When James Theodorou reflects on mistakes from past jobs, he cringes to think about the role he played in printing 4 million copies of a well-known U.S. magazine with the wrong date on the cover.

It was the early 1980s and Theodorou was working as an offset stripper, who performs platemaking and stripping for presses. He said he could only wait in horror as his little mistake was distributed across the country.

The memory is burned into his brain. It resurfaced earlier this month when he learned of the nurse in the United Kingdom who put through a prank call from two Australian DJs to the ward where Prince William's wife, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, was being treated for acute morning sickness.

Who was nurse Jacintha Saldanha?

While the circumstances of the nurse's death remain unclear, the incident prompted Theodorou and many other CNN.com readers to share stories of dealing with stressful situations on the job, making mistakes and moving on.

Mistakes are an opportunity to see how you can do something differently, said commenter RealityChk101, a software engineer from North Dakota who has had "code blow up in my face several times, sometimes with disastrous results," he said.

"In almost every case I have had to take the action of documenting every little thing that went wrong, why it went wrong and how this was never going to happen again."

The commenter, who asked not to have his real name used, said he once was mortified to find that he had somehow stripped last names from everyone in a database. His co-workers made up a song about him, to the tune of "Candy Man," asking "Who can take the last name, and throw it all away?"

After his initial panicked reaction, he calmed down and came up with ways to rectify the situation.

"I spent two days calling those 500 people, getting their last names," he said. "Management figured that was punishment enough."

The commenter said his situation pales in comparison to the stress nurses and hospital workers deal with daily, where lives are at stake.

"Hospitals are by their nature a stressful place: you have births, sickness and death, all under one roof," he said. "Caregivers are bombarded by every type of emotion on a daily basis."

The incident caused him to fear that he would lose his job. But talking to co-workers proved to be helpful, he said.

"In most of those cases, my co-workers were supportive, and when I needed more support, I just unloaded emotionally on my wife of 33 years."

Seeking support from others can be helpful, especially in cases where you think you might be in danger of losing your job, said Christine Porath, associate professor of management at Georgetown University. They may help you see things differently.

Porath said people of all occupations often place their self worth in their jobs because they see them as much more than a task.

"Their heart and soul is in their job, so their identity is wrapped in it, which is great, but when your job is threatened or you make a mistake, that makes it all the more harder."

It helps to get a bit of perspective on the situation by disengaging and "stepping away from the workplace to focus on everything else that you have," she said.

"I think it makes the support aspect all the more important. You really need to focus on other parts of your life."

Employers also benefit from keeping their employees happy, said Porath, who researches the effects of incivility in the workplace. Most people are focused on the outward display of anger and far less aware of the devastating effects of being afraid or sad about one's status in the organization, she said.

These latter two emotions are the ones that are more likely to cause people to leave their jobs, she said.

Since his first public gaffe, Theodorou said he has learned to handle workplace stress by maintaining an emotional detachment from the task at hand while making decisions.

"By using logic, and following the (standard operating procedures), everything is no longer personal, just business. Even errors. I then go home and engage my hobbies."

Theodorou had no choice but to try to do better on the next issue of the magazine. He slowed down and went over his work again carefully. He made a checklist and had another technician perform a quality control inspection before starting the four-hour process of printing the covers.

"It only added about 15 minutes to the job, but they were a well-spent 15 minutes," he said.

Corporate recruiter Steven Raz said the recession can increase people's concerns about doing well at work.

He advised that if you do make a mistake, you should have a plan to correct it. If the mistake is big, get help.

"It's always recommended that if something happens like that, and it's too big to handle, that's when you should bring in your boss," Raz said.

Some people may be tempted to say nothing, but that can be dangerous, he added.

"If you tell the truth, you don't have to worry about what truth you've told," Raz said.

What do you think? Have you ever made a big mistake at work or encountered a stressful situation? How did you get through it?

Share your views in the comments area below or post video commentary on CNN iReport.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/12/17/living/recovering-from-mistakes/index.html