I feel terrible :(

[colleennurse, ASN, RN]

I have been off of orientation for 2 weeks now. I worked last evening, I work on a med surg unit. So I get to work and am standing at a nurse server by one of my patients rooms, looking thru the kardex and such. I hear someone across the hall yelling for help. My 1st thought is that someone has fallen. So I go in there and the pt is laying on the bed breathing funny, by this time a few other nurses are in the room. The pts wife used to be a nurse and she is punding on his chest. One of the other nurses nurses in the room pulls the code button. I help get a board under his back, before I know it about 50 people are there for the code. The pt died. It threw my evening off. Now to add to my feelings I had to hang blood for one of my pts. Everything went fine with hanging it, it was double checked and all. The order to transfuse had no time parameters and the other RN hanging it with me said I could call the prescriber or hang it using my own judgement. So I was like ok. I'll run it in over 3 hours because that is what it is ususally ordered for. The mistake I made was that when I programmed the pump I ran it in over and hour. The pt had no reactions and was fairly young. When I realized what I had done. I immediately went to the charge nurse and told her. She told me to take a set of vitals, which I did and after the infusion was complete the pts temp was up (it was stable thru the infusion). So I called who was covering and they came up and assesed her, she was ok. Part of her admission was due to fever so that was really not new for her. I just went into the back room and cried when I realized what I did. Thank God that she did not have a reaction, or CHF. I just feel horrible today. The nurses that I was working with were all being sweet and told me that bottom line the pt is ok. Not to beat myself up about it. I know that I will never make that mistake again. Thanks for reading I just needed to vent to people who can understand where I am coming from.

[Drysolong]

I think you handled yourself well. You can look at this situation as a learning experience

I have been off of orientation for 2 weeks now. I worked last evening, I work on a med surg unit. So I get to work and am standing at a nurse server by one of my patients rooms, looking thru the kardex and such. I hear someone across the hall yelling for help. My 1st thought is that someone has fallen. So I go in there and the pt is laying on the bed breathing funny, by this time a few other nurses are in the room. The pts wife used to be a nurse and she is punding on his chest. One of the other nurses nurses in the room pulls the code button. I help get a board under his back, before I know it about 50 people are there for the code. The pt died. It threw my evening off. Now to add to my feelings I had to hang blood for one of my pts. Everything went fine with hanging it, it was double checked and all. The order to transfuse had no time parameters and the other RN hanging it with me said I could call the prescriber or hang it using my own judgement. So I was like ok. I'll run it in over 3 hours because that is what it is ususally ordered for. The mistake I made was that when I programmed the pump I ran it in over and hour. The pt had no reactions and was fairly young. When I realized what I had done. I immediately went to the charge nurse and told her. She told me to take a set of vitals, which I did and after the infusion was complete the pts temp was up (it was stable thru the infusion). So I called who was covering and they came up and assesed her, she was ok. Part of her admission was due to fever so that was really not new for her. I just went into the back room and cried when I realized what I did. Thank God that she did not have a reaction, or CHF. I just feel horrible today. The nurses that I was working with were all being sweet and told me that bottom line the pt is ok. Not to beat myself up about it. I know that I will never make that mistake again. Thanks for reading I just needed to vent to people who can understand where I am coming from.

[MIA-RN1, RN]

Colleen, you did just what you were supposed to do. I am sorry you had to experience both the code and the blood transfusion issue. I know you are a great and caring nurse and this was a true mistake. You are human (aren't we all?). Stuff happens and thats all there is to it.

[colleennurse, ASN, RN]

Thanks. It just made me realize how easy it really is to make an error. Because of my neuroticism (sp?) I emailed my supervisor and she made me feel a lot better. I would just die if someone was hurt because of me. Thanks again :)

[cardiacRN2006, ADN, RN]

Sounds like you did fine with the code. I know they really can interfere with your day (both time wise and emotionally).

Where I work, we don't put blood on a pump. We run it in slowly over 15 minutes, and then if no s/s of transfusion reactions occur, then we run it in. Ours usually takes about an hour. No worries. But I agree, when we make mistakes they are the best teacher.