Ugh stupid mistakes!!!

[CANewRN]

I work in an ICU and have been off my 10 week preceptorship for about a week. When I have one patient, things usually go really well. But when I have two... I feel like an idiot. Last time I worked I had two stable (but very busy) patients. I am on night shift, and had to hang dilantin. I drew up dilantin with a filter needle as my drug book instructed me to, but didnt use an in-line filter. Was this dangerous to the pt?

Also on another patient I was hanging a lyte replacement (mag sulfate I believe) My pt had two IVPB setups with just normal saline on each. He was sleeping and laying on both. I piggybacked the replacement in one of the lines, and ran it. When my pt woke up, he told me he had been laying on a wet pillow. Turns out I piggybacked the mag into the line that WASNT connected to my patient's central line, it was just laying underneath him :banghead::banghead: This was also the line I had used for Dilantin, and later realized (after being off shift for about 6 hours) what if this precipitates in line and the next nurse uses it to run more Dilantin? I feel like an idiot when I have two patients, like Im running back and forth against the clock. I always always always do my proper med checks, but its these other mistakes that make me feel like maybe Im not careful enough for the ICU...

Any advice?

[ghillbert, MSN, NP]

Report the errors? Maybe you need to remain on orientation for a while longer. Did you inform someone that the patient did not receive their meds?

[CANewRN]

Once I figured out that it was leaking, it was still infusing. So I stopped it, switched the correct line to the patient and continued the infusion. I let the next shift RN know that a portion had leaked on the bed, and that a redraw of labs would be needed.

The pt who recieved dilantin that was filtered via needle not inline recieved the med with no problems.