First time in my clinical "advocating" for my patient

[dano]

I'm in my second semester of my BSN program and in my third week of clinical. I had a patient that had come in with epistaxis. He was on some trial drug for hypertension and he ended up needing 4 or 5 pints of blood. They couldn't say it was the drug that caused it but it was their best guess.

I got the discharge papers later on after we came in and he was prescribed 325 mg aspirin daily (prophylactic for MI) along with some other stuff, but the aspirin order caught my attention. I was like . He's in here because he was bleeding you idiots, plus his nose was still bleeding when he was discharged, just not much. I found the doctor down the hall and said I think the dose is too high and could cause him to bleed more. He actually politely said I was correct and they put him on 81mg daily instead.

My instructor was all like "Yay go Dan!" It felt kinda cool. I had no problem walking up to the doctor and stating my case, it just made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside when the doctor actually agreed. It's the first time in my clinical where I feel I did more for my patient beyond basic care needs.

[TazziRN, RN]

Good for you!!! Most students are too timid to do this, I know I was.

[nurse4theplanet, RN]

Kudos!

[dano]

Good for you!!! Most students are too timid to do this, I know I was.

If there's one thing I've learned from listening to my instructors, it's that you have to really have a gut feeling that the order is not right before you say anything and I had that feeling. Turned out I was right. If I was not so sure I might have had a more difficult time.

[TazziRN, RN]

There are students and new nurses who know the order is wrong but are still too timid to speak up.

[dano]

There are students and new nurses who know the order is wrong but are still too timid to speak up.

Well someone failed them in their education.

All I could think about was the what-if's. What if I said nothing and he ended up right back on our floor shortly after discharge for the same problem? That was motivation enough for me.

[clemmm78, RN]

Excellent.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

Good for you, Dano...and I'm glad to see that it DID go your way! Unfortunately, too much of the time, a student gears up the guts to say something only to be slapped "back into place".

It's really good to hear that your correct statement was heard, not just "blah blah blah" from a nursing student :)

[Chaya, ASN, RN]

Way to go Dano!:

yelclap:

[Rabid Badger, BSN, RN]

"I was like . He's in here because he was bleeding you idiots"

Best quote ever. I love it. This is exactly what I would say, since I am a very much a loud mouth assertive nurse. If you were my student I would LMAO then give you a big shiny gold star.

Excellent work.

[Silverdragon102, BSN]

well done

[Mags4711, RN]

:yelclap:

Goodonya!