S/P Cardiac Cath question

Now you all have me worried that I didn't catch something I should have.
Of course, when she rated the pain 10/10, red flags went up. I checked the site and took VS, which were WNL. She is an overweight woman, and I did have to "lift up" her stomach to check the site.

As for the person saying she should've been transferred to a tele floor... We do have tele, but its medical tele. We don't usually get cardiac pts. Most of our pts are CVA, TIA, change in LOC, pneumonia, peritoneal dialysis pts, and a few chronic and acute renal failures. Do you mean she should've been transferred to a cardiac tele floor or did you not read we have tele? A little confused there.

It is possible she may have misunderstood my pain scale. I usually ask pts "0 is no pain and 10 is the worst pain ever".

But now I am all nervous I did something wrong and now she's suffered a consequence which I am unaware of now that she is out of my care.

I had a pt the other night (med surg unit, specializing in ischemic CVAs). I had this pt the night before, she was admitted with "chest pain & syncope", but she denied any syncopal episodes to me. No c/o chest pain the entire time I had her. She was a direct admit from the MD office for work up.


Had a cardiac cath and came back shortly before my shift began. When I went to assess she was still sleepy from the procedure, c/o pain at the cath site 10/10. Took VS, stable... Checked the cath site, which was dry. Called the MD, who just ordered Toradol IVP.

Later that night, I transferred her to the cardiac floor (why wasn't she admitted there when she first came in anyway? We are a medical tele floor, not cardiac tele) b/c we needed a tele bed. In report, the nurse told me she shouldn't be having that much pain at the site. I mentioned this to my preceptor and she said it was OK b/c cardiac caths ARE very painful and in my assessment, there was nothing out of the ordinary.

I trust my preceptor because she's worshipped on our floor as she's been there the longest and knows everything about anything (so I've heard anyway!).

But did I miss something? Was there something else I should've done?

As for the person saying she should've been transferred to a tele floor... We do have tele, but its medical tele. We don't usually get cardiac pts. Most of our pts are CVA, TIA, change in LOC, pneumonia, peritoneal dialysis pts, and a few chronic and acute renal failures. Do you mean she should've been transferred to a cardiac tele floor or did you not read we have tele? A little confused there.