Is it always the student's mistake?

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I feel like I was completely mistreated during clinicals today.

We as nursing students are always responsible for our patient's well-being, right?

I am a 2nd yr nursing student. Well, my scenario is... it is 20 mins prior to giving the scheduled med (1240), I call the instructor to open the med drawer for me. Instead of having me pull my patient's meds out, she rushes to pull all my meds for me. Then she tells me to grab the MAR. While I was grabbing the MAR, she walks into the med room w/ all my meds and gets it ready for me. (This is the 1st time ever that I get to hang IV meds) So I grabbed the MAR and walked into the med room and she's waiting on me to show me how to get the IV med started. Afterwards I take the meds down to my patient's rm. Once I get there, (it is now 10 mins til the scheduled med time (1250) the patient wants to use the restroom. My instructor tells me to go ahead and get her up. Once my patient is finished, I help her back to her chair (and now it's time to administer the med 1300) my instructor goes missing. (We are not allowed to hang IV meds w/o the instructor being there). So, since I need to stay w/ my IV meds, I get another student to get the instructor for me. They tell me that my instructor went to lunch and that they will grab the only other instructor there for me. So I wait! (Now we are 10 mins after the scheduled time (1310). I show this other instructor the order in the MAR which stated that I need to run this IVPB med w/ 0.9% NS and she approved so I went and hung the med for this patient.

1st off, this 2nd instructor got mad at me for not managing my time correctly because the patient was scheduled to go off site in 20 mins and the med take 30 mins to finish. I was so upset cuz I really tried to manage my time correctly by going 20 mins early!

Secondly, MY instructor comes back from lunch and writes me up for not administering my IV med correctly. (they said this could have kicked me out of the program!!!) She asked me where I got the bag of NS. I told her on the med rm table where she left it for me w/ my IV med. She told me that the NS was already there before she stepped into the med rm?!? (was I supposed to know that? She went into the rm before I did!?!) Then she accused me of lying to my 2nd instructor about having orders for NS. Supposedly the MD came in a wrote new orders and I wasn't told that the orders in the MAR were old order that was not taken out yet and I should have questioned it??? Was I supposed to know that as well???

I was in all kinds of trouble today!!! Is this even fair? What if they kick me out of the program for something that I didn't really do? Isn't that the reason why there are instructor's there for us so we don't make mistakes like this? How is this my fault? I was in tears I barely was able to drive back home!!! I didn't even stand up for myself in clinicals cuz I didn't want the instructors to hate me for the rest of the year. What could I have done differently and how do I keep myself from getting kicked out of the program, this is my 3rd semester of nursing! I have never made any mistakes like this before! I was a prior CNA for 15 yrs and never had problems w/ the clinical aspect of nursing...any suggestions? PLEASE!!!

MicsterRN

28 Posts

Every instance is a learning opportunity. I think you can take away from this to remember the patient's basic necessities of food, drink, toilet and general comfort before procedures or lengthy nursing interventions, such as medication administration, in this case.

It is important to address this situation with your instructor in a mature, composed and professional matter - in person (no e-mail)! Your instructor may remind you that the most current information is in the chart. The chart is hard to come by at times, but if it's missing then there are probably new orders and you NEED to see it before proceeding!!!

Shake it off and write in your journal. Tomorrow is a new day for you to rock out as a nurse-in-training!

Best wishes and study hard!

sabrina_RPN

24 Posts

Specializes in Med/Surg, LTC, Rehab, Complex Care.

I think that it would be appropriate to have a meeting with your instructor in order to discuss what happened, and how things like this are prevented in the future.

At the very least, this was a huge learning experience for you.

Best wishes for the future,

Sabrina

allnurses Guide

nursel56

7,078 Posts

Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

Sounds to me like the whole thing was mishandled due to your instructor trying to rush you so she could go to lunch. It sounds like she wasn't so much interested in teaching you as she was short circuiting your process in order to get it over with by grabbing the meds out of the drawer and piling them up and then she ditched you and went to lunch anyway while your patient was in the bathrooom! You definitely pulled the short straw on that one!

However. . .your response should probably me measured by what consequences they intend to follow through on. If it blows over, just move on and be extra careful to check the chart every time for a newer order. While it's all fresh in your mind write a chronology of the events. It sounds like your "error" was giving an extra dose from the old order, not that you gave the wrong med altogether. Hope it all works out! :)

Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.

1st off, this 2nd instructor got mad at me for not managing my time correctly because the patient was scheduled to go off site in 20 mins and the med take 30 mins to finish. I was so upset cuz I really tried to manage my time correctly by going 20 mins early!

This part stood out to me. What is your protocol for allowable time before and after the assigned med time that you can hang meds? we are able to do 1 hour prior to or after. If the pt was to be going somewhere and it takes 30 minutes to do it, could you have possibly started the whole process sooner?

Im not saying it to be mean, its just something to think about for next time. Always learn from something that went wrong.

lil_MaMa

3 Posts

Our protocol for med administration is 30 mins prior up to 30 mins after...I had no other choice...thanks for all your input. I figured I got the short end of the straw but I can't seem to "man up" and talk to the instructors about it. I also don't want to look bad in front of them seeing as though I still have another semester to go w/ them.

Lesson learned big time! Almost cost me my education!

lil_MaMa

3 Posts

Our protocol for med administration is 30 mins prior up to 30 mins after...I had no other choice...thanks for all your input. I figured I got the short end of the straw but I can't seem to "man up" and talk to the instructors about it. I also don't want to look bad in front of them seeing as though I still have another semester to go w/ them.

Lesson learned big time! Almost cost me my education!

Specializes in Pediatrics.
Our protocol for med administration is 30 mins prior up to 30 mins after...I had no other choice...

Is this the school or hospital policy? As an instructor, there is NO WAY I can get my students' meds passed in an hour window (but maybe that's just me... or not, from the sounds of your situation).

There are way too many weird things going on here... Your instructor leaves you on the floor so she can go to lunch?? Knowing a med needs to be given? And gets annoyed at you because the pt had to use the bathroom? Perhaps you need to tell your future patients to plan their bowel and bladder patterns around their med schedule ;)

Perhaps you need to tell your future patients to plan their bowel and bladder patterns around their med schedule ;)

Or around Instructor 1's lunch schedule. :lol2:

Sorry that all happened, what a mess. I don't even know what to tell you except to document it all right now, with the most exact times you can, and let it go.

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