I can't believe that I made such a stupid mistake and am kicking myself!!!

[RN Chaos]

I had to give a new IV to my patient, but I couldn't get it, so I left.

However I forgot to get the tourniquet out from patient's arm, and I found it out 1 hour and 30 minutes later...

He was a confused patient, so he couldn't communicate with me. Besides the tourniquet was white, so I probably forgot, because it was underneath the white bed linen and patient's gown.

Anyways I got rid of the tourniquet as soon as I found it. His arm was natural normal color, positive capillary refill less than 3 seconds, able to move his arm and squeeze my hand, strong wrist pulse (THANK GOD!!!!!). Intern checked the patient with me, and he told me that the pt would be fine. I filed a incident report and made a nursing note about it.

He was complaining of sore arm, and I felt extremely sorry and stupid and almost near to cry. I kinda still wanna cry but too tired and too angry with my self to cry. At least I found it during my shift and didn't leave him on tourniquet longer, and it seems like the patient is fine, but I just feel like I will injure my patients one day seriously and want to quit clinical nursing...

[HippyDippyLPN]

bottom line is the patient is FINE so chalk this up to something you will never do again! I made a med error while discharing a pt in LTC my first 6 months as a nurse. Having 30 plus patients, an admission, and a discharge I was way over stretched. Thankfully the pt was fine but he did have to go to the ER to be checked out afterwards. My DON brought me in, told me my mistake, and let me cry and feel awful and then told me now is your time to get it together either you learn from this or you sink. I learned from it, made my own organized system to keep me on track which I still use even though I work in a clinic now. I have never made an error med since that incident almost 3 years later. Its good that you are feeling sorry, it means you care and are a good nurse! But DONT let this ruin your confidence. This incident will make you double check everything from now on which will prevent you from making actual major mistakes.

[HippyDippyLPN]

oh and you know what? You didnt try to hide it, you had a resident check him over and were owning up to what you did even if it meant resulting in a write up because you cared more about the patient then about yourself in the situation. Thats a pretty damn good quality in a nurse if you ask me.

[DutchRN09]

You'll never do that again...we all make mistakes, and no one was harmed.

[mellieann]

We have blue tourniquets...ive never even seen a white one!! Don't beat yourself up!! Now you will make it part of your post IV routine...to make sure its off! :)

melinda

[sherdk]

Hi RN Chaos You are the kind of nurse that we need !!!! caring and conscientious--just learn from this experience. There will be many more such experiences during your nursing career-- just learn and dont beat yourself up over these incidents that do occur in nursing practice. I have been an RN for 48 years and even now occassionally have similiar experiences-- usually caused by distractions!!!

Chin up-- you will be great!!!!!!

[jnb156]

Every last one of us has made a mistake and been extremely upset by it. You did everything else by the book, you had a doctor look at the patient, you filed an incident report. The fact that you feel bad shows your true potential of being a good nurse, not that you made a mistake. I bet you won't forget the tourniquet again! We are human, and have stressful busy jobs. Try not to be so hard on yourself, and good luck.

[honorgrn]

I like the comments about the nurses system of checks she uses, its always good to have a routine and never deviate from it... also th comment about you being a good nurse by owning your actions and filing a quality improvement report. I also like that you said that you know that this wont be your last mistake because you work in the acute care setting..you are correct... i think anyone can think of some hypothetical scenarios where you or anyone could make this mistake again...maybe you can solve the protocol puzzle...how do we not do this again? then you would really be doing your job...

[SarcasticLVN]

Sometimes I'm told at work I overreact or get to emotional with a death, hospitalization, or fall.. I tell them that the day I stop feeling an emotion for even the smallest thing that's when I will stop being a good nurse. I love how you called your colleague to see how he was doing, I do that all the time lol.. Sometimes I don't get a response but it still shows I care. Mistakes suck And are sad and stressful; but a positive outcome results- you will remember and not let it happen again :)

[Orange RN]

I wouldn't beat yourself up about it. If you wouldn't mind a little advice though - try putting the tourniquet on over the gown sleeve, or on over a washcloth. It's not only far more comfortable for the patient, it's also much easier to see (and harder to forget about)

[nurseclm]

I have been an RN for 41 years and if a nurse tells you they have never made a mistake, they are lying to you! Learn from this, have a good cry and move on! Thank God he was OK. I had an experienced RN once leave an infiltrated IV running overnight in a baby's arm. When I came on shift I heard a baby crying in pain. I know that cry and I mentioned it to the nurse. She said, "he has been crying all night and he is a brat." He was 5 months old. I ran in there after report and took one look at that big arm, ripped the tape off, and the crying stopped. See, you made a mistake, and that is expected. You were not, what I call, "willfully ignorant." There is a huge difference and you are going to be OK.

[Faeriewand, ASN, RN]

I always put the tourniqet over the garment so as to see it. That way I never forget! A patient came up to the floor once from ER with a tourniqet on his arm

[iluvivt, BSN, RN]

We have a new IV nurse that we have been training and with the sheer volume of IVs we do they all start to run together. I tell our new nurse a few strategies so she does NOT leave the tourniquet on a pt's arm but she still did it and it was on a long time under the gown. We had to watch that pt for days and he did develop a compartment syndrome. She decided to follow my techniques after the incident.

I personally find I do not get enough fill in the veins when I put the tourniquet over the gown. If I can get the vein very full before I perform the venipuncture there is lees insertion related trauma to the vein and the sites tend to last longer. But I say whatever works so you do not leave the tourniquet on after a venipuncture. Yes,there are white tourniquets that come in many of the prepackaged start kits.