New Nurse Mistakes

Nurses Safety

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What is your most regrettable mistake that you have made as a new nurse? What would you go back and do?

No doubt, nurses eating their young. Perfect example.

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I hope this isn't rude, but I am a new graduate nurse similar to the user who posted this question. I have been trying to find advice on this site as a new grad, and it is impossible despite using the search function. It concerned me a little though that when I was looking for ways to be the best new graduate nurse possible that all I could find in this thread prior to filtering through were negative attitudes going back and forth about one person being inquisitive on how to be a better nurse. Isn't that one of reasons why this website is great? Despite trying to find the information, I guess maybe I don't actually know how to search on this website if I wasn't finding what I was seeking. Anyways, I wanted to thank those that did provide some good feedback on this thread for me on my journey as a new graduate nurse. Thank you, awesome nurses! :D

Hey there! I have always loved new nurses and also students. RN since 06. All I wanted was to be set free to take care of my patients. You will develop your rhythm quickly and it won't be long before everyone else sees that you have a plan. My last job I sat in the complaining chair with the supervisor for a bit; sour hour if you will. Never started work before 8 because I wanted to cluster the 08 09 and 10 meds if there were any. I never waste steps, if I go ask pt if they need pain med and get fresh water then. I guess a lot of it anticipating pt's needs. It drives me nuts to see nurses running around flailing their arms because the pt doesn't have a clean gown. Rant over. Just trying to tell you to take what you need from each preceptor and if you think you have a more efficient way, remember that for when you are getting your rhythm down. And never tell the preceptor they're wrong. Oh god please don't do it. *be the nurse that makes you proud of you. The nurse pts request when they get admitted again next week. Be the nurse you would want caring for your family. Or caring for yourself. Good luck with your endeavor. Sorry about the 7 page letter.

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Specializes in critical care, ER,ICU, CVSURG, CCU.

..........ok a little humor............... falling for a cardiology fellow two weeks after graduation :)

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Specializes in critical care, ER,ICU, CVSURG, CCU.

awe RX x 8yrs, that one line......."be the type of nurse you would want caring for your family" knocks it out of the park.........that is the best advice I have heard, right at the top, in my 42.5 yrs....as a RN.......absolutely............. the "appear caring"...... "appear concerned etc" will carry one far........ ;)

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Specializes in HH, Peds, Rehab, Clinical.

Sigh....

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Graduatenurse,

I am young myself and I don't think that what the "older" posters have said is "NETY". I don't think that anyone here would have a problem with a pre-nursing student, nursing student, nurse or advanced practice nurse coming here and asking a "common" question if they said, "I used the search function to see if I could find an answer to my question and used the search phrases *common question* *stupid question* *junkie question* *NETY* *insert other sarcasm here*, can you answer question XYZ for me please or show me where to find it?"

That would show the other posters that you have tried to use the resources available to you to answer your question, but have been unsuccessful. It allows them to see your thought process and fill in the blanks, rather than doing all of the "work" for you. Even if you said "I was wondering about XYZ and found this post from 2012 at Page Could Not Be Found - 404 Error but can't find any newer data on the subject. Has anyone read more recent articles about XYZ?" Just like we won't do a students homework question from start to finish, many posters get frustrated when they know a poster is capable of doing research (you DID get into/through nursing school after all) but choose NOT to and take the easy way out. It helps to see a persons thought process, what they have tried, what has/hasn't worked, etc. If more people would demonstrate that they have put thought into their posts, there would not be as much "arguing" or "NETY" on this board.

Just my percieved .02

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.
I don't understand about the partial package, but I can tell you that the other stuff is people being mean. The question is: how do you know if nobody told you? In this computer age you had probably a 50/50 of getting a crabby response if you had called. They could likely have said "I.KNOW." Here's something I learned quickly, if ancillary staff, lab, xray or whomever call you and want you to call the doctor and question the order he/she just put in.....don't do it. Especially if you think it's a stupid question. Don't get sucked in. Their questions, they should ask them.

Not sure what you are referring to with "people being mean." Did you intend to quote my post or someone else's?

I've been concerned with situations in which I didn't know what I didn't know, i. e. How would I know if no one told me? As I've become more confident in my practice, my gut tingles if something doesn't seem right about a process or procedure, and I always listen to it. If the dialysis thing happened today, I would have immediately asked about the procedure for ensuring it gets done. Developing as a professional includes an awareness of what you don't know, gaining intuition, and not being afraid of questioning yourself.

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Expecting others to do their jobs. Still gets me everytime. From expecting pharmacy to have delivered a scheduled med that is NOT new, expecting social work/case management to have everything done for a discharge (Home O2, transportation, Dialysis, transportation from their new SNF to their new HD clinic, etc), to expecting CNAs to chart the in&outs, expecting the monitor tech to call when a patient desats or has frequent PVCs, expecting RT to show up after you call in a PRN treatment... the list goes on an on. For the most part, this all gets done. But it's those times that I don't double check when it bites me and my patient in the toosh.

I'm just under a year new grad, been on an acute tele floor for 9 months now. Still learning a lot and still making mistakes, but the expectation that others will carry out their tasks, tasks which fall under MY LICENSE, are by far the biggest pain.

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Specializes in Critical Care; Recovery.

I'm only 2.5 years experienced, but I think I have made several mistakes. 1st mistake was taking a job at a facility with a bad reputation in our community and refusing an interview from a better facility after accepting the first offer (I had only been orienting two weeks or so). I was there 10 months and ended up leaving anyway. 2nd mistake was not immediately marking my pill packaging when I know a pill must be halved. I now scribble all over them with red ink. 3rd thing I would say is to always go with your intuition. The moment you take something for granted is the moment you should have checked (vital signs, rereading an order to make sure, iv compatibility, etc, etc). 4th thing I would have started reading and studying more sooner on my own time. Is is very liberating when you have more of a knowledgable to draw from. I should have began to research on all nurses sooner, for example. One can find almost anything on here if you research a little, and that is very helpful in providing instruction for new nurses!

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Specializes in Critical Care; Recovery.

I would like to add that I have yet to have to start a post on allnurses because I always find an answer to my questions using the search function.

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I held a pt's Lactulose because he had frequent stooling. I didn't realize at the time that the Lactulose was to keep his ammonia level from getting too high, and that frequent stools are needed for that. He was a liver failure pt.

I love posts like this because it shows we are all human and make mistakes. Thanks Anna!

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I know it has been several months since anyone has responded to this post but I felt compelled to comment.

In searching for a post for New ER RN's, this one was the first to pop up that was fairly recent in 2014 with most of the posts being 2006, 2010, 2012. So, according to this post I did the right thing by searching topics first. However; I too made the mistake of thinking that this thread was old with the last post being months ago. I guess I figured that people only respond to the newer posts. After reading this thread, I think anyone new would be afraid to create a new post. Sheesh!

I too have felt like I have ruffled feathers” with some of my posts and sadly, it makes me not want to visit this site. The negativity that pours out of some (not all) of these posts is unbelievable! I would think that as nurses that have to deal with all the stuff that we do, we would all band together to support each other. Did some of you forget that you were all new nurses or nursing students once?

Thank you to @tnbutterfly for your comment.

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