First Rapid Response!!!

Hello everyone!

I am a new nurse on a surgical unit that specializes in GI/GYN procedures with some medical patients thrown in. I have been a nurse for 5 months, off orientation for 6 weeks. things have been OK so far...typical new nurse experience i suppose.

I had my first rapid response the other day, and it went really well!!! I have been dreading the day i would have to call one...knowing it could happen at any time and that i would have to be on my game. Well, that day came on sunday. I had a slightly confused male patient who was status post left angio and arteriogram. I had received 9am lab results stating that his H&H had gone from 9.6/25.4 to 6.8/21.1 overnight. So i went to go in an look at my patient for any active bleeding, and just didn't like how he looked. I took his SPO2, and it was only 75% on 3L O2 nasal cannula. At this point, I called the rapid response, and decided to put him on a nonrebreather, which brought him up to 100% saturation. he was responding well verbally, and when the rapid response team arrived, I was able to provide them with all of the info they needed without hesitation. we spent about 5 minutes looking the patient over, and the rapid response team could not find the left angio puncture site. I noticed earlier that morning in my assessment that the patient had a small puncture in his RIGHT groin, and that he had tea colored urine and bruising around his penis, which i had documented in my notes. I mentioned this to the nurse and doctor on the response team, and they were able to figure out that days earlier, they had accessed the pt from the right groin to get over to the left and remove a portion of the left leg artery, and that since then, the patient had been bleeding into his penis and scrotum.

the patient was transferred to the ICU and given the blood and vasopressors he needed. It was a TERRIFYING experience, but with it behind me i learned ALOT, was able to tie together my assessment of the patient with his lab results and change in status, and i definitely feel good about the outcome for the patient!

Things have not been so great in my first year of nursing so far...and though it was a nerveracking and scary experience, my first rapid response helped me realize that though i have a LOOONNGGGG way to go, I have learned alot and need to learn to trust my judgement and gut.

Sorry this was so long!!! Thanks for listening!!