Am I a complete idiot?

[cherryames2008]

I'm a first year nurse (almost at that one year mark--one more month to go). I work on the float team, so I go to all of the floors, except ED and ICUs. Last night, I thought everything was going well. And it was. Except that I did an enema wrong. Probably one of the easiest things you can do and I managed to do it wrong.

Here's what happened: the equipment to do the enema was in the bathroom and was the same equipment that we use for rectal irrigations (big red rubber catheter, bulb syringe, bottle of sterile saline, small basin to collect what comes out). The parents were concerned, because some nurses had infused the saline and left it there (which is what happens with an enema) and some nurses had done more of a rectal-irrigation-type procedure, where you put in a little, let it come out, put in some more, let it come out...until you're done. They prefered the latter method. So that's how I did it. It's a stupid mistake, but what's stupider is that I charted it as a rectal irrigation. And when I was giving report and I told the next nurse, she looked at me horrified and like I was an idiot. The real kicker is that I had to give an enema to another patient (and did it right). Needless to say, it ended up being a crappy night, both literally and figuratively. I hate feeling like I an idiot.

[RNperdiem, RN]

You learned something the hard way.

The patient is alive. Forgive yourself and move on.

I experience that same feeling sometimes even after all these years.

Nursing will humble you.

[brunclex129]

Things happen. Here's one for you....During orientation, I took a temp on a patient without a probe cover. I didn't even notice, and the patient pointed it out to me. To make matters worse, this all happened with my preceptor standing right there. Talk about embarrasing. Trust me, I'll never make that mistake again. But, as bad as that may all be....At least it was the blue probe and not the red one! LOL!