Am I overreacting?

[Jvn11]

Hi all

Opinions of a new grad receiving a patient with an epidural when never being exposed to one while I had a preceptor or anyone else on my floor having much experience with one?

[osceteacher]

It was just frustrating because our floor does not get epidurals and I really had no one to lean on for support.

I'll be honest, you should have refused the transfer in my opinion then, this is obviously easier said than done and I don't blame people who are new or not assertive enough to stand up to management, in fairness to you, your ward sister/charge nurse should have refused the transfer.

The thing is, lets say the patient experienced a metallic taste or tinnitus, what are your first thoughts? How do you react? What could be causing it? My first thought would be Anaesthetic Toxicity, so I would turn off the infusion and call an anaesthatist urgently. I only knew that because I attended a course and read our local policy.

This is why I intensely dislike the philosophy of 'Well you'll never learn unless you do it', I learnt that hot things shouldn't be touched because my parents taught me, not because I went around touching hot things.

[osceteacher]

Again, I completely agree.

I am pretty surprised that 12 people liked 'As long as it's in your scope of practice, you can't really refuse to care for a patient because you haven't encountered that skill.'

Not even as a trainer, but just as a human being, that scares me a lot. I think this could be a cultural thing, in the UK nurses are taught to work within your field of competency and management will support you.

Here is a perfect example of a person using a machine without training, people should watch the video and then tell me that she shouldn't have refused to look after the patient.

If you haven't encountered a skill, don't do it.

[Nurse Beth, MSN]

In my hospital, patients with epidurals are placed on one floor, and the nurses are trained in how to assess for catheter migration, pump/pain management (anesthesia or nursing?) and dermatomes.

An epidural patient would not go to a new grad without training. I would not want my family member with an epidural catheter to be cared for by a nurse without training or on a floor without oversight.

[AlwaysLearning247, BSN]

This happened a few months ago on my floor too with another nurse. Honestly, we rarely get them so we're all not too familiar with them. We just looked up the policy and helped each other. It's a learning experience.