Am I in the Wrong??

Thank goodness for electronic charting this would not happen. Too bad this happened to you. You were in your 3rd week orientation?

No, this can happen in electronic charting as well. Can, has and does. If the physician doesn't write a time on the order, it goes to the top line of the MAR -- a line that isn't visible unless you make a habit of "pulling" on the top line of the box to drag it down and check to see if there is anything up there. Even if you do that, it appears as a "conditional" order, which you wouldn't realize had to be given on your shift unless you saw the order and investigated further. We've had several shifts of nurses miss important post-op orders because that's a brand new glitch in our system.

This:

I am a new grad, 3rd week in and was left to my own devices last week with 4-5 patients on a post-op ward-my preceptor nowhere to be seen.

& This:

Sorry I dont know if I mentioned that there was NO order, nothing on the med chart whatsoever. It was simply scribbled on a piece of post-op paper (with the theatre notes at the back of the patients file)-like it just had…pt antibx x8, icepack, etc then aspirin with a tick next to it. I am not entirely sure…I think an incident report was put in.

Both of these indicate that you work in an incompetently managed dump. They are making you their scape goat for their own incompetence with two shining examples above of management incompetence. Start your job search NOW.

Be sure that you obtain your own malpractice insurance if you do not already have it.

Secondly--here's the lesson in this. You now know that each MD had their own order set. If it is not included in the packet you get post op, then you just need to know where to find them should this occur again.

Also, critically thinking, there are more than one surgery that would require some sort of anti-coagulation therapy post-op. So if you are not seeing an order for it, question it.

Thanks everyone for the input. There is a communication book on the ward that had stated from the nursing manager for everyone to please check dr so and so's orders on return to the ward as the anaesthetist had not charted it and that it is everyone's responsibility to check that medications have been given. Should I ask her as to why it was purely me being reported?

Thanks everyone for the input. There is a communication book on the ward that had stated from the nursing manager for everyone to please check dr so and so's orders on return to the ward as the anaesthetist had not charted it and that it is everyone's responsibility to check that medications have been given. Should I ask her as to why it was purely me being reported?

They left a new grad in her third week of orientation all alone. Why would you want to work there?

I just feel like quitting I am so humiliated.

If you quit every time you make a mistake, you will remain unemployed forever.

Everyone makes mistakes. What's important learning from them and improving.

Thanks everyone. Have actually photocopied each specific Dr's orders now so I know for next time! :)

Check, and check and re-check and ask for others to check and check again!

Like everyone has already said, I would remember to double check the post op orders and then try not to worry about it anymore. The doctor should have actually double checked that he'd prescribed the meds he wanted given. This is just one of those things you don't get taught at university - surgeons will write post op instructions, usually on a form that gets left in theatre, never to be seen again. Then they will come down to the ward and kick up a stink about their instructions, still sitting in the printer in OT, not being followed - if they bothered to write any at all, sometimes they expect you to just be straight up psychic Now you know to always look for those instructions and to follow up on anything that's missing :)