Broken spirit....

[RNsuperstar]

Hi there,

So, I am a new grad. I was fortunate enough to have found a job on a med surg floor in a hospital in my town. I went thru 8 weeks of orientation (orientation was cut 2 weeks short due to staffing needs), and I have been on my own for 3 months. I have made a couple of mistakes in the past week and I am really afraid/stressed/upset/disappointed in myself.

First, I wrote a TO on the wrong chart. It was caught though, and corrected. I wrote the order during shift change in the am. I was tired, trying to give report etc. But, still it was MY fault. And I own up to it. I felt terrible...and still do. But, nobody was hurt.....thank god.

Second one....I called a doctor (who is known for being rude, and mean to everybody) at 2am for BP being high. He was ****** for me calling him, and was really rude to me (with out reason) He asked if the pt was on a beta blocker and I told him no. So, doctor ordered a beta blocker and lasix. About an hour laterr, (pharmacy still didn't have the medication on the profile yet, so med wasn't given), I realized that the pt WAS already on beta blocker. I had to call the doctor, and explain this to him. He chewed me out. Said to tranfer his pt to ICU since I am going to kill every pt I come into contact with. He is known for being jerk, but this whole thing caused lots of drama. The house supervisor had to call him. He told her he never wants me taking care of any of his pts. I talked with my charge and house sup, and they said , yes it was my fault for not seeing the beta blocker, but I did the right thing by catching the error, owning up to it, and calling the doctor. I emailed my floor manager about this, an dI have yet to get a reply. I feel so terrible.

So, I know I need to be more preapared when calling docotrs. I need to triple check everything. But, I don't know how to fix my broken spirit, and my anxiety about making mistakes. During my orientation, my preceptor (who was known for being really tough) was very supportive, and told everybody that I was doing well. She has oriented a lot of new grads and told me that I was the best by far. I don't want to brag....but that made me feel pretty good.....so I know I am capable of being an excelent nurse.

I know I can do this job and do it well. And for the most part I feel I do. I always address issues with my pts and I don't let them slide. My pts usually really like me becaseu I listen to them and don't ignore them. I feel like I give a good report, and my fellow nurses say they "like" getting my pts because I try my best to set them up for a good day (pt clean, pain free, consents signs, meds given, fluids full, room clean, enough supplies)

How do I mend my broken spirit? Has anything like this happened to you? Please help me keep my chin up.....I feel so bad.

[RNsuperstar]

Thank you for the kind words. Reading your posts have cheered me up a bit.

Here is a little update. My boss called me this morning about scheduling issues.

I mentioned this whole incident....and she totally supported me. She told me that the doctor is going to be written up and it will be part of his annual review. BTW, I forgot to mention that while I was being chewed out, Dr Jerk told me that he was going to find out my phone number and call me in the middle of the night so that I know how it feels. My manger told me that this is a threat, and if he actually did it (which he didn't) the hospital would take actions against him for harrassment.

She told me that he thinks he is better than god....and should have never talked to me like that. We talked about how I could improve, and how to improve/prevent this situation from happeneing again.

Thank you for the support.....I feel a lot better now, and I think I might be able to make it thru my shift without breaking down.

[CapeCodMermaid, RN]

If all the nurses who've made mistakes or who've gotten screamed at by doctors quit, there would be no one left to take care of the patients. We all make mistakes. You did the right thing. I do think it's a bit unrealistic for us to think the doc is going to remember every med he's prescribed for a particular resident,but his response to you was inappropriate,unprofessional, and uncalled for.It gets easier.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

i'm glad your situation is resolved. for future reference, your hospital has a risk management department. one of their responsibilities is to decrease risk to the hospital...and harassment by a staff member is a risk, because the harassed person could have grounds for legal action against the facility for not preventing it. if any physician behaves like this to you, write it up and send a copy to the risk manager. they are very good people who will know just what to do.

[WildOne]

I'm so glad it worked out for you!!! I'm a new nurse too and doctors like this need a swift kick of the rear!!

I always try to think what goes around comes around. As nurses I think this brings up the important issue that we need to make sure that anyone who disrespects us gets disciplined. Whether that be doctors family etc. I would like have been like "excuse me? I'll just hang up now and call your boss to let them know your not giving orders for this pts bp abd acting like a 4 year old"

[WildOne]

By the way I always try to remember that most doctors were the nerds who had no friends in school and now that they've reached "doctor status" after so many years they feel like they can get their revenge.

[studentdrtobe]

By the way I always try to remember that most doctors were the nerds who had no friends in school and now that they've reached "doctor status" after so many years they feel like they can get their revenge.

Yea, no. This may have been true a few decades ago, but certainly isn't true anymore. Are there still a lot of nerds who make it to med school? Absolutely. You have to be smart and, more importantly, have a strong work ethic in order to survive the difficulty of med school, residency, and beyond. Just because we're nerdy doesn't mean we never had friends in school. Who says that being smart is equivalent to being socially awkward/stunted? That's a ridiculous statement to make, with no substantive evidence behind it. Nor are we "out for revenge." Attitudes like yours only work to worsen the relationship between physicians and nurses -- trust me, I encounter enough nurses with these types of attitudes and it certainly doesn't endear you to us.

To the OP, I apologize on behalf of the doctor that yelled at you. Saying that he'll get your home phone number and call you in the middle of the night to hassle you is incredibly unprofessional and I do hope that he gets written-up/talked-to about that. That kind of behavior is simply unacceptable. With that being said, learn from this mistake and absolutely make sure you have all pertinent patient info on hand before making a call in the middle of the night. Nothing sucks worse than being woken up in the middle of the night and having the person on the other side have no objective data on hand or be struggling to explain why they called us in the first place. Be ready with your clinical reasoning (whether it's lab values or your subjective assessment of the patient) when you call in the middle of the night so you're not fumbling around during the call. To those who think physicians should memorize the lab values, vitals, medications, etc, of the huge volume of patients we have on service, that's completely unrealistic. Just because you're carrying only 10-15 patients during your shift doesn't mean the attendings are -- they're generally responsible for many times that number of patients when they're on call. Heck, the interns easily cross-cover 80+ patients on night float and our service alone has maybe 40. And considering the laundry list of medications each patient comes with these days, it's pretty unrealistic to expect us to memorize all of these and recall them quickly after being woken up at 3 am.

[kguill975, MSN, APRN, NP]

When I became a new nurse, I made up acronyms for when I gave report and called doctors, I still do it. It's how I make sure that I don't forget anything. You could do the same, not an all inclusive list, but just something jotted down to answer questions quickly.

Something like:

P-pt's name & problem

S-status post ???

A-Allergies

M-Meds that are pertinent to problem

V-vital signs

You may not need all of this info for that particular call, but in case you do, you'll have it. You can custom make it for whatever you need, but as you get thicker skin, you won't give a rat's a** what the doctor thinks, as long as you're keeping your patient safe. Good Luck to you.

[tothepointeLVN, LVN]

No matter what career path your on your going to have moments where your spirit gets dented. Write on the wrong chart, make a pattern for production thats 3/32" off. No matter how perfect you are there will be something. In fact the more perfect you are the more they'll try and find your mistake

You'll be fine and even if your not you'll be fine :cheers:

[WildcatFanRN, BSN, RN]

thank you for the kind words. reading your posts have cheered me up a bit.

here is a little update. my boss called me this morning about scheduling issues.

i mentioned this whole incident....and she totally supported me. she told me that the doctor is going to be written up and it will be part of his annual review. btw, i forgot to mention that while i was being chewed out, dr jerk told me that he was going to find out my phone number and call me in the middle of the night so that i know how it feels. my manger told me that this is a threat, and if he actually did it (which he didn't) the hospital would take actions against him for harrassment.

she told me that he thinks he is better than god....and should have never talked to me like that. we talked about how i could improve, and how to improve/prevent this situation from happeneing again.

thank you for the support.....i feel a lot better now, and i think i might be able to make it thru my shift without breaking down.

i actually had a dr call me at home to wake me up like i had him. the joke was on him because it took me an hour to get home so when he called i had just walked in. i talked to him about it when i got back to work and informed him, "nope you didn't wake me up as i had just walked in the door". he was actually surprised about that. now i know i could have gotten him in trouble for doing that as well as the person who gave my number to him.

who says you don't learn anything new?

[sauconyrunner]

Oh good gracious yes. Not many people like to admit they have made errors.

I've had many over the years.

I have mis read handwriting.

I watched another nurse do sort of all the five rights with a patient that was not her own and give that patient a shot of steroids...only to find out to our surprise that the patient she gave the med to was demented and verified everything with a yes...and was the wrong lady...

I swabbed someone's nose for the flu with the wrong swab...had to go and eat humble pie and get another swab. (and I did THAT with 10 yrs experience, I sure was tired that day, and it was not flu season but I did it.)

I've made multiple MD's angry for all sorts of reasons. Some legitimate, some not.

Hang in there, it gets easier, and hey you caught it! I once picked up a patient only to discover for 3 days the nurse had been giving the wrong insulin. Whoooeeeee, that was not a pleasant incident to deal with. The patient had done well, but.....