Okay, so I'm a new grad nurse resident at the cardiac ICU who is off orientation and on night shift. Last night, my charge nurse pulls me aside and tells me that the RT (respiratory therapist) feels that I am not a safe nurse because I didn't know how to turn on and off the CPAP machine.
This lady RT, mind you, is not the nicest lady around and I feel that I already had a bad rapport with her from a different night where she did not want to be bothered (texting on her phone) by me asking her questions about my patient and asking her to run my ABGs - her job! (different story). SO basically, my OSA patient absolutely required CPAP at night and I had the RT put her on the machine. I saw the patient was de-satting to 87 with it on, so I decided to fiddle with the machine to see if I could add some oxygen with the mask, and ended up turning it off. I was not familiar with the home device CPAPs, so I immediately tried to call the RT to help me turn it back on. She came back in the room and basically scolded me, "did you turn this off?" I said, yes, on accident because the patient was desatting and I wanted to see if I can add oxygen."
I asked her how to work the machine, but she just ignored me, put on oxygen with the mask, and left the room. I then get called in by my charge nurse and she asked me about the situation. I explained, and then I was told by a different (more seasoned) nurse (who I'm assuming heard the news) that I could've killed the patient because I kept the mask on when the machine was off. Mind you, the machine was off for no more than 30 seconds. She said that the patient could have suffocated and told me to not to it again.
I was so scared and shaken, because it was the first time I've encountered anything like that especially with another person saying that I was not a safe nurse because I didn't know that I turned the CPAP off. The next night, a different RT was on and he was one of the more helpful ones, and I immediately asked him about the machine. He told me that even if the machine stopped working, the patient would not suffocate because there are exhalation ports on the mask, etc.
In the whole situation, they asked me questions, but there wasn't much feedback except for the "possibly killing your patient" part, so I literally left that shift confused, and very down-hearted.
Nevertheless, my patient survived and no harm was done in the end. My questions are:
