Did I do something horribly wrong?

[Silverbird501]

I'm in my second semester of nursing school. In my clinical today on the Med Surg floor, I got to hang an IVPB. The nurse already had the main line primed. With my instructor and another classmate and the nurse, I primed the IVPB. We all went to the patients room, and I hung the saline and IVPB. Then I went to connect the main IV line to the patients IV on their hand. I took the cap off the main line and wiped it with an alcohol swab....Well, yes, I made a mistake. Since the IV line port is sterile since it just came out of the packaging and had a cap on it.

But my intructor flipped out! She seemed very upset that I would wipe the sterile end with an alochol swab, she exclaimed to the nurse about, who said we could just get some new tubing, she took me aside and said, "Why did you do that?!" Then later had a discussion with me about my thinking process and why I did what I did. She is holding my end of semester evaluation until tomoorrow, and might take points off for it.

My question is, Did I do something horribly wrong?? I know I shouldn't have wiped the sterile end with an alochol swab, but is it as huge a deal as she is making out? I thought changing the IV tubing was an easy fix and I had determined not to do that again. But I'm thinking I just commited something very horrible.

Can anyone give me any insight?

[Flying ICU RN]

I'm in my second semester of nursing school.

Can anyone give me any insight?

Insight,....

Do whatever and however it is your instructors tell you regardless of how silly their reasoning. Question only those things that you truly want answered, and leave the challenging to the smart Alec know-it-all who is going to bomb out.

Your goal is singular,... graduation!

After school, then you will start the learning process.

[Fribblet]

You're going to connect the sterile end to a port that is not sterile and will be wiped with alcohol.

Your instructor lacks critical thinking skills.

I often wondered why I was being taught by instructors who were obviously less educated than me, spoke poor English (native speakers that is), and couldn't write their way out of a paper sack.

Ignore it, get through the semester, and go on to use your brain, which is something your instructor didn't do.

[Misty1]

No you didn't do anything wrong and your instructor is probably and insecure...... oh never mind I won't finish that sentence.

Its just a personal pet peeve of mine how our students are treated. I get students all the time that are afraid of speaking out when they don't know something. The first thing I do is have them explain to me what they are going to do and why...and if you don't know its OK. Your students for heavens sakes.

[anonymurse]

You had to wipe the cap on the pt's INT, right? So what's the diff?

[RN-Ella]

I always wipe the pt's IV line before I connect the any tubing, and if the tubing has been hanging wipe that as well.

[Daisy_08, BSN, RN]

i'm at student, with little iv experience. i don't understand why the tubing needed to be changed?

thanks,

[Leeroy Jenkins]

i'm at student, with little iv experience. i don't understand why the tubing needed to be changed?

thanks,

she didn't change the tubing, it was new tubing that she got specifically to hang the piggyback. the main line was already running she just had to spike the piggyback and hook it up the main line.

[eriksoln, BSN, RN]

That was not cool and uncalled for.

You know, I just don't understand why some educators get into education if they aren't willing to watch students make mistakes and mentor them along. I don't get this punitive attitude. Everyone in education I have known tells me "I just love to teach" -- what does that mean? Does that mean you love it when your student screws up so you get to berate them, or does that mean that you really enjoy helping them develop?

OK, enough ranting.

I guess you made a tiny mistake. It's not that big a deal. It's not like you dipped the end of the IV tubing in a pile of ketchup on the patient's plate and tried to hook it up. You wiped it with ALCOHOL. It was clean! Lesson learned on your part.

There was no reason for the ugliness on your instructors part, but this is nursing school. She will probably not be the first evil clinical instructor you have, and unfortunately, the instructors have all the power. I think some clinical instructors think they are the gateway to the nursing profession, and if they deem you inadequate, they are going to come up with a way to fail you, so watch your back. Be as perfect as you can in the clinical setting and CYA (won't be the first or the last time you get that piece of advice...LOL!) All my nursing instructors were all nuns and it was gosh-awful. All the nitpicking BS for no real reason other than to beat you into submission...consider it a rite of passage.

I asked this myself. I always wrote it off as ego, until a friend became a full time instructor and talked to me about the behind the scenes stuff that goes on.

It's one of those things that starts at the top and everyone underneath reflects it. Nursing School Directors are often told their program "Should not graduate everyone. There must be a weeding out process that takes place, otherwise everyone and anyone who should not be in nursing will apply to your program to get a free ride." So, they tell their instructors about the importance of "weeding out the bad applicants". Then the instructors go to clinical and.......well, you see the results.

My friend told me about a few meetings that she attended where the instructors sat around comparing notes on who to "get rid of" and who to keep around. Some got really caught up in it.

[Flying ICU RN]

My friend told me about a few meetings that she attended where the instructors sat around comparing notes on who to "get rid of" and who to keep around. Some got really caught up in it.

This should not come as a surprise, hence the "do it their way" nature of my previous post.

To add to that previous post, you also should not come across as "weak", scared or your own shadow and "likely" to make mistakes. This adds another aspect to the weeding out process and may be a tipping factor depending on severity.

[roser13, ASN, RN]

"Sounds OK to me. Usually before attaching, I just lick the port"

OK, so much for my clean scrubs top...I just spit out my coffee:lol2::yeah:

[*ac*]

If you didn't prime the main line yourself, then you don't know where it's been.

Sometimes, for whatever reason, when you're priming it, it gets air in it and to really make it prime quickly and get all the air out, you might take the cap off and hang it over the garbage. (But just so you know, some people believe that horrible bacteria can fly up out of the garbage into your line.) So, then it would be a pretty good idea to clean it off before attaching it.

Either way, don't we all have bigger fish to fry??

But as others have implied, nursing school is a dictatorship. So it is, also, when you get a job and work under a preceptor. Eventually you'll be on your own and thinking/doing for yourself whatever you think is right/reasonable within the p/p of your employer.

[netglow, ASN, RN]

OP I had an absolute nut job my first semester. I saw her work very hard to try and get people to drop from the program. After my very first class, I almost dropped. Not because of fear of her, but fear that I was about to embark on something where it was necessary to gain the best experience possible, as I was going to be in charge of lives for a living. I felt honestly that someone who appeared so very unstable would not be able to stand up to my requirements. She told us half of us would fail that day, and she saw me smirk (oops) but sorry sweetie this is my second degree, and guess what looser-girl, I am an A student-got a 4.0.

"Crazy" is for patients, not for instructors/co-workers.

She also taught the last semester and some of my friends had her, seems she worked doubly hard to either ruin people mentally and or cut them from the program. One case in particular... she got got on such a level with a student that if I told the story here it would be obvious who was involved. If it had happened to me, I would ruin her career-wise and financially for years to come (I am quite capable of that).

My last semester was ruined for me and my section due to the fact that our clinical instructor was afraid of all things hospital, especially blood. You should've seen the faces of the rns on that floor when we came on. She had brought students to this hospital the semester before and already had made a real winning impression. She was excellent at hiding too.