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.
I agree this was not a huge error. You are learning, your paying for an education you deserve instructors who are supportive, not attacking you for minor errors.
I have 20 years experience working as a Hospital Nurse. I have precepted many new grads. I see so many grads terrified of making errors they check and recheck their work, which is wonderful, it's great to see this kind of pride in their jobs. But faced with a very busy assignment they can be overwhelmed. You have to learn to prioritize all the demands made on you. Triage the simultaneous demands made on you. What is life threatening, the patient who just experience a 12 beat run of V-tach needs to be attended to before the family member who wants an up date on their mom. Nurses in school are given a limited patient load and taught to do a perfect job on their patients care. But in reality you will never have 1 or 2 patients, try 6 or 7, you need to learn hoew to delegate.
Most important lesson treat your patient care techs well. They can help you with many tasks that are time consuming which frees you up to attend to task only a nurse can do. If you want your techs to have respect for you and the job they do you need to show them respect and appreciation.
The first time I took the 3rd semester of nursing I was having a lot of problems with my now ex boyfriend (I found out later he was running around cheating on me because I "wasn't any fun anymore" working full time and going to school full time) but I digress....my clinical instructor was a complete *itch! I knew people who had graduated from my program before me and they all groaned when they found out who my clinical instructor was.
Yeah she berated me in front of patients (I believe I put in my eval of her that no less than 3 of my patients had called her a ***** to me after she left their room) made me cry (in private, in the bathroom, don't let them see you weak as someone else said) and doubt myself and with all the stress and lack of sleep I did fail my semester...by 2 lousy points....When I got my grade from her (I had failed the lecture, passed clinical just fine) she told me she knew I'd make a great nurse someday and obviously I had a lot on my mind and was tired from my schedule. She said she knew I could do it and I would finish if I just took care of my personal problems. Then she teared up and said her mother was dying and her daughter was getting married out of state in 2 weeks so she knew a little something about stress too.
It was kind of a weird experience. I wish she had been upfront, at least about having some personal issues going on, and had been a little nicer and it would have been a better experience. So I guess just remember, graduation is the goal, everyone screws up in clinical, teachers are human too, and it WILL be over before you know it. I have one semester left!!!!
on the other hand, i DID make a somewhat notable mistake in clinicals (emptied bedpan w/urine, in bathroom sink), and i thought my ci was going to lose it on me.
seriously....she 'yelled' at me through clenched teeth, then had me take her bp.
meanwhile, i'm the one who kept insisting it was "no biggie" as i rinsed the sink, then wiped it down w/alcohol.
(Now, don't get me wrong, there are plenty of wonderful, competent nursing instructors out there. But I believe that that old saying applies very appropriately to some nursing instructors.)
Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.
Dude, she needs an Ativan salt lick! No, what you did was not completely horrible. Jeez! You are a student, for the love of all that is good in the world! You used alcohol to wipe a line...so? Granted, it is supposed to be in sterile packaging, but this was a minor mistake. You probably just got confused and intended on wiping the port of the IV instead. It isn't a big fat hairy deal, honey. You didn't start an IV infusion of bleach or something. Now THAT would be horribly wrong.
You are going to deal with so much in nursing school, and for me to sit here and tell you not to let this bother you is trite. You WILL let it bother you, I am sure. Just know that it is a minor mistake and you know that you will be more attentive next time. Sounds like you are going to be an excellent nurse if this rattles you so much! It shows you really care about doing things correctly. Cheers to you and I hope your eval comes out FAIRLY.
So my instructor was pretty nice during my eval. She didn't say sorry or anything and referred to the "incident" and just a learning experience and that I just need to make sure I think things through before I do them. I'm glad she calmed down since yesterday though! Thanks everyone for the thoughts. It makes me feel so much better. I was fairly confident about next semester, but that "incident" knocked me down a peg or two. But at least she was nice to me today. I'm going to try not to take things so personal and just do my best to think it through before I do something....even if the instructor is telling me to get on with it. lol. Thanks everyone!
casper1
198 Posts
I agree this was not a huge error. You are learning, your paying for an education you deserve instructors who are supportive, not attacking you for minor errors.
I have 20 years experience working as a Hospital Nurse. I have precepted many new grads. I see so many grads terrified of making errors they check and recheck their work, which is wonderful, it's great to see this kind of pride in their jobs. But faced with a very busy assignment they can be overwhelmed. You have to learn to prioritize all the demands made on you. Triage the simultaneous demands made on you. What is life threatening, the patient who just experience a 12 beat run of V-tach needs to be attended to before the family member who wants an up date on their mom. Nurses in school are given a limited patient load and taught to do a perfect job on their patients care. But in reality you will never have 1 or 2 patients, try 6 or 7, you need to learn hoew to delegate.
Most important lesson treat your patient care techs well. They can help you with many tasks that are time consuming which frees you up to attend to task only a nurse can do. If you want your techs to have respect for you and the job they do you need to show them respect and appreciation.