Do you constantly worry?

Jenni811, RN · Sep 27, 2011

i just take every precaution necessary. When i am doing medications, or hanging IV's i don't let ANYONE bother me. I tell family i will talk to them when i am done with medications, i will not answer my work phone when it rings. If CNAs come talk to me, i just say ill answer their questions when i am done with Jane Doe's medications. I won't hesitate to even tell doctors that. People WILL respect you for that, you just need to be upfront and honest.

As long as you do your 5 rights you won't make a mistake. When a doctor orders a medication, it goes to the pharmacist first, the pharmacist verifies it (checks interactions, safe dosage, any reason they shouldnt have that med). Then it goes to the Nurse. I check my meds at the pyxis and then i double check at the bedside. Trust your instinct, don't be afraid to question things.

I'll call pharmacy if i question a medication. Sometimes i just get the feeling that this medication shouldn't be given. I.e. one time i had a doctor order way way to much oxycodone. I was very nervous giving it since the 10mg made him pretty sedated the first time i gave it. then the doctor ordered 30 mg long acting and PRN oxycodone 5-10mg short acting. So i could have been giving up to 40mg oxycodone. I questioned this dosage and called the pharmacist. He too questioned it and he discussed it with the doctor.

use your resources, trust your instinct and do your 5 rights.

danh3190 · Sep 28, 2011

I do usually worry about making a mistake (or more precisely about missing some problem a patient is having). I also worry about whether my managers are happy with me and losing my job (being laid off once will tend to cause that type of worry). For some odd reason I've never worried about losing my license, probably because it's so rare.

I think it's about people's individual psychology. A lot of people never seem to worry about anything even though they probably should be. Others like me are always worried about something even though everything's usually fine.

xtxrn, ASN, RN · Sep 28, 2011

It takes some major effort to lose a license. Unless you drown your kids (Andrea Yates was an RN- took about 6 months before the board yanked her license:uhoh3:) There are a LOT of threats in nursing school re: your license floating away at any little issue. If you follow the "rules", you should be fine.

I understand being afraid of things you can't control....but you're using up energy that can be steered into the positive, productive parts of nursing.

School gives you the "threats" re: license loss to keep you aware of how serious it is to do things right.

I've been sued (along with the admin, DON, and weekend day charge nurse; I was the 7-3 charge). The case was nuts. The facility backed us all up with legal counsel, and even though the state cleared US, the long lost GD showed up out of the blue, and wanted money because Grandma died......she'd had a massive GI bleed 17 days before being admission to our facility; she ended up with end stage renal failure from hypovolemia, and the family refused dialysis....so she was a mess. A VERY sweet, confused lady, with fluid retention so bad, she dripped on the floor, and when she was turned, it was like a water balloon, sloshing to the dependent side. SHe got to the point of refusing fluids/food....family didn't want measures to extend her life. BUT, then she developed a weird looking "sheet burn" type thing, but the nurse hired by the prosecuting attorneys said it was a pressure sore....it was not any sort of pressure sore. It was very shallow, and long- like sheet burn (and we were careful moving her- she was just a major mess).

Bottom line, ALL of the charting could have been better- I&Os, refusal of fluids, etc.

The deposition was terrible; the day w/e nurse ended up puking her guts out on the front lawn of the facility after she got back from her deposition; the admin was asked a nasty question that triggered her daughter's death (a young child- 8 or so), the DON never seemed to respond to anything :eek: I ended up with the autonomic disorder getting triggered.

Bottom line- chart, document, notify MDs & supervisors (and document that they were notified). Chart when an MD office hasn't returned your calls. And remember that things like that aren't personal- they're greed (in this case; if there had been deliberate harm to the lady, with malicious intent- then strip them naked and hang them on the town square flagpole). I drove the prosecutors nuts. They would ask questions that were NOT yes/no questions, so I'd try to explain (which would have dropped the case if they wouldn't have called me 'hostile' - ).

The corporate office backed up all of us. No issues there. When I resigned a couple of years or so later, someone from the corporate office in our district (about 40 homes if I remember right) called me herself to see if she could talk me into staying.....I was fried on MDSs after 2 1/2 years of them at that facility- also did them elsewhere). I was given an open door if I ever wanted to come back. :) The lawsuit was never an issue, because the people who employed me knew the whole story. The state had cleared the situation when the family called them.

If I had to do anything over in that case, it would be bettered ocmentation - and that went for the other nurse as well.....the CARE was fine....she had a doc who ditched a patient in a LTC, and blew them off. I'd been working there for 3 weeks when all of this happened. I ended up staying for 2 1/2 year.

You can always find something to worry about :) It wastes time. Focus on doing what is positive and write. Count the number of nurses with 20+ years of experience- if license loss was THAT big of an issue, we'd be trapping rats for the sewer department :)

Quit worring about things you can't fix....focus on the things you can :) :up: Do the best you know how to do, and ask if you're not sure. And do something fun that has nothing to do with nursing....ya gotta get a break from this :)

MrChicagoRN, RN · Sep 28, 2011

In my decades of experience I've never known anyone who lost their liicense.

I may worry about a particular patients status, or how to get everything done in time, but that's about it.

here's a similar thread: https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/what-can-you-621887.html