First Month of work..first couple mistakes! HELP.

[JJberry]

So I was recently hired, and for starters everything was going smoothly. its been almost one month on the job ( But not many days I've worked because I'm on call, let say about 2-3 times a week) At first I was getting simple computer charting and on how to process orders, Which now I'm doing fine on my own. However poop literally hit the fan today:arghh:.. I was flustered because I charted that I gave meds to a pt When in fact I did not. the medications comes in little bubble packets with the list of meds on top that are included in the packet. The pharmacy forgot to remove the name of medication that was not included anymore in that packet. ( I SHOULD HAVE DOUBLE CHECKED ) It was nothing that would harm the patient though. Anyways I told my fellow nurse in which she helped me fix it but I just couldn't stop feeling bad about it ..and that feeling left me feeling flustered all day that I started to mess up other procedures such as putting in orders/correct orders/missing info when calling the doctor/ and even forgetting to charting off the meds I DID give.. . So to fixed these mistakes I asked for help again ( still new to their computer programing) which Just lead me to feeling more crappy.

I guess because this is my first nursing job I wanted it to be perfect. I know we all make mistakes but just can't shake this off. I feel like idiot ..

I know now for sure I will quadruple check meds..

I dont know...all of this sort of happened in one day and I'm just feeling so low...

anyone want to share their new days on the job mistakes?

[Tenebrae, BSN, RN]

Helpful advice. Give up this desire to be perfect. That doesn't mean you cant put 110% into your job. The reality is that you will make mistakes. You can either spend your time stressing over things you can not change, or you can look at what happened, and what steps can you take to ensure that you don't make a similar mistake. What I strive towards now, is to be able to go home knowing I had done the best job that I could do

One of the worst mistakes I made as a newbie was a male catheter change. I was so nervous to get the old one out and the new one in as quickly as possible I didnt give the lignocaine gell enough of a chance to work and I forgot to gently rotate the old catheter prior to removal and as a result left the patient in pain. I found sitting down with my (then) clinical manager and going through the process with her, I was able to see where I had gone wrong, . Also my manager was very firm in telling me that self flagelation (beating oneself up) is not remotely helpful.

As for asking for help. I would much rather a nurse says "hey look, I'm not sure on this procedure" as opposed to faking their way through it and screwing up and potentially putting a patient at risk

Stop being so hard on yourself