first patient

aw, it sounds like you have a sweet patient! Good! Was it just first day on the job that made you shake, or, would you be more comfortable if you had more practice using an Accu-check?

EDIT: OH, now i see by your name, that you are a student? oh! okay then! gotcha. now i understand! Glad you had a sweet patient, that helps, doesn't it?

No , im not a student anymore :) im a new graduate lpn, i had enough practice with accue check , but this was my first patient i was sooo nervous !!!! :/ thanks god she was nice.... Do you have any tips for new graduates working in home health?

someone else wrote a wonderful thread somewhere, on that very topic. if i locate it, i'll link it here.

BEST OF LUCK, and your confidence will come with time and practice and the knowledge that you are becoming adept at the things you are doing. Everyone is nervous at first, which has a plus side, imo, causing us all to be extra cautious, causing us all to question/double check/ask for advice & help.

One tip, for any type of nursing,

is

always always stop at the line of your own ignorance. This is not a slam, even seasoned nurses have a line, where past that, they do NOT know exactly. No one knows Everything, no one.

When you get to a spot where you do NOT know----ASK. Never ever ever let pride, time budget, whatever, never let it press you forward if you do not know for sure, don't do it. Stop and learn or ask or get help, and you'll be safe!

Your nervousness is actually a plus at this stage, serves a purpose, as uncomfortable as being a bit nervous is, it serves a purpose for now, and it's temporary. It passes with time. Ha, i've been a nurse probably longer than you've been alive, and i STILL occasionally feel nervous, (as well i should) when i get to new things, things i am unfamiliar with, etc.

You will be fine! I'll look for that thread on HH tips that someone else wrote, it was quite good.

Awww thank you so much , ur so sweet. Well i dont think my nerves help much since i broke the insulin syringe and had to replace it thanks to my nervous hands... I was never this nervous in clinical rotations, i dont know what is happening , im scared of patients :/ and this nervousness and shakiness is bringin me down

Awww thank you so much , ur so sweet. Well i dont think my nerves help much since i broke the insulin syringe and had to replace it thanks to my nervous hands... I was never this nervous in clinical rotations, i dont know what is happening , im scared of patients :/ and this nervousness and shakiness is bringin me down

well, at least you have an excuse, you are new at this, and most all new nurses are nervous to one extent or another. Me, i'm just a klutz, and bust up stuff all the time.

My all time most dramatic bust up of something----right smack in the middle of a code,

we are infusing blood, with a pressure bag on it. Lotta pressure in the bag, okay? (cuz of this device one can slip over an IV bag, to squeeeeeze that IV bag, to increase speed of infusion). This is back when we thought you couldn't put blood through infusion-pumps.

so the blood isn't infusing. We are checking site, doing all that stuff we do when iv's don't infuse well, flushing it with normal saline, pulling back a bit on the site, etc,

Here comes the funny part, the doc says, "milk the tubing! milk the tubing!" This is when you kinda run your fingers down the tubing, kinda sorta squeezing the tubing just a bit, as you move your hand down the IV tubing..... to get it going. It's kinda risky move, ------------which is why we don't do this anymore

cuz, if the blood IS clotted up in the IV tubing, well then, you just pushed a clot into the patient, but, anyways, it's a code, and we are losing him and the doc is hollering to milk the tubing..

so i milk the tubing. Still nothing.

I milk the IV tubing a bit harder, and even though i was holding the upper part of the tubing, and 'milking' the tubing with lower hand,

somehow, in my klutziness-------------i pulled the IV tubing completely OUT OF THE BAG OF BLOOD, which is, in a PRESSURE BAG!!! SO NOW---------THE BAG OF BLOOD IS JUST SPRAYING ALL OUT, ALL OVER EVERYONE, swinging around wildly, just coating us all in blood.......

what a sight. Picture it, a code, and hanging above the code, is a bag of blood swinging wildly about, spraying EVERYONE with blood at a very fast clip.

Not like dripping, morelike your garden hose on jet spray.

I could not get ahold of that bag, to release the pressure bag, or to stab the IV tubing back in, (if only to stop the gusher, and we could d/c it in another moment)

or anything, was like that scene in that movie about the witch teenager who gets doused with blood. The entire code team all looked some kinda scarey movie or something. Whhhhhhat a nightmare.

(luckily, this was before HIV hit the USA, no one had heard of it back then, but still, there's other blood borne diseases too.)

SEE? It could be worse!! Be glad you weren't me, eh? OH my, it was years and years til i ever lived THAT one down....

see, your measley busted syring, not so bad, eh?

lol, well, that probably did NOT make you feel better...sorry. Not to worry, this nervous thing is kinda normal, and it does pass, and for now, be secretly grateful that you are smart enough to be nervous, and keep telling yourself it passes,and it IS a good thing, for now anyway.

Any brand new nurse that WASN'T even a little bit nervous, would make me and everyone else nervous!! ha ha!!

Jean Marie- hilarious story!! Well told, could totally picture the seen! Lol!

Jean Marie- hilarious story!! Well told, could totally picture the seen! Lol!

oh i know, isn't that one for the books or what? WORST nursing story ever? do i win? does the OP now feel her breaking a syringe is not such a big deal? ha ha!!

Hahahah thank you for.your words!!! I know it couldve been worse, but im a new nurse so i see everything big now :/ .... Well yesterday i had the patient again and at least i didnt break the needle lol ... By the way tomorrow i have to admimister insulin to the DON's father lol

oh i know, isn't that one for the books or what? WORST nursing story ever? do i win? does the OP now feel her breaking a syringe is not such a big deal? ha ha!!

I sent you a pm

To lalalulu, do feel free to post your questions on the forums, too, there is NO dumb question. It's important, for any nurse, especially a new nurse,

to feel free to ASK. All of us nurses get to things we do NOT know, and it is part of our duty to ASK when we reach that point. Doesn't matter how long one has been a nurse, if we don't know, we have to learn, have to ask, have to get help to know what to do.

Never ever be afraid to ask or learn the new thing you need to know. Even if it something you feel you "should already know", if you don't know, ask. So long as you do that, you will be safe.

Feel free to post your questions on the forum somewhere. BEST OF LUCK, and DO hang in there, and this nervous thing does ease on back, in time, it will, promise!!

Yes i posted it, thank you so much for ur help ... Being a new nurse sucks lmao !!!

My advise is plan your visit ahead of time. Follow your script. Eventually you'll develop your own flow, but at first follow a script.