guilt over forgetting something?

[scimajor]

SO I just worked a 12 hr noc in the ACU, besides the middle which was pretty busy it was good. At 0600 ish another nurse's pt started vomiting what looked like stool, severe back pain, central tremor, chills and fever. So myself, the primary RN and the rapid response RN were all in there for the better part of an hour trying to figure out what was wrong.

Well my pts were all sleeping. But I forgot synthroids for 2 pt and a cardiac med at 0600. My plan was to give it about 0630-0700. And since I realized it I fell super guilty, I know that we are all human and that the next nurse will notice the that it wasn't give and it will be technically 2 hrs late, but no harm should come to him. And tomorrow I will apologize to the day RN.

Does anyone else feel super guilt if you forget things or is it just me.

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

Yeah, I do feel guilty, but for how long varies, lol.

If I was in the middle of a RRT and meds were late, then so be it. I would feel bad for the nurse having to pick up my slack, but stuff happens. The guilt would last until I hit my car.

Now if I totally had a brain meltdown and I forgot something, I would be apologizing to the nurse that had to wrap up something for me and it added to her work load.

[nursefrances, BSN, RN]

Just the other day I forgot to empty a JP drain at the end of the shift. It was not a new surgery/drain, he had it for a while and did not have much drainage. The night nurse I endorsed the patient to is awesome and in afterthought I knew she would catch it but I still felt bad. I realized it, of course, at like 3 am and did not sleep well for the rest of the night. I had to get up at 5:40. This was yesterday, and I am STILL tired. It ended up the night nurse caught it and emptied it no problem. After I arrived for am shift, the surgeon took out the JP first thing in the morning. I told him I had forgotten to empty it when he asked what last out put was (he thought it was 80ml for shift) I told him it was for 24 hours and he didn't blink an eye. He just said, oh..ok.

My first six months as a new grad nurse, it was common to wake up in the middle of the night and worry about something, then I learned to tell mysef, Go to sleep, another nurse is caring for them now. And that usually works.

[NurseLoveJoy88, ASN, RN]

Right now, I'm feeling guilty over something else that happened at work. I promise I will NEVER do it again, hopefully it will be okay. I'm never going to listen to a "veteran nurse" again.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

oh, i wouldn't do that if i were you. it's not veteran-ness that makes some people unreliable as mentors-- you just have to figure out which some of us aren't so bad. don't throw the old lady out with the bathwater.