Guilt after shifts

[Pedsnurse1026]

Lately I have been feeling major guilt after every shift that I work. I am new to my job, but not a new nurse. I so badly want to do well, and I don't want the other nurses to think poorly of me. Today, I had a patient who I started an iv on in her wrist, which worked well and was gotten on the first attempt. She went to Ct and when she came back, she insisted that I remove the iv due to pain. It looked fine and flushed well, but I removed it. She wanted it in her hand, and I tried, but the vein blew. She is elderly and now has a large hematoma from the vein blowing. I tried again on her other arm, and again did not get the vein but no hematoma. I feel so guilty about the bruising and have been ruminating on it for hours. Is it normal to feel this way with a new job? I feel like I'm letting my patients down and making a bad name for myself as a new employee.

[Guest957596]

No tourniquet? What do you recommend instead to get the vein to stand up?

[Cat365]

Also I did offer to redress the iv and I flushed it as well. She was very persistent that she wanted it moved so I did as I was asked. However, my coworker who came to put in the new iv did say something that was sort of a "duh" moment with me, to not remove the old working one before placing my new iv. Seems obvious now, but should have done that.

I had that exact same "duh" moment in almost the exact same situation recently.

[Cat365]

Some of the more experienced nurse on my floor said manual blood pressure cuffs work well without blowing the veins. I've never tried it though.

[bgxyrnf, MSN, RN]

Some of the more experienced nurse on my floor said manual blood pressure cuffs work well without blowing the veins. I've never tried it though.

Our Phillips monitors with automatic BP have a venipuncture mode which works the charm... though sometimes it will time-out before I finish drawing all of my blood tubes if it was a particularly difficult stick or hard-to-find vein.