i had a horrible day at work yesterday. i was in charge of a 35 bed med/ surg / tele unit . i took one patient . he was in for a small PE , stable and up and walking and talking, he was just admitted to increase his INR. he was on lovenox and protonix and of course coumadin. i got so busy at the end of the night i forgot to give him his coumadin before i left at 1800... i remembered this afternoon i forgot to give it to him.... i feel so stupid i deserve a write up , his INR was 1.0 when i left. he did get his lovenox earlier that day.
at the end of the shift i had a patient that needed to be transferred to IMC and alot of families that distract me , plus 2 admits arrived on the floor and it was a mess....
i have made med errors over the 23 years of nursing , and i am hard on myself, because i want the best for my patients. here i am the charge nurse and i forgot to give my patient his coumadin....
Being in charge and having a patient load is a set up for problems.
Admitting having made many med errors is fine, we have all committed them. But after 20+ years of practice they should be extremely rare, if ever.
Take stock of your situation and take a stand before a disaster does it for you.
Just because you have 20+ years doesn't make it horrible. Trying to be charge and have a pt even if its only 1 is horrible. To try and get it all done is a joke. Not to mention as charge your supposed to help the others but s**** when you get so busy you just can't do it all. I agree with above to take a stand before a disaster strikes. The facilities don't appreciate you when you run your a** off like that. You don't get a thanks or anything they just look at what you might have missed. Sorry you had a bad day.
we all had a bad day, i usually don't take pt's when charging... but we had 3 calls offs and the nurses couldn't take anymore patients, we only had 1 cna and i played CNA and had to send a sick man to IMC and had a code in PCU 18 mos old died , i had to go to that code , we had dischares and had 2 admits which i did , because the nurses couldn't take them yet ..
yes my med errors are rare , i have been a nurse a long time and i'm very careful , i take stock in all i do, the day just got crazy and i see now i did the best i could...
i have been a charge nurse for years and a staff nurse for a long time,,, and i still like being a staff nurse better than charge,,, i take care of my 6 patients and leave .. i concentrate on my 6 patients alone, .. lol...
thank you all for your comments it's nice to know we are not alone and it's okay to be human ... give yourselves a big hug for me
I think we all have had these days. I have been a nurse for 2 years and I recently went to work on a med surg floor after working home health since I graduated(more money but less skills). I have felt the same as you for the past few weeks. I started this new job and only got 1 day orientation. I feel overwhelmed at times wondering what I was thinking going from home health to med surg. I am hanging on but with a few tears at the end of a 12 hr. day..... I am hoping it will get better. By the way I didn't even know about this website it is a good thing~!! We can all come here to vent and tell our stories....
yes we all have bad days , i feel much better today about it , i think we all are human but our job makes us superhuman.. or that we have to be that way , and we just are not...
we are pulled many different ways at work ,from families , other nurses and codes and patients ... it's hard to be everything to everyone.. and thats what i try to do...
med /surg is a hard job and how you are feeling is normal.. it will get better... you are a good nurse because you care ...
even for an old dog like me it's hard and things can go crazy very fast , and it's okay to shed a few tears , i know i have in the past ...
give yourself a hug for me and know it will be okay , you are not alone
I am hoping it will get better. By the way I didn't even know about this website it is a good thing~!! We can all come here to vent and tell our stories....
MisterSimba, BSN
296 Posts
Hahahaha!!!! You are hilarious!!!