I got a verbal warning :(

ffweste · Mar 6, 2008

No worries! You kept sterile technique, that is the most important part of the procedure. You were be careful, as you perform the procedure more, you will gain a little more speed. I am sorry that you got a warning but remember patient safety and prevention of infection is key - and you did that! In my eyes you didn't do anything wrong.

hikernurse · Mar 6, 2008

I guess you should have dashed through the procedure, regardless of the pain level of the patient and your own proficiency? It sounds like you did everything right.

You met the needs of the patient, pain-wise and you kept the dressing change sterile. Maybe I shouldn't say this, but all the dressing changes I do at work don't always flow as smoothly as I'd like them to, either :rolleyes: .

Don't let this throw you, you're doing well :).

And can't you wait to change your name from "jadedstudent" to "newnurse" or something along those lines .

FireStarterRN, BSN, RN · Mar 6, 2008

The irony of this is, in nursing school we got so much on sterile dressings. But, in my real world of nursing, most patient's have drains who come out of surgery, and I rarely, rarely do sterile dressing changes. I work in a small ICU/Stepdown unit, and I float frequently to Med/Surg. I'll go months without doing a sterile drsg change.

I'm not saying you don't need to learn steril technique, but there were some things that I do all the time that were barely touched on in school.

dawn00710 · Mar 7, 2008

hey you, I think you know who this is since we were talking about this forum today at lunch Hang in there you know that the warning was crap and we both need to keep our confidence up. Remeber we know what we are doing. and we are almost done. :yelclap:

APBT mom, LPN, RN · Mar 7, 2008

I just want to say that you did nothing wrong. You knew that your patient was in pain and went slow to prevent anymore pain than you had to and you didn't break sterile field. Who cares how long it took as long as it was done right. Once you do it a few times you'll cut your time down. What was the instructors reasoning for saying that it didn't go smoothly?

sistasoul · Mar 7, 2008

Hi everyone, I had a pretty bad clinical day today..I did a sterile central dressing change and used proper sterile technique.I went slow due to the Pt.s pain level during the procedure. When I was done,( about 25 minutes later)Pt said I did a good job..etc....I didn't do the procedure fast enough and it didn't flow as smoothly as it should have been, so I got a written warning. Any comments? thanks

Hello Jaded,

I am in my last semester of school and i have an instructor I am sure is out to get me. This instructor is known for singling out one student every clinical and just giving them a hard time all around. This woman has handed me back a a care plan 4 times to redo. I have always had great paperwork in all of my other rotations but this woman is now starting to hand me back stuff now? I graduate in May. Redoing clinical paperwork has cost me so much time that I barely passed the first test.

My self-esteem is pretty low because of this woman and a good friend of mine in school sent me the following article:

"Many nurse educators thrive on the feeling of superiority that comes from controlling students and junior faculty and their futures. This abuse of power is related to feelings of inadequacy, insecurity, discontent, and personal envy, often with a "Jekyll and Hyde" component. Individual educators are only part of the quandary. Some academic centers subscribe to the steadfast education philosophy that students need to suffer in order to learn. Nursing curricula, testing, and grading are exhausting and often based on minutiae. Clinical paperwork can be monumental, and unrealistic expectations of both students and junior faculty abound. A number of education institutions merely give "lip service" to adult

learning principles and place minimal value on students' past experiences or their right to be treated as an adult. Some educators even go as far as to brag about their program's

attrition rate as a correlation to the program's rigor and superiority."

I felt better after reading this as it is a known fact that some instructors get there feelings of self worth by "picking on" those they deem weaker. The worst thing is that you have to just take whatever they dish out because they hold your future in their hands.

Hang in there. Some instructors are actually uplifting.

Sorry for the length. Nurse wannabee

queenjean · Mar 7, 2008

I'm sorry you got a written warning.

Is that a typical means of providing creative criticism, or is there more to the story here? What else did your instructor say to you that may give you some clues as to why you received your warning?

The verybest thing you can do is examine what you did right, what you would have done better, and then improve the care you provide.

Reasons for not going slowly on a dressing change: the longer the wound is open to air, the longer it is exposed to airborne microbes/drying, etc; the positions that are required of the pt while performing a dressing change are often uncomfortable; even if the pt said it was fine, a dressing change can often be a very uncomfortable activity for a pt (painful as well as emotionally distressing) so in general the quicker the better; while you are performing a dressing change, that pt is unavailable to other practitioners for consults, assessments, therapy, and tests; in the real world you will have many pts that you are responsible for, and taking a long time doing a dressing change means that you will be unavailable to all your other pts during that time. These may be the reasons your instructor wishes for you to increase your speed during a dressing change.

Nursing school is time to learn. Learn from what you do well, learn from your mistakes, examine all criticism (even that which doesn't seem to make sense initially). If you have this attitude, you will learn so much. If you learn to apply the criticism to your practice without taking it personally, you will be happier, too. Nursing school is hard on the soul, taking things personally just makes it worse.

Good luck! Hope this helps.