I send pt home with heplocks!!

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I am a new nurse, sencond week on floor. I was like on a swing today. I was very proud of myself that I maintained this very combatitve and confused elderly pt safe stay on the floor and kept myself sefe from his hitting. Later I gave discharge instruction to the family, and they were very happy. Then after my preceptor told my that nurse manager called for I send pt home with heplocks in his arm, I felt so bad like I could not do things right, dumb, and incompetent. I am getting very nervous, thinking about if what will happen to my preceptor and to me, and questioning if I can be a good nurse at all. Will this episode cause the hopsital ask me to leave? I heard that during orientation they can let a orientee go for any reason they have, is it true?

:crying2::cry:

Specializes in ED, ICU, PACU.

Look at this as a learning experience. I will bet that for the rest of your career in Nursing another hep lock removal will not get by you again. At least that is what I am telling myself after having the same thing happen to me a few weeks ago :imbar

It was the first, and hopefully last, time I did it. All I can say about it is to watch for those patients that are discharged during shift change, especially if you get in report "I got X ready to go and all you have to do is give him the discharge paperwork"

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Look at this as a learning experience. I will bet that for the rest of your career in Nursing another hep lock removal will not get by you again. At least that is what I am telling myself after having the same thing happen to me a few weeks ago :imbar

Thank you so much. I strongly agree with you, and I hope my nurse manager and instructor have the same point view as you. I felt so bad, and depressed thinking I was not good enough. I overslept for 16 hrs-when I depressed I oversleep. I feel better after reading all of your responces.

I do learn from my mistake, in a hard way.:banghead::mad:

Thank you agian, ALL.:redbeathe:bugeyes: Hope I will be fine.

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I'm not sure i'd lose sleep over it. I might be worried. I'd lose sleep if someone died, or perhaps if I'd gotten "called in" to the mangers office or something.

I guess I go home and just forget about it all. It's the only way I can go back and handle it all again the next day!

I had one pt who was SO anxious to go he ust removed his own IV HL the other day. I guess he thought he'd help me out. :uhoh3:

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Try and not be so hard on yourself. We do all make mistakes. You certainly are not a bad nurse because of this. Your charge nurse and preceptor were GREEN at one time too, they just forget to mention it, they were not born with their nursing knowledge, this came after years of experience. Always remember how you felt this first year of nursing and that will make you a GREAT preceptor and charge nurse some day. Hang in there!:mad:

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Specializes in Ortho, Case Management, blabla.
It happened to me. I wasn't fired. :D Of course the doc didn't write to remove it on his discharge orders and we do sometimes send folks home with them. I was new - I felt awful but my preceptor was great about it.

Dutch - techs can remove IV saline locks???????:confused: Wow.

It continues to amaze me the differences in practices in this country. Techs putting in foley catheters, drawing blood, doing ekg's . . . . pretty soon there will be no need for nurses. Techs, CNA's and MA's will do all our work for us.

steph

Techs/CNAs at the hospital I work at in the US can insert foleys - only on certain floors though....they're specially inserviced to learn to do so. As a matter of fact a few of the phlebotomists and EKG techs are actually specially trained CNAs .

On that note, I forgot to take a saline locked IV out one time. Fortunately the pt was a little old lady with a long history of hospital visits. She had already taken it out without a problem (on her ride home, actually) by the time we managed to get her on the phone. The only thing I ever heard about it was that it was brought up during the call-back and the manager was like, "what the heck??" Didn't make that mistake again...

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Specializes in NICU.

It's ultimately your preceptors responsibility, so she can be crabby about having to go remove it if she wants to, but she could have prevented her extra trip.

It doesn't make you a lousy nurse....at all! It's something that will stick in your head forever, and a good lesson learned. One of the things I learned to do early on is go over the discharge planning and paperwork with a fine-tooth comb. There's so much we send people out the door with, that it's easy to overlook something. Not to mention, that some very experienced nurses just do things without really thinking about their steps, and that's hard to teach sometimes.

I hope everyone is very understanding. I certainly don't think it's horrible. Chin up! :)

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Thanks to all of you for the stories that stopped me betting myself. I am fine now, though will still thinking about it time to time.

Today, I saw my preceptor first, and I heard "Don't worry, nothing will happen", next, nursing manager: "That was not good. You need be careful next time", and last my instructor "I know you forgot. Next time do it right after you get the discharge order."

Thanks for everyone's understanding,:bow::redbeathe:bow:. I gusse it will stick in my head forever. And since I am new, I will make a discharge list and hope I will have time for checking off.

I still don't know how bad it is. For in school, my profs. stressed so much. Guess it diffs from pt to pt-if happens to drug seekers and over dose them self, I might get in trouble :uhoh21:. Fortunatly I got a lesson from a "Safe" pt.

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Look at this as a learning experience. I will bet that for the rest of your career in Nursing another hep lock removal will not get by you again. At least that is what I am telling myself after having the same thing happen to me a few weeks ago :imbar

Thank you so much. I strongly agree with you, and I hope my nurse manager and instructor have the same point view as you. I felt so bad, and depressed thinking I was not good enough. I overslept for 16 hrs-when I depressed I oversleep. I feel better after reading all of your responces.

I do learn from my mistake, in a hard way.:banghead::mad:

Thank you agian, ALL.:redbeathe:bugeyes: Hope I will be fine.

Honestly I think in the scheme of things that's a pretty small error... If I make a mistake I try not to freak unless it could hurt the patient- and there are so many things that could go wrong, undetected, or forgotten that could!

I've precepted, too, and if my student or new RN did that I would still consider it my responsibility.

BTW I just sent a patient home with a hep lock... luckily the family caught it before they left the parking lot and called the floor. I went down to their car armed with some gloves, tape, and 2x2's... I was embarassed but they were really gracious about it.

When i first started another nurse sent a patient home with one and a home health care nurse had to be sent to the patient's home to remove it. whoops!

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Dont sweat it. Let it go, move on. More mistakes and learning opportunities await you. You will never be perfect - none of us are. Just do your best and remain vigilant. You will be reassuring someone else in a couple of years!

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Specializes in CCU/MED-SURG.

I once had a Nursing Manager send a patient out with a Central Line that was to be D/C'd prior to discharge .

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Specializes in ED/trauma.

BTW I just sent a patient home with a hep lock... luckily the family caught it before they left the parking lot and called the floor. I went down to their car armed with some gloves, tape, and 2x2's... I was embarassed but they were really gracious about it.

When i first started another nurse sent a patient home with one and a home health care nurse had to be sent to the patient's home to remove it. whoops!

After reading the initial post, I think it would remind me to always make sure I've removed the IV. But, go figure, I forgot last week! I was giving my pt all her d/c info. She and her husband were in a hurry to leave after waiting several hours for d/c orders. After finishing the paperwork, I looked at her arms and didn't see the IV, so I spaced and assumed it was removed. (Duh! By who?!) About 5 or 10 mins later, I got a call from someone at the front desk, saying the pt was downstairs and the IV was still in her arm... and needed to be removed. :smackingf

I went down, armed as you were, and took it out to send her off!

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

Didn't happen to me personally but a nurse i used to work with told me that she admitted a patient - drug seeking type in and out of the hospital all the time -and he came toting his own heplock from outside... not a medic job, not a transfer, but definitely something that had been smuggled out of another facility and used on the street until it infiltrated and was no longer an easy access point for him. Of course he was thoroughly checked and all hep locks removed before he left our unit.

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