Im very sad, I made my patient fall

[ava'smomRN]

so, the patient comes up from the ER an 80 year old man. i was taking his vital signs and he seemed alert and oriented, he was sitting on the edge of the bed ok and asks to go to the bathroom. so i walk him in and i should have known to be careful because when i stood him up he was kinda wobbly. not a second after i walk out the bathroom i hear the "boom", and i knew it he was on the floor. everyone comes rushing in and i feel the most unqualified, incompetent nurses aide/future nurse ever. i knew better than to get a patient up without asking, but it was all so fast and he seemed ok. he wasnt hurt or anything, but i learn after the fact that he was in the hospital becasue he passed out in a resturant and was supposed to be on bedrest, so he had no business up anyway:nono:

i feel horrible, not just because i made a mistake, but because my actions are affecting so many other people. i caused my patient pain, the nurse has to do all kind of extra paper work, the doctor had to come in to see him, the nurse is also probably getting blamed and yelled at. all of this because of me, this sucks, i bet all the nurses on thefloor hate my guts now and think that i am a unsafe NA.

this all happened around 1055, my shift was to be over at 11, normally i am off the floor by 1055, but i was trying to be helpful and get vitals for the nurse because i knew she was busy. i guess thats what i get for trying to help.

thanks for letting me vent guys. if anyone has any similar situations i wouldnt mind hearing them

[leslie :-D]

i still think that any nsg asst who does not receive report, should go the the DON and share their concerns. it's just too dangerous not to give report.

leslie

[cherokeesummer]

This may be a stupid question but can you get fired for a fall? If its the first time and nobody was hurt they wouldn't try to fire someone for a fall would they? What if the patient came back and sued later? I worry about these things all the time the way ppl are so sue happy these days!

I'd really like to hear more from those nurses who have had falls and what tips they have for preventing them in the future.

[stefano]

:banghead:awww..

[nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN]

There are 2 kinds of nurses (or CNAs or NAs) --

Those who have had a patient fall

Those who haven't had a patient fall -- yet.

Two weeks off orientation, still nervous as a cat and thinking I'm 30 seconds from killing everyone I touch, I get a nice sweet guy, a little disoriented, CHF but okay, and I come in the room and he's standing there looking out the window.

He's also peeing into the heat register.

I get him back to the chair, take off his non-skid booties because they are soaked with urine, tell him NOT TO MOVE, set the chair alarm and go out the door to get clean booties. One minute, half way to the supply room -- chair alarm goes off and BOOM. He's gotten up, done 2 complete twists in the IV line, and is lying head first under the sink, huge scalp lac that's bleeding all over because he's on blood thinners. I'm practically hysterical, thinking I've killed him, he's going to have a head injury, he's going to have a brain bleed, I'm going to have ruined him for LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIFE..............

Guess what. He fell. He bumped his head. He was fine, and I learned that a chair alarm may -- may -- give you a ten second warning, but won't keep someone from falling. Now if someone disoriented pees or bleeds all over their booties, I hit the button and get someone else to bring the booties and get them in bed with the rails up.

It does get better.:icon_hug:

[momandstudent]

Do not bang your head over this too badly. I would be surprised to see how many NAs/nurses HAVE NOT had a pt. fall on them. When I worked as an NA at a LTC facility, I was giving a bath to my aunt's mother (my aunt also worked as an NA at the same LTC and she was also working that day). Anyways, I had her in the bath chair and we had been telling maintenance to fix the belt for weeks because it was really frayed and would loosen from the clasp . Well, I had the bath over and had her in the chair up in the air when the belt started coming REALLY loose and she bagan to slip out of the chair. She was about 200 lbs. and I was 6 months pregnant. I yelled for another NA because I could not reach the call light and the pt. began to slip even further out of the chair before the NA could get to us. I lowered the chair as much as possible before I knew she was going to be completely on the floor. I ended up blocking the majority of the fall but she did end up with a small cut on her forehead (from hitting the tub) but it could have been much worse. I started crying because of fear what my aunt would say to me and because I felt bad for the patient. We got the her back to her room after the nurse assessed her and my aunt came in and just gave me the biggest hug. I balled like the biggest baby and she said it could have happened to any aide/patient-even her. The patient was fine and needless to say-by the end of the day, the bath chair had a NEW belt on it. My aunt had worked there for almost 30 years so she had a little power.