Kicked out of nursing school for leaving a bed in the high position...

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I'm at a loss for words.

Yesterday I left a patients bed up to go grab some wipes. My instructor walked in and saw that the bed was in the high position while I was gone. This was what got me kicked out of nursing school.

I always thought that school was a place to learn, and to grow. To make mistakes.

There were other incidences like putting nystatin cream on a patient after report, leaving colace at the bedside because I needed a liquid preparation because my patient wouldn't swallow (d/t confusion), for answering a patients friends question (knowing the patient knew him for 20+ years, but since I did not directly ask permission it was violating hippa, and lastly, for the whole bed incident.

I don't want to blame my clinical instructor for my failure. But I just wish I didn't make those mistakes.

Any advice would make me feel better.

Thank you in advance.

I say PA because it is within the health care field, but it is not involved with direct patient care (e.g., wiping @$$ while raising beds). And I do have more than a half a brain somewhere. But now that I am being kicked while I'm down, maybe I'll consider hairdressing, or waitressing. Or wait, maybe since I may drop a steaming hot bowl of soup on somebody or nick someones head, I'll just remain jobless, stay home and make it safer for everyone.

Thank you LVN and a few others for giving me some hope.

Wow...

The PA's I work with pull chest tubes, transcutaneous pacemaker wires, and a whole host of other issues that are directly involved in direct patient care.

It may not be pericare...but if that is how you feel nursing is, then frankly, I am glad you aren't going to be one. Sorry, I can't sugar coat it.

Specializes in Med-surg, Cardiac ICU, Maternity.

If anyone believe that nursing care only applies to patients, I wouldn't like to know how they treat everyone else.

That is the flaw in this field. We get so burnt out from caring for people all the time that we forget to treat everyone else with respect, and care.

There is nothing stated on the BON website that says I cannot go to the BON. They can laugh in my face but at least I stood up for something. It says on the BON page, "ALLEGATIONS MAY INCLUDE gross negligence or incompetence, unprofessional conduct, license application fraud, misrepresentation, substance abuse, mental illness and unlicensed activity." I just found out through the grapevine that my CI is a raging alcoholic. And I have evidence to prove this. I also have a laywer boyfriend and he happens to know the dean of the college. Not saying that I'm going to go through with anything but I could definitely make a dent in her reputation. She should not be teaching if she has substance abuse issues. I fear for the future nursing students who get her as a clinical instructor.

I have learned from my mistakes. I understand why I am no longer in the running to becoming america's next best nurse. But I think its alright to make a little post here so everyone else can also learn from my mistakes. And get a little support. You don't know me, you haven't worked with me in the hospital for 6 years. But you are a community of nurses and pre-nurses who can help me see other points of view and alternatives. And that broadens my perspective and will help me understand, and move on.

Thanks again for all your comments.

I'm at a loss for words.

Yesterday I left a patients bed up to go grab some wipes. My instructor walked in and saw that the bed was in the high position while I was gone. This was what got me kicked out of nursing school.

I always thought that school was a place to learn, and to grow. To make mistakes.

There were other incidences like putting nystatin cream on a patient after report, leaving colace at the bedside because I needed a liquid preparation because my patient wouldn't swallow (d/t confusion), for answering a patients friends question (knowing the patient knew him for 20+ years, but since I did not directly ask permission it was violating hippa, and lastly, for the whole bed incident.

I don't want to blame my clinical instructor for my failure. But I just wish I didn't make those mistakes.

Any advice would make me feel better.

Thank you in advance.

I will be totally honest with you; a HIPPA violation of any kind at my program, no matter how small, results in automatic expulsion of the violating student, no questions asked. If we give information without patient permission, we're gone, if we take any identifying information home with us (whether intentionally or by mistake) we're gone, if we are caught discussing our patient by name or identifying information at lunch, in class, in the elevator, or in situations where the information isn't pertinent, we're gone. Our instructor takes up all papers that she has given us throughout the day that have a patient name, G number, SSN, etc on them. If we fail to turn one of these papers back in, whether we have lost it, still have it on our person, or have thrown it away, we are finished for good. HIPPA is a HUGE deal, and violating it has serious consequences whether you are an RN or a student. My next concern is that you titled this post, "Kicked out of nursing school for leaving a bed in the high position." It is almost as if feel that the other errors you made aren't that serious, when in fact the HIPPA violation and leaving medication at the bedside are two of the biggest issues. Yes, nursing school is about learning, about making mistakes, and about learning from those mistakes, however, you can only make so many mistakes in one semester before your ability to practice safely is called into question. Here's a scenario for you, hopefully it will illustrate my point: You go into your confused patient's room with her colace tablet that you hope to get her to swallow. Due to her confusion, she refuses to take the pill, and you rush out of the room to get liquid colace. Because you are in a hurry to make sure that your meds are given on time, you leave the bed in high position and don't check to ensure that the side rails are up. While you are gone, your confused patient decides that she needs to go to the restroom, and doesn't realize that her bed is in high position. Thinking that she is close to the ground, your patient sits up, and falls face first into the floor, smashing her head against the floor. She is knocked unconscious, and, due to the noise on the floor and her distance from the nursing station, no one hears her fall. It takes you several minutes to call the physician, notify him that you would like to switch to liquid colace, take a telephone order for the med, and get the medication from your Pyxis, and when you return to your patient's room 25 minutes later, you find her. Your patient had a myriad of health problems when she was admitted, and she was taking Warfarin in addition to many other medications. Because of this, your patient's blood is thinner than normal, and she is more prone to bleeding conditions. When your patient hit her head on the floor, she suffered a subdural hematoma, and has been bleeding for at least 20 minutes. You call the rapid response team and the physician, and your patient is intubated, sent for a head CT and then rushed to neuro ICU. The patient remains in NSICU for a week, but, due to her preexisting medical problems and the severity of her head injury, she is in a downward spiral until she codes and isn't successfully resuscitated. I know that sounds drastic, but things like that can happen. At the very least, your patient can fall out of bed and break bones, injure muscles and ligaments, and get bruised pretty badly. Here's another scenario: suppose that you take a medication, let's say Percocet, into the patient's room to administer it. When you get to the patient's room, you realize that you have removed the wrong dose of Percocet from the Pyxis. Because your meds will show up as administered late if you don't get them in within the next ten minutes, you rush off to the Pyxis, not realizing that you have left the incorrect dose of Percocet on the patient's bedside table. While you are gone, a member of the patient's family comes in and sees the Percocet lying on the bedside table. He picks the medication up and reads the label on the back. Seeing that the drug is Percocet, the family member decides that he will pocket the drug and take it home with him for recreational use. A few minutes later you come in and administer the correct dose of Percocet to the patient only to realize that you now have two doses of the drug out of the Pyxis within 15 minutes of each other. Realizing that this will look suspicious, you begin to frantically search for the other dose of Percocet so that you can return it and write a note about removing the wrong dose. To your horror, you can't locate the missing dose and, in your frenzy, you forget that left the first dose at the patient's bedside while you went to retrieve the correct dose of the medication. Because you cannot find the dose to return, you are called into the nursing office, questioned extensively, and written up. Some of the nursing staff now suspect that you have stolen a narcotic pain medication from a patient, and they are weary of you for the remainder of your career. My point is that, while these errors may seem trivial to you, an instructor sees these skills as fundamentals and basics, and has to become concerned when you make that many errors. If you had just left the bed in high position, you would have probably gotten a lecture and been told to correct it. If you had just left the colace at the bedside, you would have probably been given a lecture, and been instructed to retrieve the medication and never leave another one unattended. If you had just applied the cream after report, you would have probably been lectured about not providing care after report if at all possible, and about reporting any care provided after your initial report. The HIPPA violation is major, and at my program that alone would have gotten you removed from the RN program. However, when you put all these errors together, and add in a HIPPA violation, it makes you seem as though you don't have a grasp on the fundamentals, it makes you look uneducated and unprepared, and it makes it seem as though you don't have proper time management and foresight. As a nurse you are always looking ahead; each time you give a med, you should consider possible side effects it could have and what you need to assess for in the future. Each time you do vitals or take an assessment, you should be comparing it to the past and anticipating a trend or a change in the future. You should be prepared in the event of an emergency, and you should have a basic guess about what will be happening with your patient in the future based on what their current situation is. In making these errors, you appear as though you don't have that foresight. If you did, you wouldn't have left the bed in high position because you would have thought of a scenario like I made up in your mind. If you did, you wouldn't have left the med at the bedside because you would have thought of a scenario like I made up in your mind. I hate to say it, but I think you're probably out of the program for good, and I don't think anything you say will sway the administrators and instructors at your program.

if anyone believe that nursing care only applies to patients, i wouldn't like to know how they treat everyone else.

that is the flaw in this field. we get so burnt out from caring for people all the time that we forget to treat everyone else with respect, and care.

there is nothing stated on the bon website that says i cannot go to the bon. they can laugh in my face but at least i stood up for something. it says on the bon page, "allegations may include gross negligence or incompetence, unprofessional conduct, license application fraud, misrepresentation, substance abuse, mental illness and unlicensed activity." i just found out through the grapevine that my ci is a raging alcoholic. and i have evidence to prove this. i also have a laywer boyfriend and he happens to know the dean of the college. not saying that i'm going to go through with anything but i could definitely make a dent in her reputation. she should not be teaching if she has substance abuse issues. i fear for the future nursing students who get her as a clinical instructor.

i have learned from my mistakes. i understand why i am no longer in the running to becoming america's next best nurse. but i think its alright to make a little post here so everyone else can also learn from my mistakes. and get a little support. you don't know me, you haven't worked with me in the hospital for 6 years. but you are a community of nurses and pre-nurses who can help me see other points of view and alternatives. and that broadens my perspective and will help me understand, and move on.

thanks again for all your comments.

that is incredibly immature and foul.

i have, at this point, lost any inkling of goodwill for you at this point.

If anyone believe that nursing care only applies to patients, I wouldn't like to know how they treat everyone else.

That is the flaw in this field. We get so burnt out from caring for people all the time that we forget to treat everyone else with respect, and care.

There is nothing stated on the BON website that says I cannot go to the BON. They can laugh in my face but at least I stood up for something. It says on the BON page, "ALLEGATIONS MAY INCLUDE gross negligence or incompetence, unprofessional conduct, license application fraud, misrepresentation, substance abuse, mental illness and unlicensed activity." I just found out through the grapevine that my CI is a raging alcoholic. And I have evidence to prove this. I also have a laywer boyfriend and he happens to know the dean of the college. Not saying that I'm going to go through with anything but I could definitely make a dent in her reputation. She should not be teaching if she has substance abuse issues. I fear for the future nursing students who get her as a clinical instructor.

I have learned from my mistakes. I understand why I am no longer in the running to becoming america's next best nurse. But I think its alright to make a little post here so everyone else can also learn from my mistakes. And get a little support. You don't know me, you haven't worked with me in the hospital for 6 years. But you are a community of nurses and pre-nurses who can help me see other points of view and alternatives. And that broadens my perspective and will help me understand, and move on.

Thanks again for all your comments.

You found out through the grapevine? I wonder what's being said through the grapevine about you since you've been kicked out of the program? I hate to sound harsh, and I know that's how that came out, but you can't trust everything you hear through the grapevine. It's highly immature to even entertain the notion of making allegations against a clinical instructor which could turn out to be totally unfounded and false simply because you are angry and hurt.

Specializes in Med-surg, Cardiac ICU, Maternity.

I also think that is very immature and foul. Would you want an alcoholic teaching you? Or working for your college? Or working with you??

And actually I found out from a reputable source. Like I said, I am probably not going to do anything about this. But what would you do?

Rocketnurse, I feel very sad and dismayed that instead of focusing your efforts on improving yourself, you have turned it towards damaging others. You will ultimately damage yourself.

I bet all the money in the world that you know better than to put credence in gossip if you are not as sad, hurt and angry as you are now.

Any concerns you have for the safety of future nursing students is not nearly as strong as your desire to see those you blame burn to the ground.

:crying2:

I also think that is very immature and foul. Would you want an alcoholic teaching you? Or working for your college? Or working with you??

And actually I found out from a reputable source. Like I said, I am probably not going to do anything about this. But what would you do?

I wouldn't pursue that at all. If I did anything, I would go to the dean of the program, admit that I had made a ton of mistakes, admit that they were mistakes that I shouldn't have made, talk about how I had grown from my mistakes, and my plans to continue growing from these mistakes, talk about ways to prevent them in the future, and then ask if there was any way that I could restart the program. If what you say is true, and the instructors feel like you are meant to be an RN, then something will fall into place. If you can't get back in at the program you were at, then try somewhere else. It may be difficult to get in somewhere else due to this incident, but explain all of this to them and see where it goes. If nursing is what you are passionate about, don't give up this easily. Try one more time. Study harder, think harder, remember what you learned this time, and do your best. There are four people in my class who failed out last year and had to come back this year. That doesn't mean they are stupid, it just means that they weren't ready last time, and they still needed to learn some things about dedication, studying, clinical performance, and hard work. They are back this year, and every one of them is making a B. They've grown, they've learned, and our dean and faculty realized that and they let them back in. I wish you the best, and I hope that you get into another program sometime soon if nursing is really what you want to do. I hate that things turned out this way for you, but I think you can get through it if you apply what you've learned and grow from it.

I also think that is very immature and foul. Would you want an alcoholic teaching you? Or working for your college? Or working with you??

And actually I found out from a reputable source. Like I said, I am probably not going to do anything about this. But what would you do?

Alcoholics can be in recovery. You have no idea how many recovered and rehabilitated addicts there are in the working world, nursing or not.

What would I do? I'd do my best to let the anger pass before I act or speak. That's what.

i also think that is very immature and foul. would you want an alcoholic teaching you? or working for your college? or working with you??

and actually i found out from a reputable source. like i said, i am probably not going to do anything about this. but what would you do?

i'd suck it up, focus on myself, come up with a plan, implement it and move forward,

Specializes in Med-surg, Cardiac ICU, Maternity.

Are you hearing yourselves right now?

You are going to stick up for an alcoholic just because she is an established RN.

She could make a few med errors, drop a couple patients. Oh it's okay, she's a recovering alcoholic. WHAT??

Let's bust out the Ativan on the job.

This is just getting ridiculous.

I have learned a lot alright...

I have a plan. Stop thinking about nursing for a while. Because I have been stressed out for far too long.

I see that mistakes were made BUT we all make them that doesn't make it right but everyone is human. I am in my first year as a new RN and made my first error this eveing.

Every error has its outcomes lucky for me there wasn't one.

I would plead my case if i was you first to the school and see what happens there, i only say this b/c my hospital is a teaching hospital so they are aware that these episodes happen ( not that are exceptible) but have some compassion.

I feel for you as a new nurse myself , i hope it all works out for you.

good luck

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