Made a huge mistake as a new grad

FiremedicMike, BSN, RN, EMT-P · Jan 19

Unless you have completely toxic management, this shouldn't be any more than a counseling/education discussion.

I've never done this by I've seen it happen. I don't really know how it happens, but I was a medic before a nurse and medic school puts significantly more energy into IV training and requirements before graduation. IV training in nursing school was all of 30 mins for me with no requirements to perform any live IVs for graduation.

Don't sweat it, learn from it and don't do it again.

RatherBHiking, BSN, RN · Jan 20

Every single nurse has made a dumb mistake at some point or will. We are all human. Don't beat yourself up. Learn from it and move on. Thankfully no major harm was done. I bet you'll never make that mistake again!

Also things you want to tell the next nurse, keep a little post it note and write down things the moment you think of them. It's SO easy to get distracted and forget things.

Don't get defensive if they come to talk to you. Just agree you made a dumb mistake and learned from it. You'll be fine!

delrionurse · Jan 21

"and when I got report the next day, the nurse told me she had to report me to management"

What kind of place do you work at? This is why some places never see nurses again, for rude behavior like this.

Nurse Meg, BSN, RN · Jan 21

I think its most important to own your mistake, which it sounds like you did once made aware of it.

When speaking with leadership, focus on discussing what steps you'll take to minimize the chances of a similar mistake happening again. The good news is that there was no harm to the patient. Take some time to review your hospital's policies on IV lines and include that in your discussion. This shows that you've taken the initiative to educate yourself on best practices and policy.

As for the expired PIV, technically that's something that the receiving nurse should have caught as well since the line should be labeled in the EMR and on the line itself. While yes, this should have been discussed during shift report - takes two to tango (you give a report and I ask questions about the report I received - bonus: report done at the bedside to corroborate the report). Also - as a former Stepdown IMC nurse. If I have a patient on a Cardiac drip and its still working -& I need to keep that access until I have a better option - clinical judgements must be made backed up by a provider order to keep line. I know that wasn't exactly the case here but just for the future if things come down the wire.

All in all - We all make mistakes, but its really about how you handle them. Good luck with your discussion, and come back and tell us how it goes !

Ruby Vee, BSN · Jan 22

At least it wasn't an infusion of chemotherapy. I did that once, back in 1980 when working on a heme/oncology floor before I went into ICU. I did get talked to by management, written up and got some extra education by the IV therapy team. (That was a good thing -- it really improved my IV skills. If they want to "punish" you that way, let them.) The IV infiltrated, there were consequences for the patient. He asked to see me the next day and I was scared to death -- he was a lawyer, I thought he would sue me. Turns out that what he actually said was nurses are human, and humans make mistakes. It could have been worse, and he hoped I would be able to stop beating myself up and forgive myself. I have (mostly).

The thing is, we all make mistakes. I've made some big ones. I've caught a few big ones, too. I've had a lot of orientees over four decades, and they've ALL made mistakes. They've also learned from those mistakes, as I'm sure you have too. Somewhere on this site is a thread about the worst mistakes we've ever made, and I've contributed a few. What matters the most is what you do AFTER you make the mistake. (I've written an article about that on this site, too. Please excuse my Boomer Brain for not knowing how to post the link, and lacking sufficient interest to try to figure it out. I have a dog to walk right now.

AnnieOaklyRN, BSN, RN, EMT-P · Jan 26

Ruby Vee said:

At least it wasn't an infusion of chemotherapy. I did that once, back in 1980 when working on a heme/oncology floor before I went into ICU. I did get talked to by management, written up and got some extra education by the IV therapy team. (That was a good thing -- it really improved my IV skills. If they want to "punish" you that way, let them.) The IV infiltrated, there were consequences for the patient. He asked to see me the next day and I was scared to death -- he was a lawyer, I thought he would sue me. Turns out that what he actually said was nurses are human, and humans make mistakes. It could have been worse, and he hoped I would be able to stop beating myself up and forgive myself. I have (mostly).

The thing is, we all make mistakes. I've made some big ones. I've caught a few big ones, too. I've had a lot of orientees over four decades, and they've ALL made mistakes. They've also learned from those mistakes, as I'm sure you have too. Somewhere on this site is a thread about the worst mistakes we've ever made, and I've contributed a few. What matters the most is what you do AFTER you make the mistake. (I've written an article about that on this site, too. Please excuse my Boomer Brain for not knowing how to post the link, and lacking sufficient interest to try to figure it out. I have a dog to walk right now.

Honestly, Amiodarone can be just as bad as chemo when it comes to being a vesicant and injuring soft tissue. It can cause significant tissue destruction if left untreated! Glad you learned, most nurses don't take extravasations seriously, and they can lead to lawsuits if tissue damage occurs, which is another reason to have a vascular access team!! As a team we monitor and treat all of the extravasations at our hospital, so it off loads that from the bedside nurses' plate!

-Annie

emtpbill, ASN, RN, EMT-P · Jan 27

While yes, putting in an IV backwards can be bad, don't beat yourself up too much about it. I bet you'll never do that again, learn from it. Also, and this is only my opinion which in the grand scheme of things means very very little, stick up for yourself. Play off it. If someone says something about it in a public area about it use some light brevity and say something like "trust me, ill never make that error again" and people will forget and move on .

DallasRN · Jan 29

RatherBHiking said:

Every single nurse has made a dumb mistake at some point or will. We are all human. Don't beat yourself up. Learn from it and move on. Thankfully no major harm was done. I bet you'll never make that mistake again!

Also things you want to tell the next nurse, keep a little post it note and write down things the moment you think of them. It's SO easy to get distracted and forget things.

Don't get defensive if they come to talk to you. Just agree you made a dumb mistake and learned from it. You'll be fine!

I especially like the comment about keeping notes on things to pass on to the next shift. So easy to forget things in the hustle-bustle of shift change.

Aesopian · Jan 29

delrionurse said:

"and when I got report the next day, the nurse told me she had to report me to management"

What kind of place do you work at? This is why some places never see nurses again, for rude behavior like this.

I agree. That was an extremely rude and crude thing to do to a coworker. Did you both do walking rounds and check the lines before the hand off? That usually helps to catch things like this.

Peaceofnurse · Jan 29

delrionurse said:

"and when I got report the next day, the nurse told me she had to report me to management"

What kind of place do you work at? This is why some places never see nurses again, for rude behavior like this.

I felt really bad about what happened. My co-workers (in nightshift) are all very nice and helpful. But sometimes day shift nurses, especially the older ones, can be a little mean. I don't know if mean is the right word but they can sometimes just say things without a filter or they tend to report things a lot more often. I hope that doesn't come off the wrong way but some older day shift nurses in my unit tend to just be a little irritable. I totally understand though because burnout is a real thing.

I do feel really bad about what happened and I know it's my fault. I take full accountability and I made a promise to management that I won't make this mistake again.

Thankfully our nurse manager is very nice and she never made me feel bad about what happened. She was just kinda like "Oh well, I bet you won't do it again ha ha"

Aesopian said:

I agree. That was an extremely rude and crude thing to do to a coworker. Did you both do walking rounds and check the lines before the hand off? That usually helps to catch things like this.

I offered to do a 2nd bedside RN check (it's our protocol). But she said "I still have to get report from one patient. I'll go there when I can.” So we ended up not going in together. That was my fault too because I should've still known in the first place that I did the IV wrong 😞 I'm just thankful now that nothing bad actually happened. Definitely won't make the same mistake again

Peaceofnurse · Jan 29

FiremedicMike said:

Unless you have completely toxic management, this shouldn't be any more than a counseling/education discussion.

I've never done this by I've seen it happen. I don't really know how it happens, but I was a medic before a nurse and medic school puts significantly more energy into IV training and requirements before graduation. IV training in nursing school was all of 30 mins for me with no requirements to perform any live IVs for graduation.

Don't sweat it, learn from it and don't do it again.

Thank you! I definitely won't make this mistake again. I was so scared they were going to fire me but all is well! My nurse manager was very kind and understanding about what happened.