Made a mistake. Cna

Nursing Students CNA/MA

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Hello. I am really worried right now. I made a mistake by not closing the clamp on the catheter bag on a pt and there was urine all over the floor while I was doing my rounds. To make it worse, the family saw it and the supervisor was in there with them when I went in. The supervisor and the family didnt look upset but I felt horrified. The family even helped me clean the floor after I said they didn't need to. And the supervisor told me how to sanitize the floor. Would I be fired for something like this? I definitely learned my lesson.

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Accidents happen. I think as long as you cleaned it up and sanitized it you will be fine. Maybe just to play it safe talk to your supervisor the next time you see them and apologize again for what happened and tell them it will never happen again.

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Specializes in Neuro, Telemetry.

Lol. If you get fired for something as trivial as getting urine on this floor, it's not a place you should be working anyway. As long as the tip of the tube wasnt rolling around in infectious material, the spilling of the urine is really the worst that could happen. Your "punishment" is having to clean up the mess. As long as you don't make habits of this kind of mistake you will be fine.

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Specializes in ER.

Most places won't unless they were looking for a reason to fire you. I've accidentally dumped urine countless times on the floor such as bumping the urinal or not fully clamping the urine bag. It happens and some foley bags have crappy clamps.

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Specializes in Peds/Neo CCT,Flight, ER, Hem/Onc.

On a scale of 0-10 with 10 being the worst thing you can do this is a negative 10!!!!! Bless you for being so conscientious but you are worrying too much over something so minor as to be trivial. It barely qualifies as a mistake. I'd call it an oopsie and if I was the nurse assigned with you I'd be right there helping clean it up.

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Specializes in Hospice.

This is a mistake most of us, Nurses included, make once. After I did it oh so many years ago, double and triple checking that clamp became second nature lol. It even became a part of teaching families of home patients the ins and outs of Foley management.

This is NOT a hanging offense. Take a deep breath, and keep going.

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Specializes in Hospice.
Accidents happen. I think as long as you cleaned it up and sanitized it you will be fine. Maybe just to play it safe talk to your supervisor the next time you see them and apologize again for what happened and tell them it will never happen again.

Why? She apologized once and cleaned it up. The Supervisor has likely forgotten all about it, and has more pressing matters on her mind.

Self-flagellation just makes people look at you funny, and makes you appear weak and indecisive. Better for OP to move on as well, and show by her actions that she learned from her (small) mistake.

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Specializes in PCT, RN.

I can't even tell you how many times this has happened between me and my coworkers lol.

It really is not a big deal. Just a minor oops. A little gross, but the resident wasn't in danger and nothing bad resulted from it.

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Specializes in CMSRN.

This is SMALL in comparison to many other mistakes that could be made. It happens to most healthcare workers at some point or another. You clean it up and move on.

I actually would recommend you do NOT apologize again. You corrected the error, apologized, and cleaned up the mess. To apologize now would put far too much emphasis on it and make it seem as if you don't realize it's not that big a deal. Shake it off and keep doing a good job. 😊

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Thank you! Yeah after I cleaned it up I told the RN what happened since she didn't know about it yet and she laughed saying it's no big deal and I didn't say a word about it after. I just told the supervisor it was cleaned up and we went about our night. I guess because it was the first time it happened to me I didn't know how to react. By the time I clocked out I'm sure it was old news.

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It's pee. It's not life threatening, it's not a big deal. Glad you're not stressing any more. :)

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I can definitely see spilling urine on the floor especially at the end of your shift after you have lifted 13 patients, got them dressed and changed/cleaned them. So no, she shouldn't be upset. The family and the supervisor really should be grateful that you are taking care of the pt. and spills do happen. It is not like you spilled it on the pt.

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