Mistake...

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Hello, everyone. I am in my last semester of nursing school, and just finished my second day of critical care clinical. However, I left the floor feeling like a failure and stupid. My client had a low BP, and when I told my co-assign, she started worrying. We both entered the room to re-check the BP, and it was still low. She asked why I had not told her sooner. It was about 30 to 45minutes after I had taken it. I felt horrible, and was so busy trying to catch up on paperwork and things, that I spaced. My co-assign was working on other paperwork, and by the time I talked with her it was later than she would have preferred. I felt horrible! I am there to learn and just do not like being scorned. I take responsibility for my actions. I apologized, but left feeling like, wow, maybe I should not be doing this. I love the profession and caring for others, but times like these make be question if I am fit for it.

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Hello, everyone. I am in my last semester of nursing school, and just finished my second day of critical care clinical. However, I left the floor feeling like a failure and stupid. My client had a low BP, and when I told my co-assign, she started worrying. We both entered the room to re-check the BP, and it was still low. She asked why I had not told her sooner. It was about 30 to 45minutes after I had taken it. I felt horrible, and was so busy trying to catch up on paperwork and things, that I spaced. My co-assign was working on other paperwork, and by the time I talked with her it was later than she would have preferred. I felt horrible! I am there to learn and just do not like being scorned. I take responsibility for my actions. I apologized, but left feeling like, wow, maybe I should not be doing this. I love the profession and caring for others, but times like these make be question if I am fit for it.

You didnt follow up as you were supposed to,learn from it,move on and next time make sure to report change in pt condition...trust me when I was in nursing school I had to learn it the hard way...I was so overwhelmed and stressed out by clinical instructors that sometimes I was more task oriented than actally problem oriented..like once I remember I did my last clinical rotation on a tele floor and my pt;an elderly sweet lady informed she is having a small chest pain.I did let my instructor and the nurse know (suprsingly the nurse just sorta ignored my observation) but thank God my instructor didnt and told me to DROP everything else (as I stupidly processed to walk out of the pt room to see my other pt-I had two at that time) and watch closely this pt..thank God the chest pain didnt progress to anything else..but I just want to tell you that sometimes even seasoned nurses act so careless,let alone a nursing students.I lucked out and my instructor was very understanding and realized that I was under a lot of stress and task oriented rather than problem oriented but she gave me a good advice and a lesson at the same time,prioritize,follow ABC guideliness....also remeber that nurses trust our judgment even though we are just a lowely nursing students--I had numerous of times nurse trusting my nursing judgement and she called the MD for order change.

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Specializes in ED. ICU, PICU, infection prevention, aeromedical e.

As a critical care nurse, I would not have blamed the student, but myself. If a student is under me, it is still my patient and my responsibility to do my own assessment and monitoring of the patient. So don't beat yourself up.

When I walked out feeling beat up as a new grad, I remember telling myself that "this is a learning day". Just be glad that you are learning and growing.

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Unfortunately we some times learn by our mistakes. Don't dwell on this but go forward, remembering this lesson just as there will be many more ahead. Good luck.

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Specializes in CRNA.

I agree with midinphx, as a critical care RN myself as well, it is MY responsiblity to monitor my patients and teach students along the way, but I would not have 'blamed' my student for not informing me sooner of something I should be vigilantly checking as well. Don't worry, there are plenty of learning days when you might feel a tad overwhelmed/down/whatnot, but it WILL get better and easier, I promise you!! :)

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Hello, everyone. I am in my last semester of nursing school, and just finished my second day of critical care clinical. However, I left the floor feeling like a failure and stupid. My client had a low BP, and when I told my co-assign, she started worrying. We both entered the room to re-check the BP, and it was still low. She asked why I had not told her sooner. It was about 30 to 45minutes after I had taken it. I felt horrible, and was so busy trying to catch up on paperwork and things, that I spaced. My co-assign was working on other paperwork, and by the time I talked with her it was later than she would have preferred. I felt horrible! I am there to learn and just do not like being scorned. I take responsibility for my actions. I apologized, but left feeling like, wow, maybe I should not be doing this. I love the profession and caring for others, but times like these make be question if I am fit for it.

This is a learning experience. I would bet that when you take a BP in the future and it is low, paperwork will take a lower priority and you'll have someone double check.

I learned my lesson years ago to check all of my IV lines from patient to IV pump to IV bag and back down. I was rushed one time and taking blood sugars and wondering why my pt's blood glucose kept rising during hourly checks-upon further inspection his insulin drip was not running correctly.

live and learn

otessa

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Specializes in Clinicals in Med-Surg., OB, CCU, ICU.

The important point to remember, no one died. Now, for the "mistake" don't repeat it. How low was the B/P?

What was the patient's overall mental and physical status? Was the patient acting appropriately? When recording any vital sign or going over the lab reports, always reflect on the assessment of the patient. Does the following signs being reflected in the patient's status, or is it a false negative. Meaning is the machine messing up?:eek:

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Specializes in OB/GYN, Peds, School Nurse, DD.
Hello, everyone. I am in my last semester of nursing school, and just finished my second day of critical care clinical. However, I left the floor feeling like a failure and stupid. My client had a low BP, and when I told my co-assign, she started worrying. We both entered the room to re-check the BP, and it was still low. She asked why I had not told her sooner. It was about 30 to 45minutes after I had taken it. I felt horrible, and was so busy trying to catch up on paperwork and things, that I spaced. My co-assign was working on other paperwork, and by the time I talked with her it was later than she would have preferred. I felt horrible! I am there to learn and just do not like being scorned. I take responsibility for my actions. I apologized, but left feeling like, wow, maybe I should not be doing this. I love the profession and caring for others, but times like these make be question if I am fit for it.

Aww, you just made a mistake, that's all. As for being scorned, well, that sounds a little dramatic. I can see where she would be irritated, but you know, stuff happens. Take this as a lesson learned and just know that you will NEVER make this mistake again. :nurse:

Incidently, I made a very similar mistake once. I was a new grad working in L&D. We had just gotten fetal monitors(this was 1974) and I had not been fully trained on them. BAck then you had to sit with any patient who had a fetal monitor. I faithfully took care of this mom for 2 hours when my head nurse happend by to look at the fetal monitor strip. Holy cow! This woman had been having late decelerations for nearly 2 hours and I didn't recognize it! :eek: This baby was in serious trouble. Thankfully, the head nurse didn't eat my head off and she went to bat for me with the doctor. Everything turned out all right and you better believe they had me in a fetal monitoring class within a week~!

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Specializes in Cardiac care/Ortho/LTC/Education/Psych.

Same from this girl . I am a nursing instructor with students on Critical Care units and also I work in one of those floors. I would never see students as responsible for BP that is low and not being reported because I am the ultimate one responsible. I actually say to my students to not take to their heart if nurses are checking and doing everything like students did not do anything before that. This is just because even though students are here to learn and they are doing everything RIGHT , I have to be sure myself because they are not trained to pick it fast and need time to response to it ( just like you did!!!) . On the end of story what would happened if you forgot totally to report ? Would she ever check on her patient? Good luck to you and just to know that those floors are full of stress that is sometimes contagious. Make a shield, learn your lesson and you will never do it again for sure.

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Specializes in Gerontology, nursing education.

Hey, you'll never make this mistake again. You recognize that you were wrong; while it was a scary situation for you (and yes, could have resulted in a negative outcome) at least you're not being flippant about it and saying, hey, mistakes happen, I'm human and I'm not going to sweat it.

There are some nurses, experienced, newbies, students, who have the attitude that it's "no big deal" if they make a mistake. That sort of attitude is far more dangerous than making an error. You have the capacity to learn and you won't do this again.

Oh, goodness, I've made mistakes. Plenty of mistakes, most very minor but a few that left me shaken and in tears, doubting my ability and second-guessing my skills. The funny thing is, one of those mistakes happened over twenty years ago and I remember it as if it happened yesterday. I did indeed pass that story along to my students, hoping that they would learn from my mistake rather than theirs.

Gentle hugs. You are going to be okay.

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I have been working in Hospitals for the past 8 years. This is nothing to beat yourself up over. whenever i make an error/ misjudgement ect... it will stay with me, and it helps you in the future to not let yourself put it aside. When your still in nursing clinicals there is a lot of pressure .. with the instructor and paperwork. once you beging to work in a hospital then things are different. you find your own flow of how your days will go, you wont worry about little things like getting the papers work done to give to the instructor, in the real world if the paper work is not done by the end of your shift , then when your shift is done you go sit down in the back and finish it. No big deal.

I have made some errors in my time and they were much more serious (meds) I never thought that this kind of thing would happen to me because i try to be careful. But it does happen, and it happens to all nurses at some point. you get through it by ....facing that you made an error, and own up to it , learn from it. one thing i have seen is nurses lying to managers about making errors , and that resulted in them losing there jobs. So never lye about a situation. because i have had my fair share and i am still here. good luck , you will be fine.

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I think everyone makes mistakes. It seems like, in nursing, the stakes are higher so a mistake can really feel horrible.

I think you handled it well and you have learned from the experience. I think you should not be so hard on yourself!

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