Mistakes you've made thus far

[tsm007]

Thought this could be a thread where we could learn from each other's mistakes. Thought we could share mistakes as we make them and add to this list as we learn more.

1. I brought in meds for an IV push with my preceptor and the plan was to d/c the IV once I gave them. I got so nervous I went to pull the IV and forgot all about the med I needed to give. What I learned from this? SLOW the heck down, especially when you are nervous.

2. I asked the outgoing nurse who the diabetic patients were (nursing home) so I knew which patients I had to take blood sugars on. Mistake! She told me tons of diabetics. Guess what, not all of these had their blood sugars checked daily. I took a whole bunch of people's blood sugar's for nothing. What I learned from that? Always check these things for yourself. Unfortunately you can't really rely on your coworkers for accurate information.

3. I didn't check the treatment book until after my morning med pass. I realized I was supposed to wrap someone's legs with ace wraps before they got out of bed. By the time I finished the first med pass the person had been out of bed for 2 hours. What I learned from this? Check treatments, labs, etc first before getting started with your day because there might be something that needs to be done first.

[amoLucia]

Live & learn!

We've all done like this kind of stuff! You just joined the club late! But welcome!

You'll know the next time which is a good sign of your growth & maturity.

[JanaBeeRN]

Hi, one mistake that I learned from quickly was to always check for clamps on tubing. I was running a g-tube feeding and thought it was flowing but to my surprise the pump was broken so it didn't beep. The other part of this is to always check that the line is actually connected to the pt. Had a patient feeding flowing all over the bed because it disconnected some how.

[amoLucia]

... The other part of this is to always check that the line is actually connected to the pt. Had a patient feeding flowing all over the bed because it disconnected some how.

And to expand on this - always check that the line is connected to the CORRECT orifice! Once had a pt with a gastrostomy AND a supra-pubic. Pt had the NASTIEST UTI funk in the SP urine drainage bag. The two stomas were only inches apart. I truly believe that someone connected the feeding into the SP tube.

***RED ALERT! RED ALERT! RED ALERT!*** Am just now remembering that that pt's gastrostomy tube was NOT a true SP catheter ie a Flexiflo (we didn't have them there as we only had 2 tube pts. And enteral feedings were new to us). It was a foley used as an SP catheter!!! Damn! No wonder that someone could so easily confuse the two tubings and mistakenly insert the feeding into the SP! (Another good reason NOT to use foleys as substitutes for real GT tubes - but that's another thread.)

I was just focusing on the proximity of the two tubes, not the fact that they were both foleys!!! DUH!

I'm flashbacking to about 1990!

I always run my fingers down the tubing from any hanging bottle, bag, can, etc down to the ACTUAL insertion site (same principle for IV lines using the correct port) just to avoid/check for a wrong connection.

And another dumb thing - don't DC a foley until you ask about a UA/CS first; then obtain the specimen before you pull it.