Need some advice/reassurance

[johg04]

I am an RN working in Oklahoma and I have been a nurse for about a year and a half.

I made a big mistake about 3 weeks ago when I went out with a co worker for a few drinks, didn't get wasted or anything like that, just a casual night out. We were home in bed by midnight knowing we both had to work in the morning. We went in to work like a normal day, had a little headache and were a little dehydrated but not bad. We joked around all morning between us and our coworkers and charge nurse that it would be funny to get a saline bolus, see what our patients go through and see how much better we would feel. Our charge nurse laughed about it and said yeah, go for it, it would probably make you feel good. So eventually after a lot of kidding around, we did it. Another nurse on the unit started our IV's and we hooked each other up to a liter of saline, one after the other. We know it was wrong and we shouldn't have done it, but at the time it didn't really seem like a big deal since everyone was joking around about it. 2 weeks later my charge nurse turned us in to upper level management. We are now both being terminated and being reported to the board of nursing... I have no idea what to expect or what to do in the mean time... Is there anyone out there that can give me some kind of advice of what to do? Anything?

[Jules A, MSN]

I don't have any advice just wanted to say that I'm sorry you are going through this. Sadly hindsight is 20/20. The great news is that this wasn't malicious or an error that caused harm to a patient. It sounds like you are willing to take your lumps and move forward. I wish you well.