I'm a 5th (last) semester nursing student going for my ADN. Yesterday in clinical I made a huge mistake that landed me with my first U. My teacher got me for two incidences. First I was doing med pass. I knew my meds and did all my checks. The instructor asked if my pt had water. I said I wasn't sure. She said you better get some. This is our third week on the floor and I couldn't remember which side of the hall the nutrition room was on so I asked. She said I should know that by now. It takes me a while to get oriented. I get confused about what side of the hall the clean utility, soiled utility and nutrition room are sometimes. I asked the other students after clinical if they ever experienced the same issue and most of them said yes. They would have probably just tried to play it off better. So next thing was a biggie. I was removing an old IV for a patient that was being discharged. She was on Lovenox and I didn't expect her to bleed so much. So I needed more gauze since the ones I had were soiling through. I asked her to put pressure on the gauze so I could run to the supply room and get more. I met my teacher in the hallway and I just panicked. I was not so sure if I should have left the pt to get more supplies. She was Alert and Oriented, but I just wasn't sure. Anyway the teacher walks in my room. I am following her just waiting to get in trouble. I walked over to the pt and picked up the gauze to see if she was still bleeding and realized I had forgotten to don a new pair of gloves. Some blood had seeped through the top layer of gauze. I immediately went over to the sink and washed my hands. The teacher gave me a U for safety for not being oriented to the floor and not donning gloves. I personally was freaked out a bit myself about the no gloves and I do believe my awareness has been reinforced by the whole experience. The teacher asked me to stay after clinical. She said that she was sorry if no other teacher had not pointed my unsafe practices out to me, but she wouldn't want me as a nurse and that I am not where I need to be for a last semester student. What should I do? I have $15,000 in school loans and two years of hard worked invested. Is there another path I should consider or is there hope for me? I love both the elderly and skin care. I would love to work for a Dermatologist or Plastic Surgeon. I also love to take care of elderly patients, but I know as a hospital nurse I could never give them the kind of one on one time I would like. I definitely know hospital nursing is not for me. Any suggestions? I also heard this teacher gave a student a U for wearing a scrub shirt that was too big. Yikes. That was harsh.
I'm a 5th (last) semester nursing student going for my ADN. Yesterday in clinical I made a huge mistake that landed me with my first U. My teacher got me for two incidences. First I was doing med pass. I knew my meds and did all my checks. The instructor asked if my pt had water. I said I wasn't sure. She said you better get some. This is our third week on the floor and I couldn't remember which side of the hall the nutrition room was on so I asked. She said I should know that by now. It takes me a while to get oriented. I get confused about what side of the hall the clean utility, soiled utility and nutrition room are sometimes. I asked the other students after clinical if they ever experienced the same issue and most of them said yes. They would have probably just tried to play it off better. So next thing was a biggie. I was removing an old IV for a patient that was being discharged. She was on Lovenox and I didn't expect her to bleed so much. So I needed more gauze since the ones I had were soiling through. I asked her to put pressure on the gauze so I could run to the supply room and get more. I met my teacher in the hallway and I just panicked. I was not so sure if I should have left the pt to get more supplies. She was Alert and Oriented, but I just wasn't sure. Anyway the teacher walks in my room. I am following her just waiting to get in trouble. I walked over to the pt and picked up the gauze to see if she was still bleeding and realized I had forgotten to don a new pair of gloves. Some blood had seeped through the top layer of gauze. I immediately went over to the sink and washed my hands. The teacher gave me a U for safety for not being oriented to the floor and not donning gloves. I personally was freaked out a bit myself about the no gloves and I do believe my awareness has been reinforced by the whole experience. The teacher asked me to stay after clinical. She said that she was sorry if no other teacher had not pointed my unsafe practices out to me, but she wouldn't want me as a nurse and that I am not where I need to be for a last semester student. What should I do? I have $15,000 in school loans and two years of hard worked invested. Is there another path I should consider or is there hope for me? I love both the elderly and skin care. I would love to work for a Dermatologist or Plastic Surgeon. I also love to take care of elderly patients, but I know as a hospital nurse I could never give them the kind of one on one time I would like. I definitely know hospital nursing is not for me. Any suggestions? I also heard this teacher gave a student a U for wearing a scrub shirt that was too big. Yikes. That was harsh.