Needlestick Injury d/t careless error. Seriously rethinking if I'm cut out for this.

[smaritania47]

In clinical, I had two injections to give to a patient: insulin and Lovenox. The insulin went at first, but after injecting I went to recap the needle (for what reason, I don't know). Caught my mistake and quickly pushed up the safety cap. Already nervous that I had made such an egregious error in front of my professor, I went to prepare and inject the Lovenox. The only available needle was 1-inch (although I'm used to half-inch or 3/4-inch for SubQ injections), so I had to insert the needle half-way and at a 45 degree angle. As I pulled out the needle with my right hand, I hesitated and made a motion to recap (WHY!!??), sticking myself in the left hand. I went to the ED and through the appropriate processes. The patient has no hx of Hep B and C or HIV (thank God). I've given injections before and never has it crossed my mind to recap a dirty needle, let alone twice! I've practiced injections in lab, but because we don't have enough needles to continuously throw away, I've been recapping the needle after practicing the injection (and perhaps picking up the bad habit of recapping a dirty needle). I'm in my last semester and cannot believe I made this mistake. It has shook my confidence in becoming a competent nurse. Is this a sign that I just don't have what it takes? To make such a simple and important error seems inexcusable.

[RunBabyRN]

You're human, and you made a mistake. This is by no means a sign that you can't hack it as a nurse, it means you've developed a bad habit due to lack of supplies in the lab. Work to break the habit, and learn from your mistake. Unfortunately, these things happen, but what you do about it is what matters. If you make it a learning experience, it's not all bad. :)

[StudentOfHealing]

>>>>

?

I want yo to

b r e a t h e

in deeply .... and out slowly as you read my words.

You are a H U M A N.

You made a mistake. We all make mistakes. I've made mistakes. Every single nurse on this forum has made mistakes.

Learn from this mistake and after you give a shot carefully click thew safety on the syringe then walk to the sharps box and dispose of the used needle. Simple =) Before you do anything else, dispose of that needle. That's what I do. Everything CAN wait. Your safety supercedes everything else.

[SopranoKris, MSN, RN, NP]

Awww, sorry you had such a nerve-wracking experience. However, just look at it this way: I bet you'll NEVER do that again!!!

As everyone has stated above, you're human and you're going to make mistakes. Many people have had needle sticks during their careers. It's not the end of the world and it appears that you won't have to worry about contracting a blood-borne pathogen from your patient. Take this as a valuable learning experience and keep on going

[Dranger]

It was a mistake but you were lucky.

At my hospital it seems like every patient has Hep C so you need to be on your toes more. Don't recap.....

[rob4546, ADN, BSN, MSN]

I don't see why you would think that you are not suitable for nursing because of this mistake. Well except that your nerves are probably friend and am ready to be done with school. We have all been there and you will get through it.

I made a med error finishing up with nursing school, and it just about killed me. I couldn't let myself be human and accept that I will make a mistake. With the help of my clinical instructor we went over the mistake, identified both a problem in my administration as well as a problem with the system on the floor. I (with her help) forgave myself and knowing how this could happen prevents me from ever doing this again.

It is okay to make a mistake, but you should always learn from them.

[mrsboots87]

One thing I do when practicing at home is to pretend I actually put the needle in a sharps bin. I use a box and I go through the entire process of pulling the med and injecting. I then place the syringe into the box and verbalize that I am placing the needle into the sharps container. I don't actually recap the needle until cleaning up my practice area. I think this is why I have tried to recap in practice yet. I can definitely see how this happened though since we have to reuse everything. I haven't gotten to do and IV on a real patient yet (still block 2 and just checked off on that skill). But we practice with the autoguard needles. BEcause I cant retract the needle after inserting the IV catheter or I wont have anymore practice needles I have to practice by pulling the needle out. OF course, I almost did this in the practice session before checkoff and almost stuck my hand before realizing I hadn't retracted the needle. (We get extras when practicing in class so that we practice retracting the needle). Anyway, luckily it wasn't in real practice, so no one witnessed my mistake except fellow classmates, but just saying, it can happen to any of us due to the way we have to conserve our practice materials. Don't beat yourself up. You know what you did wrong and can work to not do it again.

[RookieRoo]

One thing I do when practicing at home is to pretend I actually put the needle in a sharps bin. I use a box and I go through the entire process of pulling the med and injecting. I then place the syringe into the box and verbalize that I am placing the needle into the sharps container. I don't actually recap the needle until cleaning up my practice area. I think this is why I have tried to recap in practice yet. I can definitely see how this happened though since we have to reuse everything. I haven't gotten to do and IV on a real patient yet (still block 2 and just checked off on that skill). But we practice with the autoguard needles. BEcause I cant retract the needle after inserting the IV catheter or I wont have anymore practice needles I have to practice by pulling the needle out. OF course, I almost did this in the practice session before checkoff and almost stuck my hand before realizing I hadn't retracted the needle. (We get extras when practicing in class so that we practice retracting the needle). Anyway, luckily it wasn't in real practice, so no one witnessed my mistake except fellow classmates, but just saying, it can happen to any of us due to the way we have to conserve our practice materials. Don't beat yourself up. You know what you did wrong and can work to not do it again.

I was going to say something along these lines as well.

In sports we always learned that we will play the way we practice; the same is true of anything you endeavor to learn. You taught your body and your muscle memory that the motion that follows injection is recapping; thus, in clinical your body followed through with what it had learned.

So now it seems the thing to do is to A) forgive yourself for making a mistake, and B) relearn how to do shots. I understand that you have limited supplies, but you need to do something that separates the action of giving the shot from the action of recapping to clean up for later. Maybe give the shot, pretend to drop it in a sharps bucket, then stop. End practice. Clean up your notes, put on a "pretend" bandaid and gauze, etc. After a little bit of time, THEN you can return to recap your practice needle so your body doesn't remember it as being a one-after-the-other motion in real life.

Also, one last thing. Forgive yourself. Did I mention forgive yourself? FORGIVE yourself. I'm glad you're okay and that the patient had a negative history of bloodborne illnesses. Now FORGIVE yourself.

[scottaprn]

Over any career you choose you will learn more from your mistakes than what you do correctly. As previous posters have said I bet you will never do it again and practice, practice, practice.

All the best

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

well, the good news is you got that mistake out of the way. Now, be on the outlook for the next one because I guarantee it is out there! We have all been thru this

[smaritania47]

Thank you to everyone above. Your advice has helped me gain some perspective, accept that I'm human, and start taking measures to practice in a way that helps prevent this error.

[loriangel14, RN]

If any nurse ever tells you they have never made a mistake, they are lying. Hang in there. It happens to us all.