I am new grad nurse, day 2 on the unit in ED. I did my pregrad in the ED at another hospital that was really tight for resources, which meant I learned a lot of really bad habits and shortcuts that I realize are not best practice.
Anyways- Our patient got an order for 20meq/L KCl in 1 L D5W. I went and grabbed the bag, and a practice I picked up from the previous hospital was to hang KCl by calculating gtt/min instead of using the infusion pump since we just didn’t have any on the unit. Unfortunately, this stuck in my brain due to the number of times I did it that way, and I did it for this patient.
The nurse I was shadowing was not there when I hung the bag, and to my luck it was the charge nurse that caught my error, within minutes of me hanging it. She briefly told me it was a really big mistake, that I could lose my license over it. She then filed an incident report and emailed the manager without offering any follow up, education, or to even hear why I made the mistake.
I overheard her gossiping about the incident in the break room, stating she is worried for the future of nursing after dealing with so many new grads. I am distraught over the consequences of this, and fearful of not only being labeled as incompetent but also losing my job, and my license over this. I have no idea what to do with myself I am a wreck.
Thankfully the patient is fine, she only received about 75 mls before the pump was added. Any perspective on being a new grad and dealing with making errors and mistakes would be welcomed, and any insight on the types of consequences that are likely as my brain just keeps going to being fired/losing my license.
I just had a PTSD flashback to med-surg skills day where we had to calculate drip rates and then actually use the roller clamp to produce said drip rate +/- 1 gtt/min.
I know I can make an IV drip at 27 gtts/min, but I don't ever want to do that again LOL
Specializes in EMT since 92, Paramedic since 97, RN and PHRN 2021.
I remember when I first became an RN my preceptor telling me, any error that can be learned from , you've had good day. Now I'm not saying errors are good or that its good to put patients at risk.
Learn from it. I bet you will not do it again and may catch other nurses making a similar error that they can learn from.
Your charge nurse is acting way out of pocket... NO ER nurse I have talked to with any substantial years of experience would react like this and I've seen far worse med errors. Nonetheless a few things.
1. Did they die? I know this is blunt and a meme but its true. One thing I've learned so far is that mistakes happen. As long as you correct it and the pt is OK then I, nor any other nurse worth their salt will care in the grand scheme of things. Though yes there are exceptions but you know those kinds of scenarios. Like you give TPA to a person bleeding out lmao. Something stupid.
2. You will not lose your license. Not by any stretch and with that I would encourage you to look up your state board's disciplinary action reports. Statistically they are overwhelmingly unrelated to practice errors. I state this not to suggest that its OK to *** up but just to provide context.
3. Believe it or not pumps did not always exist. Your charge should know this...
4. Your charge should also understand that you have no experience. Of this entire thing Im more pissed off that some one like her is in the position she is if she is going to treat her coworkers and new nurses at that in such a manner. My advice to you is to take the lesson and leave the negativity of a burnt out *** for her to deal with. That is her issue NOT yours.
FiremedicMike, BSN, RN, EMT-P
594 Posts
I just had a PTSD flashback to med-surg skills day where we had to calculate drip rates and then actually use the roller clamp to produce said drip rate +/- 1 gtt/min.
I know I can make an IV drip at 27 gtts/min, but I don't ever want to do that again LOL