New Grad RN..made a mistake!!!

[DH1234]

I am on my 8th week of orientation, and I think I made a mistake. I am not sure how big of mistake it is, but I hope it is not. Basically, my patient from the ED came to my unit with an IV that had just a saline lock and not an extension. An older nurse on my floor said she needed an saline lock extension. Therefore, i screwed an extension on the saline lock that was an the IV catheter instead of attaching the saline lock extension to the actual IV catheter. I am now thinking I was supposed to remove the saline lock hub completely from the catheter then add the saline lock extension if that makes sense. However, the way I did it with the saline lock still in place with the extension attached to that it still flushed.

I am honestly so embarrassed I messed up a simple task like that. Is that a serious mistake even though the IV stills flushes? I am freaking out because I don't if that is considered a big mistake.

[JBMmom, MSN, NP]

I'm not exactly sure that I follow your post, but I think that you did it correctly. Anything else would have caused the IV to not work correctly. If not, I'm sure a nurse following you would have caught it pretty quickly.

[JKL33]

So something like this was plugged directly into your catheter hub, and instead of removing it and attaching your extension directly into the hub, you plugged the extension into the piece shown above?

Unless you somehow forced pieces together that aren't meant to be compatible, I don't think this is any big deal.

Review it with your preceptor next time you're together so that you can feel confident/know the usual practice based on the specific products involved. ???

[Snatchedwig, BSN, CNA, LPN, RN]

Lol its okay boo.

[NurseSpeedy, ADN, LPN, RN]

You will learn in nursing there are several ‘right’ ways to do something. It flushed, it worked. There will be policies in place to follow at each facility but if you were to actually remove the adapter that was placed on insertion and attach an extension after there would be the potential to lose the IV site from the manipulation as well. Just check with your preceptor as someone else mentioned to find out what your facilities policy and if either method might be acceptable

[BSN-to-MSN, ADN, BSN, RN]

Not a big deal. We see IVs with no extension coming from surgery to my floor. Saw exactly what you described . If I get that in report, I just fix it. You should move on, really, no harm done to the patient.

[Jory, MSN, APRN, CNM]

IV tubing is like plumbing...there is more than one way to get the parts together. Sometimes what you normally use isn't readily available and you have to improvise. Everyone does it differently. As long as the extension was screwed on properly to allow for flow, you are A-OK.

[RNAC92]

That's fine! Nothing to sweat about.

[Tron8622]

put your fingers above the vein like an inch and flush . if you feel the the flow in the vein your good . You can use a pig tail or just a hub . People get anal about the hub because people cant tell if they started the I.V in the artery or vein . you can with a flush the blood will push back in the flush . I work ED and cath lab seen both done woth an IV