New nurse advice please!

[KB4848]

Hello everyone,

So I had my first day off orientation yesterday a little prematurely as my preceptor called in sick leaving everyone with six patients. It was supposed to be my last day of orientation but they decided to pull me off early and gave me five patients of my own. I work in the progressive cardiovascular unit which is the step down from the CVICU. Sitting here this morning I just can't help but recount the day and worry I made a bunch of mistakes. A lot of the issues I wasn't having was getting lab to come get a vanc trough I needed for a patient, or getting pharmacy to quickly get meds to me for a patient that was in a fib at rate in the 130s or not being able to rely on telemetry to tell me if his HR was sustaining below a certain point after getting those meds to him. Then it all just fell back on me which I understand. So I guess I'm wondering how do I stress the importance of these things to the support staff so I can ensure they get done without just being a super ***** or without having to constantly harass them?

I made my own mistakes too, I understand that, I hung the vanc before I got the trough back and didn't realize they never came and got the lab work done. I don't know what I was thinking other than I didn't want it to be late and it completely skipped my mind that before I hung it I needed to get the trough back first, I know better than that and now I'll never make that mistake again. I hope that now they aren't like omg she's an idiot and doesn't need to be working here.

[iluvivt, BSN, RN]

Oh yes....I know...if you remember that as the nurse you are conducting the orchestra and making sure everything is getting done,whether or not you are actually performing said test,procedure or IV start You just politely remind people and re=remind them.What I do that works for me is very politely remind them,"This is my second request and I am wondering why there is a delay.I will often get a very reasonable response.Many times a bedside nurse does not really know the workload of the individual you are waiting on and many do not share that info unless asked. Also remember when you call you have no idea how busy that person is or what kind of day they may be having.That helps me communicate with respect and understanding.