New nurse feeling a litte down

[alliejane]

Hi everybody,

This is my first post on the board and I am just looking for a little encouragement and feedback.

I graduate in may 2012 and passed my boards by july, i started my new job as a med-surge nurse working night shift at a local hospital. All through my orienation, i did not run into many problem besides common problems of time managment, talking to MDs, patient education, giving report, and a lot of other minor issues that are expected w/ a new nurse.

My orientation was not all that great, i had about 7-8 preceports throughout, and while all were okay I feel like it did not live up to all the speak about their "residency program" and all the support i would recieve. Throughout my whole 3 month orienatation I never met with my clinical educator and i met with my manager once.

In November I came off orienatation and began working night shift having about 6-7 patients average and really only the support of the peers around me. Needless to say, i feel very overwhelemed everyday i go into work. I feel like i never am able to give proper nursing care or patient education that i always dreamed i would. Through my August start date up until today, ive spoken to my manager a total of 3 times total about small matters (nothing in which i was in trouble for).

Fast forward to last night. At 2300 i was pulled to our SNF unit (Skilled Nursing Facility) which is where medically stable patients go to recieve PT treatment. I got there at 2300, recieved report on 7 patients and was informed by 2 RNs there I would only need to chart an on-going on 1 patient since they followed an allogrimith for which patients were charted on. I checked this w/ the nursing supervisor and she stated this was corrected and that SNF was different than med-surge in that an on-going assessment was not needed each shift. So i thought it was okay.

I went through my shift, checked on my patients, gave medications, bathed a patient, and helped the other 2 RNs draw blood (They did not have a tech and the other 2 were not good at drawing blood). Anyway, the next day the manager of that unit called me and rang me out about q2 hour turns and incont on a patient that i had in room 3 that i believed to be orienated (i only had the pt for 8 hours ). I was told in report she was briefed but was able to verbalize when to get up to the commode and she was a max assist. I ofcourse apologized because i felt so awful i did not know what else to say. I was honest and state i did not do incont care but she never really gave me a chance to say why i did not. The patient was able to answer name and DOB/knew hospital/and time of day. I am honestly so devestated right now. The patient appeared to be orienatated and when asked if she was wet she told me she was not. I was so overwhelemed by other tasks in the morning (drawing blood, baths, meds, wound care) that it didn't even cross my mind to double check her. Long story short, the manager from that unit is writing me up. Although i did speak w/ my own manager who told me that i should only report to her and that she would handle it and speak to me later. I will say it did not sound like any skin breakdown had occured, the manager just warned me that if it did occur it would come back on me.

Long story super short, I FEEL SO AWFUL and guilty. I feel like i got into nursing to help people not make them feel worse. I feel like every night I go into work, i mess up more and more and my confidence as a nurse drops. And i know it is my fault, for i should i have double checked her. I just did not put two and two together at that time. I know incont care is important and turns are important. I honestly feel like I am a terrible nurse and person. I want to leave med-surge as soon as possible. No matter what I do during my shift I am always forgetting one aspect of something.

P.S. Sorry about spelling and bad grammar! I am not a good speller to begin with and I am very sleepy due to being up all night feeling awful.

[sandyfeet]

I think you are being too hard on yourself. You were sent to a new unit with new methods, and you felt overwhelmed. When a nurse floats to my unit, they get a quick orientation and a "buddy" to go to for questions, and the rest of the nurses try to help the new person if they can. It's hard to float!

Of course incontinence care and turns are important, and I think you will probably always double-check what you hear in report now. But it's not the worst mistake you could have made. You made a mistake, but you will learn from it and will be a better nurse.

[Tait, MSN, RN]

Yeah I wouldn't let this get me too down. I have to say I would be irritated that they would create a scene and write-up over it though.