For all the harried nursing students out there, I decided to start a thread in which those of us who've made it through and out into the real world of nursing can share some of our oopsies.
This is intended to be light-hearted and fun... and help the students not to freak out so much over the small and not-so-small stuff that befalls them. Most of us make it through.
I have/had two in mind... the first has slipped from my fatigued, near-50 brain at the moment but the second follows:
+++
I had a patient who was a subacute EtOH withdrawal... had PO benzos ordered... I went in with my nurse to assess the patient who was doing OK at the time. The nurse, with whom I'd worked a number of times, decided to pull a benzo (probably 5 or 10 mg of Valium but I don't recall) and told me to assess him over the next hour or two and then give the med if he was tremulous or tachycardic.
So, I diligently assessed him and tended to my other tasks. He was stable and never needed the med. As we neared the end of our shift, I went to retrieve the med from my pocket and return it.
Imagine my horror when I found it missing. I emptied every pocket, over and over, as a panic began to set in. Finally, I approached the nurse and confessed my sin. She just looked at me and said, "Don't tell me that" and walked away.
I began to retrace my steps in a feverish but fruitless search for the missing pill, my horror and self-recriminations amplifying with every step. As I wandered hopelessly and repeatedly through room after room, one of my classmates said, "Hey, what's the matter?" I told her. She stood there for a moment, smiled, and said, "Is this it?" as she produced the blister pack with a flourish. "I found it on the floor," she said. I hugged her, snatched it away, and promptly returned it to my relieved nurse (whose perspective I can now completely identify with).
It turns out that it had fallen from my pocket when I had assisted my classmate with ambulating and toileting her patient.
Several lessons to be taken away: (1) Don't hand over controlled meds to students, even mature ones whom you trust, (2) Don't carry controlled meds around in your pocket, and (3) Treat your classmates well... you never know when or how they might bail you out or stab you in the kidney.
Watching an epidural being placed in a laboring woman. Finding myself on the floor behind the nurse's station with my head being pushed between my knees and a juice being offered to me. I still can't watch those things. I sometimes am in charge of conscious sedation during a PICC or IJ placement and I can't watch them poking around or I will feel like fainting. I just watch the monitor and the patient's face.
Having a panic attack when giving my first injection-- SubQ insulin. I can give injections in my sleep now. At least I got over that one!
Haha!! Love this!! I remember going to heparinize a PICC and trying to get that bubble out of the heparin flush. Too bad my clinical instructor and now good friend leaned over the exact same time I pushed the plunger only to get a face full of heparin flush....whoops!!
First day in trauma ICU had a young male patient with a Codman set up. My preceptor had painstakingly walked through every step of measuring the hourly CSF output, leveling with the laser, and getting the ICP only to have me trip over the stupid pole and have to start from scratch lining it back up..... Twice... Double fail!!
And lastly I am convinced PEG and NG tubes are a creation from the devil for students and new nurses!! I wore my fair share of PEG nastiness in school and my first year as a nurse!
But in all seriousness probably one of the mistakes that has impacted me the most (though not as a student, but still very relevant and a new nurse) was the day I went to push meds down an NGT on a patient I had just used 10-15 minutes prior. I was in a hurry because I was giving a med I had forgotten to pull on my first trip in the med room. Since I had just used the NGT and rushing I did not check placement. Big mistake! The patient had dislodged her tube in the small amount if time it took me to go pull the new med and a handful if other short things. I gave the patient a piston full of meds that ended up all in her mouth and the top of the trachea. Thankfully she never developed aspiration pneumonia. Lesson learned ALWAYS Always always check placement!! Did I say always!! No matter if it has just been a few minutes!
Best of luck to all the students out there!! Can't wait to hear your stories once the embarrassment wears off
Oh and to the poor soul that sneezed their glasses into the foley field- that mental picture had to be one of the funniest things I have read all day!! I nearly peed myself imagining that one! Glad you pulled through ok!
anon456, BSN, RN
3 Articles; 1,144 Posts
Watching an epidural being placed in a laboring woman. Finding myself on the floor behind the nurse's station with my head being pushed between my knees and a juice being offered to me. I still can't watch those things. I sometimes am in charge of conscious sedation during a PICC or IJ placement and I can't watch them poking around or I will feel like fainting. I just watch the monitor and the patient's face.
Having a panic attack when giving my first injection-- SubQ insulin. I can give injections in my sleep now. At least I got over that one!