CatieK

*Long post ahead* Hi, I am a new grad nurse on a very busy peds med/surg unit. I just finished up my preceptorship and have been on my own for a few weeks now. It's going pretty well overall, but the other day I found myself in an awkward situation at shift change. So I had an admit come to the floor at 6 pm, an hour before we changed shifts. Immediately I had orders to give Versed, drop an NG tube, start an IV, start fluids, give an enema, and start Golytely via NG tube. I tried to complete all of the tasks before change of shift, but I just couldn't get everything done. I gave the Versed, put in the NG tube and called for X-ray to come verify it, and started the IV and fluids. On top of that I had to go through the whole admit process, do a head to toe, orient the family to the unit, and chart chart chart. Now it is 730 and I am giving report to the night nurse. She knows that the patient just came up to the unit an hour ago. She asks why I haven't given the enema or started the Golytely yet. I tell her that the meds were still being verified by pharmacy and that x ray has not come to verify the tube placement yet. She tells me that I should call pharmacy and ask them to verify the meds, pick them up from pharmacy, and give them before I leave. I call pharmacy and they said it will be at least another 10 minutes. Long story short, I ended up leaving with those couple of tasks left for the night nurse because she told me to go ahead and go. So now I am just having those typical new grad thoughts and doubting my ability to be a nurse. Should I have waited another 10, 20, 30 minutes for the meds and the NG tube to be verified? Am I in the wrong here? I know that it is very frowned upon to leave tasks that were supposed to be done on your shift for the oncoming nurse. It was just very awkward timing because I had already given report on my other kiddos so all I would be doing is sitting around and waiting. I didn't know what to do, and now I am afraid that the other nurse will think I am lazy and unreliable. Please give me your honest thoughts on the situation so that I can be better prepared for what to do next time something like this happens. Thank you!

Thank you so much for those kind words ?

Hi there, senior nursing student here. The other day I had my first day of clinical in the PICU and I made a completely stupid and dangerous mistake. My poor patient was on numerous drips and have numerous IVs in her right arm. One of the IVs went bad over night shift, and another went bad soon after we completed our morning assessment. She really needed another IV and she was a very hard stick. After about 30 minutes of trying, the vascular access team finally got an IV on her. Shortly after, we get busy by the doctors rounding, linen changes, trach suctioning, etc. The nurse then asks me if I can take out the IV that had gone bad upon our morning assessment. So I go ahead and take out the IV. It was the WRONG IV. I accidentally took out the brand new IV that they had just placed! Now the two IVs were very close to each other, both on the right forearm. However I still should have which was which considering I had watched them place the IV not even an hour ago. So basically I felt absolutely terrible and incompetent for the rest of the day. And worse, I will be working with this same nurse for the next month. I feel like I could write a book titled "How to make your preceptor hate you 101." Oh and even worse, this is the unit that I would like to be hired into when I graduate in 6 months. The nurse continually told me throughout the day not to feel bad, that it wasn't that big of a deal, but I know it was. This patient was a critically ill patient. She needed that IV access. Thankfully they were able to place a midline in her later on that day, but still. It was completely my fault that they had to do that. I guess now I am asking for advice on how to mentally move past this, and how to make it up to my preceptor. Are any hopes of becoming a PICU nurse completely ruined? Because I sure feel that way right now. I am trying to let it go and go into my next shift with a positive attitude, but I just feel like I have ruined the whole thing by this one mistake. Any comments and/or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi there, senior nursing student here. The other day I had my first day of clinical in the PICU and I made a completely stupid and dangerous mistake. My poor patient was on numerous drips and have numerous IVs in her right arm. One of the IVs went bad over night shift, and another went bad soon after we completed our morning assessment. She really needed another IV and she was a very hard stick. After about 30 minutes of trying, the vascular access team finally got an IV on her. Shortly after, we get busy by the doctors rounding, linen changes, trach suctioning, etc. The nurse then asks me if I can take out the IV that had gone bad upon our morning assessment. So I go ahead and take out the IV. It was the WRONG IV. I accidentally took out the brand new IV that they had just placed! Now the two IVs were very close to each other, both on the right forearm. However I still should have which was which considering I had watched them place the IV not even an hour ago. So basically I felt absolutely terrible and incompetent for the rest of the day. And worse, I will be working with this same nurse for the next month. I feel like I could write a book titled "How to make your preceptor hate you 101." Oh and even worse, this is the unit that I would like to be hired into when I graduate in 6 months. The nurse continually told me throughout the day not to feel bad, that it wasn't that big of a deal, but I know it was. This patient was a critically ill patient. She needed that IV access. Thankfully they were able to place a midline in her later on that day, but still. It was completely my fault that they had to do that. I guess now I am asking for advice on how to mentally move past this, and on how to make it up to my preceptor. Are any hopes of becoming a PICU nurse completely ruined? Because I sure feel that way right now. I am trying to let it go and go into my next shift with a positive attitude, but I just feel like I have ruined the whole thing by this one mistake. Any comments and/or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi! I am currently a nursing student in the traditional BSN program at LSU, and I'm looking for a roommate for an on campus apartment. My previous roommate has just recently moved out. If anybody is interested, you can text me and I'll give you more details :) 504 373-1996

It happened to my neighbor who is currently a senior in nursing school!

Awesome, I'm glad someone made a FB group. I just joined

I just got my acceptance letter as well! I'm so shocked honestly. Fingers crossed that everyone here who got on the alternate will soon be accepted too :)

I haven't received anything yet. I suppose they don't send all of the emails at once? I'm stressing!

I know, right? My group didn't actually get to go in, but it still seems really cool. And I'm so happy they gave us a date for when we'll hear back. Now I don't have to stress for the entire next month.

Yeah apparently they do the tour before the essay! I'm glad I got there early. It really wasn't bad though. Everyone is super nice and helpful, and the topic is extremely easy. They definitely just want to see whether or not you can form a competent paragraph. To everyone who did it today, were you able to write the full 2 pages?! Mine was like a page and a half. I hope that's okay!

Oh goodness I can't even let myself think of class schedules and stuff because I am trying so hard not to get my hopes up. So does anybody know exactly what we'll we doing this week? I know it's 30 mins for the essay, typed on Word, and then a tour of the nursing school, correct? Does anybody have any more details?

I have a cousin who is a senior at LSU Nursing and she suggested slacks and a blazer. I might wear a dress and a blazer though idk

I thought the interview went okay. I'm hoping I do really well on the essay though. I'm scheduled for the 28th too! At 11 am I'm pretty sure.

That would be amazing!! The only info session I attended was last year at LSU-BR and they didn't give us the essay topic.