allyyy

Hi! I just want to post my mistake and see if anyone has advice. I can’t stop thinking about it because I’m afraid of the consequences. So I had a transfer to my floor today, about 2 hours before the end of my shift and I had to put her on a tele monitor, which I did and I hooked her up the nurses station monitor screen. I have no idea how this happened or how it’s even possible but the tele boxes of my new patient and my other patient were switched or something like that. Long story short, I ended up thinking that I was printing the tele strip for my new patient and I was, but it printed out with my other patients name on top of it. I know I should’ve triple checked the name on the tele strip but I set it up so I thought it was perfectly fine. I put it in the scan box to be scanned into the system and it gets scanned in. It goes unnoticed until the end of my shift when the next nurse coming on figures it out. Once she figured it out, I looked into my new patients chart and realized that she didn’t have a tele strip scanned and that her tele strip ended up in the other patients chart with the other patients name on it. I was so upset and embarrassed. I talked to the charge nurse and another nurse and they said that they will have to contact someone to take it out of that patients chart and that I shouldn’t stress over it because they were both NSR and there were no medications given for cardiac (for ex. Someone could’ve been in vtach). The resource nurse told me that she would page the team and let them know and that I could go home because sometimes they take a long time to get back to us if non emergent. I’m going back tomorrow and Im gonna go to that floor and see if anything happened (I’m a float nurse, even worse). Does anyone have any advice? Can I get in serious trouble? I’m just afraid of being fired as a new nurse ??

So here’s my back story. After graduating, it was hard to find an job as a new nurse in the acute care setting. I’m from Hawaii so the options are you’re really lucky and get into a new grad program right away (which you owe roughly 20 grand if you leave in the first 2 years), you work as a CNA for a little bit to get your foot in the door and pray that they pick you for the new grad program (I know a few nurses that worked as CNAs for 2 years before they got it), or you work in a rehab/long term for a little and pray that you get hired in the hospital after a year or two. Some hospitals in Hawaii do new grad programs based on the census, so sometimes they don’t even have them. I decided to go the CNA route. So I was a CNA for almost a year after I graduated and they didn’t have a new grad program for that year. When the new grad program came about, there was about 20-30 CNAs applying to about 8-10 positions. At this time, I had the option to move to the Mainland with my bf. I decided to move. I decided to get a rehab/long term care job and I wanted to get experience for almost a year and then try for the hospital. The area that I moved to also doesn’t like to hire new grads. SO long story short, after 10 months, I got into a float pool position at a hospital AND I AM SINKING. I feel so stupid. I study and refresh on things but it’s such a different environment. I look like a fish out of water. I ask a lot of questions but I’m on a fine line of not looking stupid. Any one have any advice on this transition? Any one else have this problem?

I am very new, so I automatically thought that the MD would already know about it because it’s in the patients chart (even a coworker said that its in the lab review online for everyone to see). So that’s why I didn’t give it a second thought. I guess it’s a lesson learned. Double check before I got running to the MD. Thank you! I’m just a worried Nelly. I keep hearing horror stories of people getting let off of orientation and I need to chill. I get so worked up.

Ugh. Idk. There’s just no way to prove it. I couldn’t say it’s the lab because there’s no proof. I just took the responsibility and told the MD sorry. I just feel really stupid.

SO I’ve officially made my first mistake and I want to hit myself over the head. The lab called and told me a lab and said whatever it was is in the blood. I wrote it down on a note. I told the MD. Hours later, the MD and med student came up to me and said “was it blood or tissue”. I died inside. I said the lab said blood but I’ll call. I called... and sure enough it’s tissue. I told the MD and they were annoyed. I told my preceptor and she said the doctor is the one to double check, you are the reporter. I still can’t stop thinking about it... any one have similar stories? Word of encouragement? Something. I just don’t want to get fired...

I feel like I’m being bullied by the nurses on the floor that I’m orienting on. I’m a quiet person who does work quietly and thinks in my head. I only have barely a year of rehab/LTC experience so this acute setting feels pretty new. So I’m not the kind of person to go running around yelling out all of my patients problems. I read, I think, ask many questions and keep moving. I'm now being followed by the educator over an accusation of "not knowing why the patient is getting the med". I had a meeting today with my manager, supervisor, and educator and I felt like that came out of nowhere and I was completely shocked. And my preceptor was there and I felt like I couldn't say anything because I know that she said something. But I've never given the wrong patient the wrong med and I always look up meds I don't know and I always look up the doctors notes. I made an appointment to to see where that came from with only my manager, so we’ll see how that’s goes. Overall, My preceptor and I are butting heads. I feel like I'm not learning anything important from her. She proceeds on telling me things that I already know and I try to switch the topic up but then she gets annoyed. One time she was talking about something and I looked away to look at my computer (I like to multitask) and she bursted “LOOK AT ME” in front of everyone like I’m a child. I started tearing up after that. I was so embarrassed. And after that I feel like everyone is bullying me. And I wish I spoke up sooner about these issues. Idk. There's two sides of the story. But overall, I am hurt and offended that they think I would put my patient at risk. I've spent the last two days crying and I've already accepted that I'm probably going to be fired if I don't quit first. Idk. Idk what to do.