NewRN9423

To everyone, thank you for your advice. I am taking everything into consideration as I plan my next steps. One thing I forgot to mention is that we had no PCA on the unit, which did not help my situation. I have been looking at the jobs out there, and there is not much. I am afraid to take another med/surg job, as I might again end up overwhelmed with too many patients. I see a lot of LTC/rehab openings, but I have heard horror stories about the nursing environment in these type of facilities. Any insight out there regarding jobs for a new grad RN with 3 months of experience?

The patient would constantly ask for something while a nurse or aide was in the room. I was already stressed because I was trying to get everything done prior to report, and I turned to fulfill the request, which led to another request, etc. Stupid me, I forgot to go back to complete the transaction in the MAR, and when I later went into the MAR to figure out what happened, it said “incomplete” where it usually says “given”. I made so many mistakes that I regret.

I was referring to the “right time”. I did not catch that the two doses were so close together. I always scan the patient, ask their name/birth date, double check the delivery method and dose/expiration date. I have forgotten to scan a med (especially flushes) and had to go back and do it in the past, but I have been working on improving in this area.

I am definitely planning on taking some time management CEU classes while I am looking for a new job. Right now, I am grappling with what type of nursing job I would be good at. I can’t help but feel I am not cut out to be a nurse.

My orientation was one week of classes, then 10 weeks with a bunch of different preceptors. I asked for an additional 2 weeks with my preceptor, because I was still uncomfortable. I take full responsibility for my mistakes, but I can’t help but think that there were systems errors involved here also.

I was on night shift and had a total of 6 patients. I had to finish the admission of the previous nurse, and I had a second admission. I had been writing down all of my meds and times for each patient, but I have been receiving feedback that I was too slow and could not get everything completed on time. After a discussion with my nurse educator, we decided I would only write down the med times only, and access the omnicell using the scheduled meds view. Last night was my second day using this process, and I thought I was doing much better. Until late in the shift. My patient was on a strong IV antibiotic Q12. I gave a dose at 0330, and then the MAR prompted me for another dose at 0630 and I gave it. After much introspection, I made many mistakes to cause this to happen. First, I did not check when the previous dose had been given - I was so busy that I would hang meds and go onto the next task. I was so worried I was not moving fast enough - mostly because this has been the most frequent feedback given to me. In the midst of trying to get everything done faster, I neglected to follow my five rights of medication administration. My second mistake was that I was distracted by the patient while I was in Epic, scanning the med and my ID. As a result, the scan ID screen timed out and I did not realize it. I went and hung the med, and went to do the next patient. It was right before report, and I realized my mistake at about 0710 and immediately reported to my supervisor. I later found out that there were two other instances where I gave antibiotics 2 hours early, so I was let go for patient safety. I am now so afraid of what other mistakes I will make because I lack critical thinking skills.

I am a new nursing working on a neuro med surg unit. I just came off of orientation about 2 weeks ago, and I made a med error where I gave two doses of an IV medication too close together. When I discovered my error, I quickly stopped the IV and only half of the infusion had been given to the patient. I immediately informed my supervisor and the doctor, and then filled out an incident report. To make a long story short, I lost my job as a result of this. My manager stated that I did not make the transition from a task-oriented focus to a critical-thinking focus. I want to improve my critical thinking skills, but I am not finding much out there. Can anyone recommend a critical thinking course, or books I can read to improve my skills before I search for a new job?