ERNirs33

I am glad I came to this site - I am newly off orientation and work at an extremely busy ED and it is very scary, rough, run around for 12+ hours, rarely having time to even sit to chart, just charting on the go - I made a med error and I got really upset about it (it turned out ok, but still!) I come home from work now and worry about what mistake I might have made or what I may have done wrong that I could get in trouble for. I haven't been in trouble yet and have received excellent feedback to this point, but geeez, I freak out at least once at work (cold sweat and panicky heart palpitations) that I've done something wrong, is this normal (well, obviously not,) but seriously How can I stop worrying so much!

I made a med error with a nitro drip, the dr. wrote it wrong, but I should have caught it and corrected it or sought assistance, asked or something. Fortunately absolutely no harm came to the patient, in fact, the higher dose I gave was the only thing that even touched his BP, it came down to about 130/88 rather than the 200's over 100 range, but still, man I felt like a really bad person and I have anxiety so bad when I get off work now, I lost sleep over this and now after a shift I come home worried that I have done something wrong, I don't know how to just let go of these feelings and know that I am trying the absolute best and doing the best I can, but I hate the fact I made such a mistake that could have been so serious! any advice?

I am a career changer, have a BS and MS in another field, then went into nursing several years later. I was still paying off my original student loans and accumulated more debt while doing an accelerated nursing program. I am now working 6 days a week to just make ends meet, however, I am single, live alone and am doing it ALL by myself. It is very difficult, but I have called each lender to find out my options, they will work with you if you talk to them (change due dates so that it comes out of a specific pay period, reduce monthly amounts, etc.) It can be done, but it's definitely not easy and to be honest at this point I don't think it was worth it, but I will give it more time. I am very grateful our dept. is so short staffed that the opportunity to work OT is there, otherwise I would have to find a second job to just pay the rent, loans, and stuff. I would recommend consolidating all your federal loans and then consolidating all your private loans, but not federal and private loans together. Reducing your monthly payment amount means paying more interest and for a longer period of time, but sometimes you gotta do whatcha gotta do, you can always pay more each month if you can, but at least you're not committed to a really high payment each month if you change your payment amount. Call the lender, ask them how they can help you so you won't default. Just pay on time and every month (for the rest of your life) and you'll be ok. Hope this helps.