Julie5

Hello. I am a new nurse (just graduated in May of this year) and got my dream job on L&D right out of school. Recently I had a patient that was severe preeclamptic and was 30 weeks gestation. She was quickly put on Mag and Dr. was called. He came to see her in the middle of the night and saw that she was dilated to 5 and decided to induce her in the early am. Throughout the night her sats would drop into to high 80's and me being new asked my charge nurse for help. We gave her o2 at 10 per mask and it would go back up again. She had no symptoms of resp distress at all but continually we had to remind her to keep the o2 on because it would drop if she did not have it on. The Dr. knew of this when he came in to see her but still chose to wait till morning to induce because she was stable. (as stable as a preeclamptic pt can be) with 2+ protein in urine and BP's diastolic under100 after mag bolus and drip began and epidural given. Only one dose of Apresoline was given early in the night to control the BP and then she was OK. As I was giving report to the day shift nurse the Pt called out complaining of shortness of breath and when we went in there it was like looking at a different patient! She was suddenly swollen everywhere and was gasping for air. I have never been so afraid in my life as I was when the tech started to wheel the crach cart down the hall! Me and my charge nurse both explained that she was not like this at all all night but the day shift nurse seemed aggravated by this sudden decline in the pt. My charge nurse and I were both giving O2 to her all night for the low sats but I was confident that my charge nurse knew best when she said that as long as it was coming back up after applying the o2 and she was asymptomatic that it would be ok until morning when the Dr wanted to deliver the baby. The Dr. knew of her sats too when he came in to see her that night. TO make a long story a little less long, she ended up a c section when the Dr. seen the shape that she was in that morning, and she went to ICU where she is only gotten worse and went into ARDS and ventilated for the last week. After that day I got the call to come in and talk about what happened and now am being investigated for possibly causing her to become so ill. I am so upset about this. I have not been a nurse long enough to be in trouble yet!! I did nothing that I did not double check with my charge nurse about since I had not had a preeclampsia pt all by myself to that point and called the Dr to come in and see her. he did and left her till morning. My supervisor said to me that " the only thing that was going to save this girl was a C-section stat" but I could not make that call right? Please let me know what any of you think about this whole thing. I am just so upset right now. I feel bad that this pt is so ill but don't know what I could have done to prevent it! The Dr. told me to calm down that morning and said that " this is what these pts do. they get sick and fast" But am I going to get fired over this or what! Thanks in advance, Julie

I got all 265 questions and did not get any new format questions. Just a whole bunch of priority questions and tons about who to discharge if there is an emergency and you need beds. Oh and I got a lot on who to put in a room with who. I just did not feel prepared at all! I felt like calling my school and screaming. It is a really scary feeling to think that I did not know much at all of what they were asking. Thanks for the reply. Julie

Hello all! I just found this site and boy am I glad I did. I am a graduate nurse (I finished nursing school in May) and took my boards last week and found out Thursday that I failed. I knew I failed as soon as I left the testing center, I just felt so awful about the whole experience. I am really upset about all of this and just don't know what to do. I can retake the test in 45 days but I swear I feel like I could not have passed the test no matter how hard I would have studied. I don't feel like I could ever pass that test! I took a review class for 10 days that we had to take in order to graduate and got decent grades in school but that was really hard!! I did not feel like I knew half of what it was asking me. Anyway, I just dont know what I can do to prepare for this. I am embarassed and do not want to go through this again. I just got through telling my parents and work and all that this weekend and have decided that I am not going through this ever again. I have to find a way to pass this test next time!! Any thoughts on Kaplan, or any of those type reviews? Or do I just need to literally reread all of my nursing books? That is what I feel like I need to do. Thanks in advance for any replies. Oh and nice to meet you all!! Julie