newnurse2014

Thanks again for all of your input everyone!! This has been a huge learning experience and it's still ongoing. Received a call from my manager yesterday regarding the situation and then she called me a second time today and this time asked me to email her a statement. When I asked what kind of statement I was told, "paint a picture because, and don't freak out about this, but I have to send it to legal." I asked her if the patient was pushing legal and she said yes. She also said that after speaking with several others who encountered the patient, including the OB and pediatrician who had to agree to the AMA, that it is clear that the woman is "crazy" and "pushing this as far as it will go." But her complaint hasn't been against anyone but me. I for sure, 100% see my errors and will never make this stupid mistake again. My manager told me to not worry about it because every one's account of the patient has been consistent but I'm worried about what happens if the patient does push it further. What if she wants a settlement or takes me to court? I have no idea how these things work v.v Please send good vibes. I have NEVER had anything like this happen and all of my patients usually love me :'( 3 I'm the sole provider for my family, my husband has been out of work for a year and I don't know what I would do if I lost my job or worse my license. I don't know if it would go that far but I'm pretty shaken up.

Thank you all so much for your input! This has definitely been a learning experience, for sure. I've never been in a situation where I felt like I didn't chart enough, but that was definitely a different night, our night shift nurses barely know how to perform a discharge and no one knew how to do an AMA either (we very rarely see that.) And of course this all started as soon as I got on shift so I was super behind. Then right after they walked out of the door I was told I would be getting another mom and baby to replace them, so I tried to get my charting done quickly and minimized. I was so worried about preparing for what was coming that it didn't even cross my mind to document the attempt. I definitely won't be taking that route in the future!!

Thank you so much! I've worked with this charge nurse before at my last hospital and she definitely knows that this isn't a normal situation for me and that the patient is a "little" weird. She told me that she does have to pass it along to the unit manager though, because it was such a large complaint. I've never been in trouble/written up before so I'm thinking that maybe I'll get either fussed at (next time, you need to..) or given a warning or write up. I guess only time will tell I work night shift, too, so it's not like I can easily go talk to her on my lunch break.

Hello all! Basically I'm a little worried, I started this job back in November, I've worked at several different hospitals in all different areas (cardiac, psych, OB), but this is OB and Newborn at one of the largest hospitals in my area. I have NEVER had so many people complain on me before!! I am not used to this at all, even in psych my patients loved me. I'm a very relaxed person and can get along with anyone (I thought!) This is very long winded but I feel like there are some details that need to be known to understand whats going on. I had a patient who was leaving AMA with their baby. We have to do certain tests before the babies can leave but it's typically done after the baby is 24 hours old. This baby was NOT 24 hours old yet but I was told we still needed to do it anyway. So I told the parents what it was for and why we do it and explained to them that even though I was doing it now, it would still have to be repeated correctly after 24 hours of life with their pediatrician, gave them the slip of paper with the information on it to give to their pediatrician. These patients were a home delivery and didn't want to be in the hospital in the first place, no separation from baby, no vaccines, no bath, etc. So while I'm doing the heelstick, Dad is hovering over me and baby, who is screaming and NOT bleeding enough for what we needed. I stuck the baby twice and explained that I didn't believe that would be enough for the lab and that they would have to get it redone. The parents both said it was okay and that they were ready to leave. So I charted that they refused it to be done because they didn't want me to continue. They were given their papers and about an hour later, walked out to go home. I realized after they were gone that I didn't get the paper back from them that they were supposed to give to their doctor. I received a call from my charge nurse on Friday, approximately 3 weeks later, saying that the mom called up there and wanted to know why the results weren't in. She told my charge nurse that I stuck the baby 4 times and that it took me 30 minutes and I completed the test (which is not true.) When my charge nurse told her what I charted, the woman was upset. They definitely weren't the most sound of mind people, but I don't know who they really are and I'm worried that they're going to try to take this up the chain of command. Looking back I realized that I charted incorrectly because I simply put "mother refused" instead of something along the lines of, "test attempted, mother refused after second heel stick." So now I'm worried that I'm going to get in trouble with work about it. Has anyone experienced anything like this? Where they didn't chart something exactly correct and got in trouble for it at work? Or had a patient try to get you in trouble for something along those lines? I know that I'm being silly and my anxiety is getting the best of me but I can't get it off my mind!! If you've had something like this happen, what did your job do about it?

I am a new graduate nurse and I'm in my first job. Yesterday my preceptor let me take the reigns and do the majority of the work. I'm in the 6th week of orientation, with 6 weeks to go. I just realized that this happened and have already contacted my preceptor about what to do. I'm looking for advice on what to expect to happen to me... written up or fired or what? We had a patient who was receiving dilaudid. We took care of her the previous day and knew that she takes 1mg IV, but the order is for 2 mg IV. When we got it out of the Pyxis system we had to witness a waste of the extra 1 mg. Each time she received the medication, this was done, so it is in the Pyxis system that we wasted and only 1 mg was given... however, when I scanned the medication in I totally spaced and didn't change it to 1 mg in the computer system. So it was documented that she received 2 mg IV dilaudid every instance on my shift yesterday even though she didn't. Of course, we'll be letting my manager know and I'll take whatever punishment I deserve, I'm really worried about this and freaking out about it. I'm already beating myself up about it. So please, no negative comments because I totally understand my mistake and it will never be made again.