Jdgrn13

Well it's officially 2 days later and I've had my blood work done. He doesn't go until next week to have his. I'm all of the sudden just becoming more and more nervous í ½í¸Ÿ

Yes. It's totally different nursing than what I'm used to. It's much more calm and structured which is why I'm so shocked at myself over this. Blah!

Sigh. First of all, I can't even believe it even happened. I've been an ER/trauma nurse at an extremely busy trauma II center for 4 years. Have practically bathed in my fair share of blood and every other bodily fluid. Assisted with bloody central lines, chest tubes, have manually drawn at least a hundred ABGs on hypoxic combative patients. Started countless IVs on thrashing agitated overdose patients. All the IM injections, and even subcutaneous heparin/lovenox/insulin injections. Cleared away dirty LP kits and dirty suture needles. No inadvertent sticks. In other words, I've always been extremely meticulous about this issue. Until today. I JUST started a new job as an RN at a county jail. There is an inmate who needs Levemir BID. I was on 2100 medpass and this would have been the 2nd time I've injected him. He has a flex pen, but it's his home pen and the BD needle is not a safety needle. Seeing that it wasn't a safety needle, I very very carefully recapped it (which I have always been against but I had no other option at this point.)When I went to unscrew the needle from the pen, I thought I had all the way and went to pull it off. Wrong. The cap pulled right off and in the rebound, stuck my gloved left thumb. He is not an IV drug abuser. He has no history of HIV/HEP C/HEP B, etc. I understand the nature of this injury is extremely low transmission, even if he was positive, but I can't help but feel like a reeeaall idiot. *faceplam x 100* Im so new I'm still on orientation. I let my nurse supervisor know who was there with me last night. She is contacting HR to get all the testing for him and I set up. I mostly just feel incredibly stupid and disappointed in myself. Looking for some support. Thanks.

Thanks so much for your response!!! So what is your job title, and does all exactly does it entail? I'm going to be finishing my BSN this October, and Chamberlain has a 2 year masters of informatics that is the cheapest I've found so far.

Hi, all! I'm currently an RN working on my bachelors degree and I work in a very busy ER/trauma center. After knowing a nurse who branched out into clinical informatics and doing research, it seems like it's the path I want to take. If any of you are nurses working in clinical informatics or have an advanced degree in it, I'd love to hear your experiences!

It was just very strange he wouldn't quit staring. Eyes locked. I bumped him 2ce..said excuse me pardon me..didn't move. The whole thing was weird and I believe you are right..his motive was to intimidate me. Which I didn't feel that way..but my irritation was escalating. I hate it when I have people who need to be seen and I know they are in real pain and there is nothing I can do. Providers all notified, charge notified. Did he tell me he was gonna hit me or harm me? No. But his demeanor was creepy and I feel that this guy is the type to try to find me on social media somewhere or make lots of complaints. I've had many patients cuss at me and usually they are demented or under the influence and I brush it off, but it was family and he was stone cold sober and threatening. Ugh

Hi all, I've been a nurse working in a level II trauma center/ED for a year now. I am a pretty level headed individual, always try to have extremely polite bedside manner and move on when I encounter problems after diffusing a situation. Tonight, I had an elderly lady who fell and had visible deformity to her shoulder. She was in a lot of pain. BUT if you work in a busy ED you know sometimes patients whose lives aren't at risk are out on the back burner. I got a verbal from an ED physician who had just arrived, but wasn't picking up patients yet. I started a line and gave her 2mg IV morphine and sent her to xray. The whole time I was in the room, the patients son was literally hovering over me. He was watching my every move and would not stop asking questions. It got weird when he whispered my name once randomly while flushing pts IV line. I exited the room to care for my other patients. I come back in a few minutes after she's back from xray and his demeanor was cold. He stared at me the whole time and said "I want you to recheck her vitals" so I did, and he would not budge from the chair sitting right by the monitor, causing me to bump into his leg while trying to do my vitals. BP was high, probably d/t pain. I explained to them I was still waiting for a doctor to pick her up. I exited. Son comes out skulking around, stood and stared at me. I turned around and asked him what he needed, he angrily said "her blood pressures up, she's in a lot of pain and I'm going to make you liable if something happens to her" I asked him to go to the waiting room and he refused.security went in and essentially made buddies with him. I feel defeated and like it was an assassination to my nursing character. I was on a roll with happy patients all day until this..I feel sad that this guy harassed me and it's okay for that to happen. Insight?