Hey everybody. I am a new nurse, just started a job at the hospital about 3 weeks ago and I am still learning in orientation. Last night I had a patient who was going down, brought to my floor with no oxygen, was supposed to be on 2L (ER SENT HER up without it on, in report said she was fine without it, but her O2 on ABG WAS 65) came in with asthma, pneumonia. When she arrived she was not in good shape. We were going to have to call a rapid, but the physician was there luckily. She had me give Ativan, solumedrol, stat breathing treatments, and fluids. Se instructede to to give half the Ativan. Nothing was scanned and these were one time orders. I put the Ativan in her med drawer in my cart to waste later, but as I was about to waste it (end of shift) I got a call from lab to do something so I forgot and then never did waste it before clocking out. So basically it's sitting in my med cart for someone else to find. I'm freaking out wondering what I should do. It was just 1mg but still I'm worried. Our policy is to waste all narcs or meda u count with another nurse and enter in pixis. I thought about calling to tell them that I left it there, but I sidnt remember until this afternoon(went straight to sleep when I got home). Anybody have advice as to what I should do? Thanks for any help. I don't want to lose my job. I am just getting started there and really like it. Come to think of it, since the med was one time order I'm not sure that it would have been on the pixis so I don't know how I would have even wasted it.
So all went well. I called and the nurse who got my cart already wasted it with someone else. They hadn't planned on calling because I guess they didn't know who pulled it. But if it had come up missing I would ha e been in trouble obviously. Never putting them in my cart again. I've been putting a piece of tape on narcs to return or waste with my pts room # and pocketing to get rid of later. Thanks guys!
The idea of just pocketing narcs to destroy later scares me too much I guess. What if I don't take it out before I leave?? What if somebody sees me put it in my pocket and assumes I am planning on taking it home and turns me in to the DON?? Too many possibilities for things to go terribly wrong there. I will continue to put them in the cart until I can get a witness to destroy it. I always keep any narcs to be destroyed in the same spot and during report and narc count myself and the oncoming can destry it then. Rarely have I forgotten to destroy the med, but at least when that has happened the narc has still been in the cart and not on my person.
Well I always empty my pockets before I leave. Our carts all have have the same code so anybody who's working could grab them out of there if they wanted and then it will be on me. I can't figure out what else to do. I have been putting them in a pocket that I don't put anything else in
Well I always empty my pockets before I leave. Our carts all have have the same code so anybody who's working could grab them out of there if they wanted and then it will be on me. I can't figure out what else to do. I have been putting them in a pocket that I don't put anything else in
Come to think of it, all our carts open with the same key as well, only the narc drawers use different keys. Never been a problem before, but that sure gives me something else to think about.
When something administrative like that happens, take a deep breath and remember that you're not the first nurse to have forgotten something like this. BREATHE! Take comfort in knowing it has nothing to do with patient care. Breathe again.
Next, call the charge on duty, tell her what happened, and ask her how she would like to proceed to locate and waste the med.
Birdy2
129 Posts
So all went well. I called and the nurse who got my cart already wasted it with someone else. They hadn't planned on calling because I guess they didn't know who pulled it. But if it had come up missing I would ha e been in trouble obviously. Never putting them in my cart again. I've been putting a piece of tape on narcs to return or waste with my pts room # and pocketing to get rid of later. Thanks guys!