was reported by a nurse... what's going to happen?

[charli_appleRN]

Is it possible to pull a med without checking a chart? I mean how would you know which med/dose to pull if you dont look in the chart? I'm confused.

[Stephalump]

Whoops!

[Cllaws889, BSN]

I'm pretty sure if you got the Charge Nurses okay and the Nurses "okay" and your instructors okay the incident becomes nullified because you had direct communication with a higher staff member, the nurse herself and your instructor...hand hygiene is a must but I've seen worse...way worse than that. In other words if you get in trouble I'd be surprised because in indiana at least the Nurse, yourself, and your instructor are ALL responsible for the patient. And all parties agreed on course of action.

[duke1158]

Which nurse reported you? The nurse-patient or the nurse that was treating the nurse-patient? I think the treating nurse doesn't like students and was trying to set you up for failure. I'm sure this isn't the first time this has happened.

[xkerix]

I doubt anything major will happen. It sounds like that nurse was just being evil. "They" say nurses eat their young, and although I have not found that to be true in my career, "they" got that saying from somewhere. Maybe "they" met that nurse.

[sharpeimom]

Much ado about nothing if you ask me, although fifteen minutes seems like a very long time to watch someone without introducing yourselves. Because the patient was an RN, she probably recognized that you were student nurses by your uniforms, and may have

thought you'd introduce yourselves after whatever you and your instructor were doing was ended.

The nurse who reported you sounds like a real pain. Most nurses aren't like that but a few are unfortunately. She may resent it when students come or since she had formed a bond with the patient, she might have felt you had disrespected a dear friend or family member. My mom used to call things like that, "you'll never really know for sure" things.

Try apologizing to your instructor. I suspect she is where most of the wrath will fall. The university is used to fielding complaints that have no real validity. My professor husband sits on a committee that does the preliminary assessment of complaints, and according to what he has said, most complaints are 80-90% foolishness (or something!) and the rest are dealt with in a timely manner.

Quit agonizing, do a good job in class and clinicals, apologize to your instructor, and you'll be fine. You can deal with what ever lies ahead. I see part of this as being on your instructor's head anyway.

[kelsey1992]

I am a 3rd semester nursing student and I find it strange that your instructor was letting you hang meds for someone who wasn't your patient. We have to look over labs, charts, and all their medications etc before even pulling meds. I feel like this was a lacking on your instructors part not you. It is hard sometimes for us as students to say hey, this isn't right. IDK the policies at your school... but it seems like a strange situation. You might get reprimanded but I doubt anything will come from it! Take a deep breath... I probably would have bawled haha

[BloomNurseRN, ASN, BSN, RN]

Having just graduated I, like kelsey1992, think that it was a bit strange to have done things in the order you describe them. Throughout my program the 5 Rights were emphasized like I can't even begin to tell you. We had to know everything about the med, the patient, why the med for the patient, etc. There were times that students administered meds for patients that were not assigned to them but they had to look at everything the med involved before taking on the administration of that med.

Also, it's always a good idea to do hand hygiene while walking in to a room (even if just alcohol and going to do soap and water momentarily) and to immediately introduce yourself and your instructor. Obviously you don't want to interrupt something that's going on but just a quick "hi, I'm Jane Doe, a nursing student with USA College and this is my instructor Mrs. Smith. I'm here to administer your antibiotic". After that you can go on to discuss the things you need to discuss with your instructor and wait for the right time to administer the medication.

Having said all that, I don't think these are issues that have ever been reported to your program. These are things that the nurse should have taken to the charge nurse (chain of command!) and then it should have been discussed with your instructor. Obviously the patient could have reported it in a different way and you can't control it but I really don't think this is something you're not going to have to worry about. You safely administered the medication in the presence of your instructor and that's what matters. Best of luck with nursing school!

[scrlet]

The nurse had reported that we did not check the patient's chart before giving the vancomycin, so we did not know that the chemo was still running. But it was not my patient. We received the okay from the charge nurse to administer the vancomycin to prepare us for our practicum.

I would like to say that being a student myself I know how scary clinical can be and how even scarier the nurses can be to work under. From what you said, it all does seem a bit excessive, but I will say that "but it was not my patient" I don't think is ever a good excuse. Don't take that the wrong way, but you sign for meds that YOU give no matter who's patient it is! In my program I give meds to patients that aren't mine, but I would never do it, let alone would my instructor let me do it, without looking at the pts chart before, plus the 3-4 checks with the MAR from the time of pulling all the way to the bed side. One day you wont have your instructors there and it will be your license on the line, so best practice is to start acting like its already on the line now and do things the way they are suppose to be done. Just my take on it. I don't think you will be kicked out of the program. Nurses don't get fired for honest med errors and there is a lot of fault on your instructor for not following procedure from what it sounds like. Good luck :)