So today I get onto my shift at 0630, and I read through the RAND and do my physical assessments/checks of my patient... at 0715 or so, one of my preceptors walks in and asks me for a report. I tell her the patient's diagnosis, secondary diagnoses (including DM type 2), and then she stops me and asks what the most recent blood sugar was. Now, from what I remembered from reviewing the RAND was that my patient has q6hr fingersticks, the last one being before my shift started at 0600, the next being 1200. So, we look up the latest BS level and it hadn't been taken by the night shift. So, this leads to me being thrown into a big mess with the preceptor and an instructor going on and on about how critical thinking and good judgment required that I should have immediately noticed the absent BS check, and then done it myself or reported to someone else to find out why. I didn't do this initially because I thought that I didn't need to worry about it, since I read the RAND and it said that I didn't have a blood sugar due until 1200... so I didn't even bother checking since I thought it would have been taken care of before my shift -- hence, not my responsibility. What do you guys think, am I clinically neglegent, or am I paying for someone else's mistake? Would you have checked blood sugar levels for the previous shift if you were in my situation? Ever have a similar situation happen to you, and what did you do?
