Student Charge Nurse out of line

[cin808]

I'm upset due to an issue that happened at a recent clinical. I was having a problem taking a patient's blood pressure and so I asked another student for assistance. Our student "charge" also came into the room for some reason. I told her what was happening and she suggested taking a manual. Great idea...prob should have thought of that myself, but I did not. In any event, I was successful taking the manual bp. As I was entering the vitals she came and asked me about the bp. I tripped over my words and then told her the reading.

I cannot for the life of me figure out why she went and asked the other student that was present if she "saw" me take the blood pressure. The only thing I can think of is that she thought I was lying because I kind of stumbled with my response.

It's bothering me and I can't decide if I should approach her or not. I probably need to work on my "let it go" skills but at the same time I feel like she crossed a line. I'm a fully accountable individual and the last thing I would ever do is pretend that I got a bp.

Any advice?

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

I agree with the others. Let it go.

But ... just as a cautionary note ... there will be people checking up on your for the rest of your career. You'll need to stop being offended by that to be happy as a nurse. Double-checking, confirming, etc. is a routine part of nursing. You can't survive if you get offended/upset every time somebody double-checks your work. (e.g. double-checking narcotics wastage -- "How dare they think i would be diverting narcotics!" .... or pain assessments -- "How dare they think I would allow my patient to lie there in pain!" etc.) It's all routine and rarely personal.

I don't double check my peers. Even if I'm supervising the house or am Charging, I don't routinely double check on staff.

It has to be a new grad or someone still in Orientation for me to go out of my way to say, "How's it going" or hang out in the area for a while to surreptitiously listen and watch. Or there has to be a complaint I'm following up on. Or maybe someone was gone on sick leave, maternity leave, or other extended leave, or maybe bereavement leave and I'm just "being there" because it can be awkward or feel rusty when a person first comes back.