The nurse and patient's family yelled at me. I feel horrible.

[mamacita2]

I'm a nursing assistant in the float pool. I get floated to pretty much everywhere. However, I enjoy it. I do my job and leave. I always get compliments each floor I go to because I work hard. I don't take the morning breaks like others do and I take my lunch break always later after everything is done. I barely sit down to take a break. That's just how I am. Today I got floated to work on the pediatric floor, general peds that is. I finished the morning and noon vitals and put them in. None of the patients had fevers. One patient who was a baby girl had a temperature of 99.0. During my lunch break, the nurse for that baby (1 year old) who had that 99.0 temperature asked the other nursing assistant to take her temperature. I saw that the nursing assistant got a temperature of 99.4 and put it into the computer. Then a hour later, that baby is crying so hard. The mom asks if we can take a temperature. I go in and the baby is hysterical. The mom is holding the baby tight. I got a temperature of 99.4. The parents give me an attitude saying how can the temperature be 99.5 when the mother feels the baby is hot. I take it again and the temperature is 99.6. The baby is crying hysterically. I leave and tell the nurse the temperature and put it into the computer. The dad of the baby comes out of the room asking if they can get the individual thermometer, not the one we use to get temperatures for everyone, you know the ones you throw away after using it on each patient. The mom takes the temperature with that and the temperature is 103. The parents ask the nurse to go into the room and tells her it's 103. Then they take it again and it's 104.3. Within like 10 minutes, the temperature spiked up so high.

The parents give the nurse an attitude asking if the baby had a fever all this time and we didn't know about it. They said when each of us went in, it would read something lower than 100 degrees. I hear the nurse tell her our thermometer is fairly accurate and it's probably my fault and I did a terrible job. The nurse asks me to go to the patient's room and they all said I did a horrible job. The nurse and the parents both gave me the biggest attitude. I've never had a problem with this. Can this really be my fault????

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

Duplicate threads merged

[Misskala]

I agree with above posters, offering encouragement. I also wanted to mention it is a HIPPA violation to look up pt charts the next day if you are not caring for pt, as the above poster mentioned.

This is just FYI:

1) tylenol and fever reducers only reduce fever by 1-2 degrees, so that's why you will see a temp go up and down when being medicated.

2) A crying baby gets hot and this raises their temperature; also sleeping raises the temperature. I understand this baby had a fever underlying, but those are other variables to consider along with an inaccurate thermometer and placement.

I am also saddened to hear that the nurses and staff "threw you under the bus" in front of the patients. That is super un-professional. I'd talk with the manager for a debriefing. Approach it as "I want to learn from this experience." Don't hold grudges against the staff or patients. Just take the high road, and learn, and move on.

Best wishes,

KaLyn

[MiAmorPickles]

I took rectal temps on a total care ped patient and the day nurse (5 year history with child) got upset and told the pulmonologist the next day and told me the doctor said no rectal temps and that it required a doctor's order because it was invasive. There are no rectal issues. I'm floored and don't believe it. The day before this happened the nurse and I took the pts temp and she got 97.8 ax and I got 100.8 ax. She said I was crazy and that my temp couldn't be right. I took rectal temps because I figured it's more accurate and the rationale was that there was such a big discrepancy in our temps and I wanted to be as accurate as possible. I asked if she told the doc about the discrepancy in the temps we got and she said no. I figured it's because I've only been there for 1 1/2 yrs and she didn't like that it made her look bad in front of the new nurse she was orienting.