THE WORST Experience/night of my life!

Nurses New Nurse

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so this a rant about how much i despise some of the stupid mistakes i make as a new nurse...and the always present embarrassment d/t the fact that i ask questions that are stupid and now all of the unit thinks i am a fumbling idiot. ok so my unit coordinator calls me and gives me a critical potassium level of 1.4. i'm thinking this can't be possible. he would be dead! but in my frenzy of thoughts i decide the best way to approach this is to ask the nearest nurse what she thought about it. after looking at me for a good minute she says ugghhh mm well i would re-draw the ep1....a k of 1.4 is not compatible with life. i'm thinking duh...get him on the ekg monitor and get the k started! then i come to realize that maybe the unit coordinator told me the wrong value. at this point i'm screwed and of course nooo the patients k was not 1.4 rather it was his mg that was 1.4. not only did i want to go hide under a rock at this point...everyone on the unit was talking about me and the mistakes i've made. should i just hang up my nursing license and move on. i mean i know k less than even 3 is critical so i knew that 1.4 is not conducive to life, and yet i ask in my freaking out stage instead of calming down and realizing this is not possible. no, i go and ask a charge nurse who is now probably considering turning this incident over to management. am i really this freaking stupid? should i just move on somewhere i can start over and where everyone won't think i'm and absolute idiot? ahhhh...why did i choose to be a nurse! i want to help people, not run around like a chicken with my head cut off every night. this sucks. i work tomorrow and i'm dreading the looks and whispers that are going to be made behind my back. gossshh...why does everyone on the unit gossip gossip gossip...that is all they do. behind each others back. i don't know if i should just move on or consider moving to another profession. i feel so low and my self esteem as a nurse is less than 0. i have none. i always feel uncomfortable, is it the unit and the gossip or is it me and the fact that i make these silly mistakes. please anyone :o

Emmie.... YOU didn't make the mistake...your unit clerk did. And you DID know that if that was truly the level, the patient was in big trouble and needed action now. You responded appropriately by asking someone with more experience what they thought. Now, through this experience, you'll always remember to double-check the clerk when she tells you about a lab value that seems way out of whack. The best way to learn something is to actually experience it so look at this as a positive...you'll always double-check the values yourself first! The first few years of nursing will have many such lessons...it comes with the territory...don't be so hard on yourself. Everyone of us has been there!

Too bad the nurses on your unit aren't more supportive...or....are you placing the stress on yourself? Maybe your self-confidence is so low that you're perceiving that other nurses are talking about you when they're really not. Maybe you should give yourself more time before you talk to the NM. Think about some of the posts here and try to follow their advice. My gosh!....You got yourself through nursing school...that's a huge accomplishment in itself! The first year of nursing you'll learn even more than you learned in school! Give yourself a break...you're no different than any other nurse on the floor...they just have more experience under their belt. Nursing is HARD work and takes a lot of smarts! No one can expect to have all the knowledge it takes immediately after graduating. It takes years of using that knowledge before the answers start to pop up in your mind immediately. If older nurses try to make you feel bad about not knowing something...than THEY have a problem with self-confidence.

So give yourself enough time to get over this incident then really analyze if you do want to switch units. Maybe just talking to your NM about your feelings and asking for a mentor that you could vent to or just bounce questions off would be enough to get you through this tough time. Your perception of how you're doing may be completely different than other's perceptions. You can always ask for an evaluation of your performance. Remember, though, to keep it positive. If you decide you want to transfer, tell them why the floor you want to go to would be a better opportunity, better learning environment, better match for you, etc. Don't say any negatives about your current floor, just that you think a different floor would work better for you. If the NM is on top of things, she'll read between the lines and you won't have to burn your bridges...just move on. Good luck!

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Specializes in Women's Health, Oncology.

I'm sorry...the appropriate response from the nurse you asked should have been more along the lines of...

"That level is not usually compatible with life"..followed by..."Let's go look at his labs" and see what's going on.

Or..."maybe it's an error (seeing as your patient was still alive and fine!!), why don't you look up his labs and make sure that it's not just human error.

You don't chide or critize someone who is asking for your help or opinion. You help them.

In the end..only kindness matters.

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Specializes in oncology, trauma, home health.

Oh man! That sounds like a horrible unit. I know which nurses I can ask "dumb" questions and which ones will stare at me blankly and say "Is there a question here?"

Usually the more difficult nurses are the younger ones who have been nurses for two years and think they are old-timers.

Pull yourself up, get in there and show your stuff. The patient is fine and you won't make that mistake again. Good luck to you!

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Specializes in ER/AMS/OPD/UC.

Good job!!! You knew there was something crazy about that lab value and you asked another nurse about it...I'll tell you that I would rather have a new nurse ask question than not to......for fear of looking stupid.

Take it from me...it will take some time for you to go with your gut on things..if your gut tells you something is wrong, trust it and talk with another nurse about it.

At least you are practicing safely..give it some time.

Hang in there!

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Specializes in Ortho, Case Management, blabla.

Learn to laugh it off. Self deprecate a little bit. Don't take everything so seriously. There are things that still freak me out from time to time that I do/don't do. You just gotta take some deep breaths. I ask my coworkers questions all the time. They even ask me questions all the time.

There are a couple of my coworkers that I trust to ask questions to moreso than others. There are a couple of other new grads on the unit and we ask each other a lot of questions without having to worry about sounding dumb (pooled knowledge and all that jazz...none of us really have the same strongpoints). If you don't feel super confident it's probably better to ask the nurses you trust rather than the ones that will gossip. Find out who those people are.

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Specializes in Utilization Review/Case Management.

Good for you to question the lab value! I had a similar situation, but the potassium level really was 1.4!!! We were told in report (taped) that the pt. had a K of 1.5 in the ER and was sent to our floor (med/surg) over night. The aides said the patient was "needy" and "whiney" because she couldn't do things for herself. Both myself and my nursing supervisor discussed it after report and thought that the off going nurse must have mis-spoke on the report, because there's no way the ED would send that pt. to our floor. Well, I did a re-check of the potassium and it was 1.4 at that time!!!!! The pt. woke up and couldn't move her arms right, but was alert and oriented. The resident I notified didn't seem too concerned and wanted to "get back to me" (she was admitted under OB for hyperemesis. When the staff internal med doctor heard about it, he moved that pt to ICU so fast it made my head spin!)

Luckily everything worked out OK, but she had been on our floor for almost 8 hours without anyone addressing the situation. It scares me what might have happened to this patient.

So question away! As you get more experience, you will realize that none of us knows it all, and hopefully won't feel so self-conscious about asking. I still ask "dumb" questions, but I don't feel so bad anymore, because others do to :)

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Specializes in Certified Wound Care Nurse.

Hang in there - I assure you - there will be other "worst" experiences... LOL... I am trying to be funny here...

I, too, am feeling a similar frustration - so know that this isn't uncommon.

If you really, really love this - hang in there no matter what. If you do not, hang in there until you find something else....

Take care. I know you'll do well.

Shawna

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Specializes in med/surg.

I'm a new nurse who has not yet been let loose on my own. I started with a group of 6 new grads & I've found that the more experienced nurses are most concerned with those of us who do not ask questions & seem overconfident, they say it makes them uneasy.

So sorry they made you feel bad, I think it's terrible & believe that's why some are constantly running short staffed... who would want to work in that environment? My preceptor told me once that when you graduate you probably have learned about 10-20% of what you need to know to do your job & the other 80-90% you learn on the job & nursing is one of those professions where you are always learning something new.

I wouldn't worry about it too much, as another poster wrote they'll find something else to snip about... definitely learn to laugh at yourself... it makes life so much brighter! Good luck, you'll be an awesome nurse!

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awww.. well i understand how u feel because im a new nurse also.. and i have committed mistakes (minor) and yeah most are silly.. :lol2: well i just laugh about it and get the lesson from it..

they were right, u did well because the patient was ok..and it is always ok to ask questions to your senior nurses if something about work especially with the patient bothers you..its very much understandable.. let this experience inspire you to become a better nurse in the future. you've worked hard for this. anyways learning doesnt end inside the classroom..

if they want to gossip about you, let them.. its human nature lol.. whats important is youve learned. dont be hard on yourself, for as long as people will see that you are respecting yourself and the profession, they will also respect you..:bow::nurse:

xviii-xxv:nurse:

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Specializes in Burnout & Resiliency Coaching for Nurses.

It doesn't seem like you made a mistake it seems like a unit coordinator made a mistake. You didn't hurt a patient. I say job well done, you got it figured out. NVM, the other jerks.

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If another new nurse had made some mistakes or asked some questions and was now feeling silly and thinking her coworkers thought badly of her and were gossiping about her, how would you answer her if she asked if she should resign?

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Specializes in CNA, EMT.

I'm not a nurse but everyone makes mistakes. The people that are gossipping about yours have probably made the same, possibly even worse mistakes! And you have to think that they were gossiped about too. I think a big part of working in healthcare is getting used to the social environment... in a week or to they will probably forget all about it.

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