Ok, today in clinical's must have been the worst. I am doing my pedi rotation and the nurse on this unit must have gotten their degree from a cracker jack box. first we had a little baby that was forgotten about in the 1st shift, what I mean by that is that the patient was not assigned to a nurse during the 1st shift at all! we got on the floor at 3pm and my co student nurse went into the room to see the baby and the IV had infiltrated and his arm was swollen all the way up to his shoulder. So, she ran out looking for the nurse and the 3-11 nurse went in and seen what had happened and she asked who was the nurse for 7-3 and that is when they found out the patient was not assigned to any nurse at all, and it had to be infiltrated from the night before. HOW irresponsible is that!!
Next I had my patient , who was an 8mo old baby and the IV line had a lot of air in it, (really old IV supply's and pump) so I called the nurse in because I am not familiar with the pumps at this hospital. She came in and first she asked me if I was the pt's visitor or a student (UM Im standing there with my uniform on and my stethoscope around my neck) anyway, I tell her what is going on and she tells me to go get a syringe and I do and then she try's to extract the air out and she spends about 20 min doing so. I asked her if it would't be better just to unscrew the line form the patient and prim the line, she said she could but she did not feel like messing with it. So, she got allot of the air out but allot was still left in the line. She said some air won't hurt her and it takes allot for an air emboli. I told her, this is a 8 month old and why do we learn in school to get all the air out before it goes into the pt. No body knows for absolute sure how much air it takes for an air emboli, but it is better to be safe right.
There is so much wrong with this floor I can't say everything, even my clinical instructor has a problem with the nurses when we are there, it is insane. I know I will never take my child to this hospital. Oh, and did I mention they don't like students on the floor. One of the other nursing students asked a nurse if she could follow her and she said no and that if she did she would slam the door in her face.
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
THanks for all the comments, Im glad Im not the only one that thinks there is allot wrong here. We did tell our instructor everything of what happened. I don't know what else I can do. I know things are different once you are a nurse, but you should still be safe in everything you do no matter if you are a student or have been a nurse for years.
I told my friend that had the pt with the infiltration, just to make sure she documents everything that she seen and that was done. Just in case... I don't know why this happened, or how this could have even happened at all. The 3rd shift nurse had to give report to someone, right. The sweet little baby is 5 months old and the mother was there, but she did not speak any english at all and she didn't know what to do. I didn't know if she said anything or not.
I have now done my clinical in 2 hospitals and on several units and this one is the worst by far. Our teacher would put us somewhere else but we are evening clinical's and we only are only allowed to do to ER and one other floor.
Specializes in Medical Surgical/Addiction/Mental Health.
I am sorry to hear you are having a bad experience at that facility. However, it sounds to me like you had a positive learning experience. You already notice things being done incorrectly and questioning it. That just goes to show what kind of nurse you will end up being; a good one!
Also, use the chance to ask your instructor about how you would document this, report to the primary, and how to write an incident report. This can give you some practice as well. You are just getting started in your career and have found two important things: the value of frequent, early assessment and of trusting your "gut instinct." You also reported a deviation from normal quickly. Good job in a scary environment.
Specializes in Infusion, Med/Surg/Tele, Outpatient.
This is extremely disturbing to me. I'm sorry your experience is this bad. If these things keep happening, I'd find a way to make an anonymous complaint to either the nursing board, the state medical board, child health insurance agency etc....
~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN
5,259 Posts
Wow that is just crazy.