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Discussion

Worries after Leaving Work

Hi all,

I am currently a nurse aide as well as an LPN student and I am working on getting over some of my worries and anxiety after work. I care so much about my patients and try so hard to make them safe and comfortable but sometimes it ends up stressing me out like I forgot something.

Usually at the end of my shift doing aide work (which is 11pm) I will go into each of my patients rooms and make sure the bed rails are up, alarm is on, and they are safe and comfortable. If the patient has been incontinent I would also check to make sure they are dry.

Last night I checked all of my patients and made sure all of the incontinent patients were dry as usual before I left. One of my patients had been incontinent in recent days and yesterday she was not for my shift. I felt pretty good about it because I successfully had taken her to the bathroom before she was incontinent, which was great. (I know, the little things that please).

I had taken her to the bathroom at about 9:45pm, so I guess it slipped my mind to check her right before I left for the night. I did make sure she was safe and comfortable, and she was sound asleep when I left. Then I went home and realized that I had forgot to check if she was dry as well right before I left (even though I took her to the bathroom during the later end of my shift.) And it bothered me, I had nightmares that she got sick from being wet.

Even as I type this it sounds like I am crazy. Or does it?

As a nurse or an aide do you do similar things?

Does anyone else experience these kind of worries?

If so what do you do to get over them?

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    Did she die? If not, quit worrying. If you continue to set your expectations so high you will be unable to help your patients at all. You will burn out faster. I applaud you for caring deeply about their outcome, but do not make yourself sick over this. Use that energy to focus on school or your family.

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    Its true, there is much better things to save my energies for.

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    I've been a nurse for 18 months, and I still randomly wake up out of a solid sleep thinking "AHH! did I forget to do X, Y, Z?" Even now, when I'm in a specialty I feel confident in, and where I'm not overworked. I think it just comes with being responsible for someone else's well being. I just always do a final double check of everything important before I leave. And don't worry, I definitely doubt that youe patient will get sick because she was possibly wet for at most a couple of hours.

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    Remember that nursing care doesn't stop when you leave for the night. It's a 24 hr job and the responsiblity is passed to the oncoming shift. One of our jobs as nurses is to carry on or finish the tasks from the previous shift b/c you can't always finish every single detail before you leave. Even if the patient was wet all night long, that isn't a reflection on you...that is a reflection on the nurse who sat on her butt all night long (hypothetically speaking). Your responsibilites end when you clock out.

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    Oh my! Honey, you are only one person. As someone else said it is a twenty four hour facility. Kudos for toileting prior to an incontinent episode, you would be surprised how many people don't do that. It's a big deal. You can't stress about these things. The patient was changed less than two hoes before you left. When I worked LTC sometimes that was as good a it was gonna get. It's great that you care so much but don't sweat the small stuff. Your patients were safe and in bed, you did good :)

    "No day but today"

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