Your Most Challenging Experience?

trauma_lama, BSN · Jul 23, 2011

waiting around for NURSING SCHOOL TO START!! but then again, i'm a nursing student who starts school in 25 days (but who's counting, right?) :lol2: no, but seriously, i can't wait to read some of these responses.

Always_Learning, BSN, RN · Jul 23, 2011

I'm a new grad, so, ummm...everything? :bugeyes:

Just the sheer volume of stuff to learn is so challenging...getting to know the staff, the skills, where stuff is...yaddah yaddah.

I'm sure some more experienced nurses will have something more interesting.

Guest505077 · Jul 23, 2011

ah- so many to choose... I'll have to think on it some more....

szeles23 · Jul 23, 2011

waiting around for NURSING SCHOOL TO START!! but then again, i'm a nursing student who starts school in 25 days (but who's counting, right?) no, but seriously, i can't wait to read some of these responses.

DITTO!!! :cool:

eriksoln, BSN, RN · Jul 23, 2011

I have to admit, this sounds like an interview question. Mind you, my answer is different depending on whether it is or not.

1. Is NOT: My RL most challenging experience would have to involve the many situations where I've wanted to lose my temper but didn't let myself. The examples are endless.

A. When a Resp. Therapist was feeling her oates and riding the high horse answered a RRT (not my patient, but the patient belonged to a GN who needed my help) and kept yelling at the GN who the patient belonged to. Was telling her to "medicate the patient, the problem is she is in pain. Why don't you do your job?" Ummmmm...... easy for her to draw such quick conclusions since her license was not on the line. BTW, patient's resperations were approx. 7 a minute, so I think her assessment of the situation was a bit off. Dealt with this one via a incident report. I informed the manager I did it this way becasue I sensed things would have escilated had I tried to inform the R. Therapist she was out of line. Said RT was first suspended then fired.

B. Manager, when I was a new nurse, kept trying to pin a med error on me FROM A DAY I WAS NOT EVEN WORKING. A patient was to have their glucophage held for 48hrs due to having a CT with dye done. I said exactly that in report "Glucophage is on hold for 48hrs." I went home, had the next two days off. Well, in the AM on day 2 of the med being on hold, it was given................by one of the managers favorite princesses. So, of course, it couldn't be her fault. It was mine, because in the initial report, when it went on hold, I did not state exactly when the hold ended. Dealt with this by first refusing to sign the write up. Manager informed me two days later it was still going to go on my file, marked "refuse to sign". I made it clear I wanted an HR review/investigation and would be contacting them for such later that day. Before I did so, she told me she was going to be nice and let it slide and stay off my chart (lol, how nice of you). I let it end there.

C. A nurse, who was buddies with the charge nurse, left me a mess. One of the MANY things left for me: No IV access in a patient who was supposed to be on a heparin drip. The patient was a difficult stick, the nurse couldn't flush the old IV, didn't think she could find new access, left her off the drip for approx. 3hrs and left it for me to do. Next morning she came in and complained about night shift leaving too many baths for day shift. Dealth with this by informing the manager, no incident report. No mention of her bad attitude the next morning or her buddy charge nurse knowing about the heparin drip and telling her not to worry about it. Just stated the facts and said I didn't think the patient's safety was being respected, manager agreed and dealt with it.

2. Is: Well, I wouldn't give examples that might lead the HR person to think I have a temper. Greatest challenge outside of the above would have had to been when I was charge nurse at a facility (as a travel nurse) on day one on the floor. I didn't know where anything was, my co-workers names...........nothing, but I was in charge. Dealt with this by being extra special super nice and making buddies with the LPN who had been there many years but was not allowed to be charge. She basically did everything, and I reviewed and signed it all. Eventually, I knew enough to not have to bother her.......and when she needed me to cover a shift for her later on, I returned the kindness.

butterfly134 · Jul 23, 2011

Defo the time when I was on my first weeks of clinicals, i was straight out of high school. My student nurse friend and myself were watching a dressing being changed for the first time. It really wasnt what we expected. I felt sick but my friend fainted! I didn't know what to do and the nurse couldnt leave her patient. The anesthesiologist happened to be coming around and dealt with the situation. She sat me down with my head between my legs because she said I didnt look to good. Thinking back its quite funny. However it was definitely the most challenging because I didn't have a CLUE what to do and I didn't know how to handle the situation so I didn't really handle it. It was just luck that the anesthesiologist happened to be aruond.However next time I'd know what to do if one of my peers fainted! :)

porridge · Jul 23, 2011

400lb stroke pt. choking on a huge food bolus (her family would keep bringing her junk food). I managed to get her sitting up in bed, leaning forward, and I was kneeling behind her trying to apply the Heimlich, but I couldn't get my arms completely around her middle. Fortunately we had a male tech, tall with long arms. Told him to get up on the bed behind the pt and got him to keep repeating the Heimlich. On about the 5th attempt the bolus of food shot out of the pt's throat and across the room. Nothing like teamwork.

lady constance · Jul 23, 2011

ummm quite a few.. one stands out.....

sick icu patient--17 year old ... pressure so low, we emergently placed a venous line femorally----- and once the levophed was going, BLOOD was pulsing up the tubing.... probably the only reason the patient survived.. doc did not beleive me and was tired as all get out... to save his orifice and mine, i quickly converted it to a arterial line and told the doc " yah come take a look at the waveform THEN you can tell me whether it is a artery or a vein, OK???"........ yah dont want me to repeat what the doc said to me as he had to get out of bed AGAIN..... and doc placed another central line... i thnk he bought me a bunch of flowers or chocolate he was so mad at not believing a nurse.....

not sure who learned more,,, he or i

intubating patients when they residents could not get them into place-how they made so much fuss about my bending the stylet in a sideways L shape--think alligator forceps/clamp)--( and the year i did it so often they gave me a turkey with ETT for a christmas present)

when they pick me to stick my hands inside a patient to hold a bleeding artery while rolling down the hall to OR since i weigh the least ..sitting like a whooping crane to apply enough pressure...

picking gravel and sticks and leaves out of a patients extemity's

i got so many stories....

canesdukegirl, BSN, RN · Jul 23, 2011

There have been countless challenging experiences for me. Overall, I think my largest hurdle was recognizing my tendencies, insight/reflection and self development pertaining to unnecessary negativity in my own thoughts. Once I was able to stop knee-jerk negative reactions (I am so DUMB! I can't believe I did that! I am such a terrible nurse/person/friend! I can't learn all of this stuff! How am I possibly going to lead this team? I can't believe my co-workers are just standing around! Why can't I have an easy day like everyone else....you get the picture) and treated myself a bit better, the seas parted, and peace showed me her face. I began to be more gentle with myself, more patient, and more pampering. Once I got the hang of it, life seemed very...well, nice.

A specific challenge that comes to mind was when I was taking care of a young father of two. I was working in the PACU at the time, and had just lost my mother to renal small cell cancer only a few months prior. I got report from the charge nurse, and learned that my pt was s/p left nephrectomy as the result of renal cell carcinoma. Whoa. I wasn't sure I would be able to pull it off. But I put my big girl panties on and told myself that Mom would WANT me to take care of this young man because I would go the extra mile for him.

He arrives in my bay and is in awful pain. He tells me that his pain is 7/10. I give him Dilaudid. After a few minutes, he is still grimacing. I ask him what his pain level is. He said it was about 5/10. He is restless, continues to grimace, and then started to cry...while smiling. My anxiety shot through the roof. I asked him if he needed more pain medication, if he wanted to reposition, if he was nauseated, if he had trouble breathing, if he was too hot/cold--I ran the gamut. He gritted his teeth, and with tears streaming down his face, replied, "I am just so happy to be alive. I didn't think I would make it out of surgery, and I didn't think I would ever see my wife and kids again. I told them goodbye last night, and that I would always love them. I told the kids to be strong for their Mama, but that God might ask me to come home to Him. Yes, I have pain, but I can cope with it. I am alive, and I am so thankful." During the time that he was in my bay, I had to walk away a few times to collect myself. My best friend was (thankfully) working at the bay across from me, so she understood and told me to get lost, splash some cold water on my face and that she would look after my pt.

I did everything in my power to lessen the pain of this brave man. I recently had heard of lidoderm patches being used around surgical incisions and paged his surgeon to ask for this order. I got the order, applied the patches and my patient was finally able to sleep for a few minutes. He was so excited to see his family as he was being discharged from the PACU...pain, discomfort, tears and all.

I will never forget this experience. It was VERY challenging for me to take care of a pt such as this one. It simply hit close to home. I am thankful that I did not ask another nurse to care for him. I learned a great deal about myself, about bravery and gratefulness from this pt. What's more, I was reminded of what is TRULY important in life.

Tait, MSN, RN · Jul 23, 2011

Good evening Nurses:nurse:
Question for you: What has been your most challenging nursing experience/situation, and how did you handle it?
septVirgo

Dealing with a nurse who was my friend when I started and then turned on me when I started to take more control of my position and progress forward as charge nurse. >.>

Patient-emotional wise my most challenging experience would most likely be taking care of a detox who suddenly turned on me and told me I had murdered her whole family and was keeping them in a garbage bag on the roof. Even though I knew she wasn't in her right mind I was down right angry with her. Luckily it was the very end of the day and I was able to walk away from the situation and cool off.

Patient-health status wise I would say it was the 90+y/o pneumonia patient that I had for four hours from admission to death. She was a DNR and the lack of humanity some of my support staff showed was extremely frustrating. (RT would walk in when I would call pleading them to fix the BI-PaP because her sats were in the 60's and they would look at me, right at her bedside, and say "isn't she a DNR?" I understand I needed to let her go, but the lack of compassion for the situation was so frustrating for me. This was also my first patient loss in my then three year career.

I am sure there are many other situations out there, but those are the ones that currently stick out in my mind.

septvirgo03 · Jul 23, 2011

Wow, wow, wow....thanks so much for replying!!! Your experiences were written with such detail that I could just imagine as i'm reading (of course they're detailed; you are nurses lol!!)....re: taking care of the young man, father of 2, with small cell cancer, shortly after your mother passed away with the same Dx, i totally felt that!!! I can relate; had to come back to work after my grandmother passed away due to Stroke, and my very first patient, when returned to work, was a Stroke patient...i definitely had to step away and gather myself and my emotions before entering the room...such personal experience also enhanced my nursing assessment of patients. Since i was not able to ask my grandmother "did u feel anything? what were your symptoms?, etc"...i was able to ask Stroke patients who were alive and able to answer the questions....

@Eriksoln, re: sounds like an interview question....LOL.....well how did u know??LOL!!! Of course it is:-) here's the thing, do I give the real, raw, unadulterated answer, or the "political", nice answer (the one that sounds and looks good to human resource interviewers)?....all for the sake of getting the job. and the thing is, we never know how we are going to handle a challenge until it comes, so not sure why the need for interviewers to ask about a past challenge....