A few weeks ago, I was busy with several post op patients and one guy was needin a lot of attention pain wise etc. he was scared of needles so he didnt want much pain relief. He did have a PCA but he was quite drowsy so he wasnt using that much. Coz he was quite sweaty he got up to have a shower and took the PCA and stuff in with him an the nurse in charge told me that patients arent meant to have a shower post up, just a sponge in bed. But i did need to change his sheets anyway.
Earlier that shift, i put up a new bag of fluids, well i let a student do so, and just left it. Went in to do the obs 2hrs later and saw the fluid had gone in those 2 hrs and i was like shit! So i told another nurse and she said thats not good, to get an IMED and to make sure he's peed. Well it was 6 hrs post op and he hadnt peed, so we had to bladder scan and he had like 800mls in there, and he finaly got up to the toliet 1hr later and that wasi it. The nurse took me asside and siad that sicne he's a young guy he;ll be fine, but if it were an older person, they could go into CCF and i was like oh *^*^. That played on my mind the rest of the shift.
later on the guy got up for the shower and I didnt put a cover over his cannula coz pple have told me that they are waterproof so yeah. Then when he got out, it had come out for the 2nd time (first time it tissued) and so we had to cease the PCA. He refused any pain relief coz he thought he'd get a needle and he was scared of them. Took a long time for the cannulation people to come and put a new one in, and he was quite nauseated a few times and vomiting so i just had to get some zofran. The in charge nurse and the other nurse came with me to sort him out and then i was about to give it subcut, coz it looked like ti was written sc, and the other nurs thought that too, but then the in charge said no, and to do it IM. So i put the IM needle on, and for some reason i started putting it as a SC, but ten just as i was about to give it, the in charge told me to stop rather abrubpty and i realised what i was about to do. She told me to go outside immediately and think about it and stuff and she gave it.
Then she talked to me about it, and to go and have a break and get it all together. I went to the staff room and jsut broke down when the other nurse came in. the stress of the fluid going in too fast and the potential side effect and ginving a drug wrong etc etc just piled up and yeah. Plus the stress of the impending major eye surgery just exploded (ive had the operation now). It took a while for me to compose myself and to get a post op patient back. Thankfully he was telling jokes and that helped me a bit.
So the NUM and grad coordinator had a meeting with me the next day and told me about their concerns. I have to extend my probation by another month and get more supervision and stuff like that and work next to a senior nurse (well that only lasted a few days...) and more education. The fact that I am taking a month off after eye surgery isnt exactly helping either. She told me that i need to know my medicatiosn a lot more and the different surgeries.
So yeah have you ever done really big mistakes like that?
