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First skills check off of 2nd semester - Epic Fail!!

Oh my Lord, could I have been any more ridiculous in my first check off????? And lest you think I'm exaggerating let me replay the scenario:

"Hello Mr. Brown, my name is Candi and I'm going to be your student nurse today.  First of all I am going to check your blood glucose" (did that no prob).  "Ok, now I'm going to give you your insulin."  So I go with the whole NRN steps.  I draw the 10 mL of Regular, then add the 8 mL of NPH to equal the 18 mL that is on the Rx.  At which point the teacher says "That's only 17 mL, you need 18".  First of all, it was NOT only 17, I can see, but I wasn't going to argue so I proceeded to pick up the vial to make sure it was 18 mL's (which was actually 19 but whatev).   At this point I hand her back the syringe so that she can check to see that it's now 18 & she goes "It's 18 but you added R, not N" (with a look that says "You're a complete moron".)  Oh holy hell!!! So at this point I am now totally flustered & start freaking out!  She goes "And also, since you put N into the R vial, so what are you going to do now?"  I mean seriously, I lost it at this point.  All confidence I had in what I was doing went straight out the window! I said "I guess I should just start over huh?" and she said "Yeah that would be good, and what would you need to do with the vial of R?"   Obviously, throw it out, which means I wasted money.  So I proceed to push the fake meds into the garbage can so that I can start over, well guess what?  My needle came out in the garbage can!! After I emptied the syringe into the garbage can I looked at the end of my syringe & noticed that my freaking needle fell off!!  I mean WTH!!  Well, at this point I'm sure you know what happened (well those with experience will).  It was a stupid safety needle! When I ejected the medicine into the garbage can the needle retracted.  Hell I didn't even realize that it did that!!!  So, now as you can imagine I am DOUBLY flustered.  So there I am standing over the garbage can thinking "What the hell do I do?" when she puts me out of my misery & goes "That's a safety needle, it retracted into the syringe."  I go "Oh, I didn't even realize that they did that.  Can I use one of the extra's that is on the table?" & she goes "Yes" at which point I chuck the used syringe IN THE GARBAGE CAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  At this point I'm sure she is thinking I am the BIGGEST moron ever & she goes "You just threw a needle into the garbage can."  Ok, it was at this point I was just praying that Tennessee would experience a freak earthquake & that said crack from the earthquake would open up right under me & swallow me whole.  I IMMEDIATELY picked up the syringe from the garbage can & said "Oh my gosh I would NEVER throw a needle in the garbage can, EVER!"  So I proceed with the rest of the check off & although the rest wasn't as bad as that, it was still pretty bad.  I mean once all that happened I was  DONE!! I should have just gone  home, went back to bed & come back on a different day.  Regardless of all those shinanigans I did manage to pass somehow, but Lord KNOWS I will be studying MUCH harder for next weeks check off.  Pray for me!!!

Blessings!

Comments

  1. The fact that they make you do the R and NPH as a check off... heck I haven't even seen that ordered for anyone they have 70/30 premixed now :-)

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    1. I think they did say that it's usually pre-mixed, but they just wanted us to know how to do it in case we had to. They also make us aspirate our IM injections before giving the med, which they said no one teaches that any more either, but they still want us to do it.

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  2. I soooo feel for you girl! I get major flustered during check-off's and even in clinical when the instructor is like standing over me watching my every move. And then don't you hate it when, the minute they leave or aren't looking, you do everything correctly?! And for the record, I hate mixing insulin. Last year for clinicals, all they had up at Mayo Clinic was pre-mixed insulin pens (which were a dream!) and now this year down in our rinky-dink hospital, we have to premix everything..ew! Hey - it only goes up after this, right? :)

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  3. First of all, they don't use pens? Second of all, your teacher needs to stop being so intimidating! Surefire way to have a student make mistakes...hang in there, it gets better!

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    Replies
    1. I think we probably will use pens in the hospital but they want us to know how to draw up an injection if we need to.

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