“While you'll feel compelled to charge forward it's often a gentle step back that will reveal to you where you and what you truly seek.”
― Rasheed Ogunlaru
In nursing school, they talk about taking advantage of every opportunity thrown your way. This is especially true if you are able to follow a patient to a certain procedure. Once you become a nurse, you will be confined to your own unit, and there will be very few opportunities to experience anything outside of that unit. Clinicals in nursing school are designed so you get to experience a little bit of everything, so you can properly decide on what area to specialize in. Also, it gives you more of an idea on all the complexities of a hospital stay. I pride myself in always jumping at every opportunity presented to me. With that said…
One particular clinical, I was asked to help prepare a patient that had died. While I had seen a deceased patient once prior, I had never helped with afterlife care. Death is as much a part of life as living is. This is a hard concept to grasp, but it is nonetheless important. It was one of those opportunities I jumped at.
After helping prepare the body, the nurse I was assigned to that day popped her head in the room and told me she needed me to go bathe one of our patients. This frustrated me because I wanted to see my job through to the end. Plus, we were going to be able to transport the body down to the mortuary (which I have never seen). This may all seem morbid, but it is part of the job.
I quickly ran to my clinical instructor and told her what the nurse had asked me to do. Then, I told her I wanted to finish what I was doing and get the experience. With great disappointment, she told me I needed to do what my nurse had asked. Really? I thought clinicals were about experiencing things I have not done before. I had helped give plenty of people baths before and knew I would give plenty more in the future. How was my clinical instructor not on my side?
Reluctantly, I went and collected the necessary supplies. I hoped that maybe if I gave her a bath quick enough I would at least get to go to the mortuary. Hastily, I hurried in the patient’s room, removed her IV (she was getting discharged to a facility and needed cleaned up first), and got her in the shower. Great, I was going to be able to hurry though this and get to what I actually wanted to do.
That’s when it happened. I realized in my hurry I had made a terrible mistake. The patient was on blood thinners which means her blood did not clot very fast. I did not take the time to realize this before I removed her IV. Instead of holding pressure on the site, I had put a bandage on it and got her in the shower. Now, she was bleeding through the bandage and down her arm. I cannot express how terrible I felt.
I spent the next few moments applying the appropriate amount of pressure, like I should have at the beginning. Once the bleeding had stopped, I gave her a proper shower. I spent the necessary time to make sure she was good and clean. Once I got her out and dried off, I replaced the bandage with a clean one. After I got her dressed I offered to rub lotion on her legs and brush her hair. In the end, she said she felt so much better after being so well taken care of.
Well taken care of? I almost caused her to have a serious problem. I was thankful she was so nice about the whole situation. While I may have made up for it in the end, I still felt awful about it. It is still something I think about today. You better believe I always take the time to check if a patient is on blood thinners before I do anything to them. Luckily, everything worked out. She ended up feeling better and went to the facility all cleaned up.
Lesson learned
I had been in such a hurry for what I wanted that I forgot what this patient needed. By giving this lady a proper bath, I set her up for a much better experience. How terrible would it have been if she had been transferred to that facility being dirty? This situation could have gotten a lot worse, but, thankfully, it had a good ending.
I challenge those of you reading to think the next time before you get in a hurry. Is it really worth it? When we are in a hurry we often forget or miss things. This can lead to situations that take more time or end in tragedy. This is why there are so many car wrecks. Sometimes we just need to take a step back. Then, we can truly learn something and everyone wins!
