My First Experience Using Iv Pumps

First time giving IV medication was scary for me. I have never given IV medication before and we only learned how to give IV push once. The first time preparing, I was very confuse and nervous and I’m sure everyone can tell. However, Janet helped me go through it step by step, it got easier when I did it again the second time. I do hope to have the opportunity to give more medications so I can practice more.

I was about to achieve my objective this week by performing nursing care for two patients, hanging an IV piggyback, flushing and administering an IV med and inserting a straight catheter with the help of the nurse.

The second week of my preceptorship brought many new experiences for me, and I can honestly say that each day I spend with my preceptor is better than the last. This week I focused on time management of a full patient load with continued documentation practice as well as admission and discharge procedures. I’ve had brief experiences in my past rotations assisting with discharge teaching and admission assessments however I have never been able to fully take charge and complete the process from start to finish, so this was a great learning opportunity for me.

Finally, my flush order came through and I was able to give my medications. By following the six rights of medication administration and with the help of Professor Cole, I gave my Heparin shot first. This was easy to me because I had give an insulin shot at the previous clinical. It was, however, a big difference between younger skin and older skin to poke. This is how I met the objective: provides safe care. Next, I gave Pepcid through IV push. This skill I had practiced in the skills lab multiple times, but I still felt kind of “shaky” because it was a skill that I wasn’t fully confident in. I think what I struggled with was the dilution and figuring the milliliters that should be given over the amount of time according to medication. Professor Cole boosted my confidence and it was nice having her there to help me along. I complete the IV push very competently. After performing that, I will now say that I am not afraid of IV push medications. Just remembering to check compatibility and administration rate as well as dilution is very important.

The first day, my preceptor and I took on four patients (two ALC patients, one pediatrics with psychiatric illness, and one patient with Parkinson's disease). We split the workload so we each had two patients. I had the pediatrics patient and patient with Parkinson's disease. It was nice to start with small patient load to help ease into getting back into the routine of the Medical Surgical floor. On the first day, I got to attempted to insert an IV into a patient’s

Third week into clinical. So far, things are slowly improving, however I do need to work on critical thinking and being less task oriented. I had my very own patient. The clinical objective was to be able to perform a successful health assessment on a patient and to identify factors in the environment that would impact patient care. Hopefully from there, my critical thinking skills will develop through experience and to fill my concept map thoroughly. On Tuesday, my patient was an older gentleman who came in with destruction of the liver due to medication. When caring for my patient, I made sure that he received everything that he wanted. I felt that I did well in that aspect for seeking good for the patient. I was told to get his good and make his bed. I don’t know why making his bed didn’t occur in the beginning. But, I learned that in the beginning, it’s important to make sure that the environment is clean, their bed is made, and ask if they needed a show. The important thing that I received from this is asking yourself what would you want the nurse to do if you were the patient. One thing I do realize is that my ability to work with patients and communicate with them with some baseline knowledge is good. With these, I am able to be more confident in my work. But, I do need to work on looking at the full picture when gathering information from the patient. I tend to overlook things but I will improve by realizing my failures.

The clinician demonstrated evidence based practice in his care. By informing the patient about the procedure and waiting for a clear approval. He demonstrated great communication skills as well as keeping the client’s values and circumstance at the core of his care throughout. In addition, the five moments of hand hygiene, aseptic technique and the rights of medication administration of current best practice were utilised. Furthermore, clinical expertise were demonstrated the clinician completed the task in a timely manner with good dexterity highlighting that he has been administering IV therapy for quite some time and is experienced in the way he handled the

On September 28, when we went to Tripler Army Medical Center, I was placed in the Cardiac Ward. At that time, I was able to learn so many diagnosis dealing with the patients. The nurse had briefly explained what was going on with each individual patient and the type of treatments they are doing to help. She had also neatly clarified each medication she was giving them and told me exactly what it was used for. I was able to get an experience of hands on by taking a patient’s temperature. I had shadowed as she did so many things to make the patient feel comfortable and did everything to the best of her ability to make them happy. She had taught me how to record every piece of information about the patients on the computer by showing me what

With this in mind, I entered my last clinical rotation on the OR floor in a large teaching hospital. It contained 19 operating room suites and personnel included a VP of surgical services, a unit manager, a supply manager, an education coordinator, a few supervisors, and an array of surgeons, anesthesiologists, circulating nurses, scrub nurses/technicians, unit clerks, and surgical aides. My preceptor trained me in the position of circulating nurse. As the circulating nurse, I acted as the patient’s advocate while the patient was under the influence of anesthesia. During surgery, I was delegated the task of anticipating needs and trusted to use my clinical judgement when split second decisions were required.

I arrived at clinical 0630 and picked up patient information the morning of. I reviewed all assigned diagnoses, medications, labs, and orders with my assigned students, and we discussed our plan for the day. We both took report from the patient's nurse and then Elizabeth presented at preconference. Kala shadowed the Nurse Lead and I helped Elizabeth with brief changes, pericare, and vital signs. I continued to check on both Elizabeth and Kala throughout the day. Last, lunch and then post-conferance.

The purpose of this journal is to reflect on my experience and skills gained during my clinical placement at Ben Taub Hospital. On my first clinical day, I was excited and nervous at the same time. My first placement was in the PREOP/PACU area. I was assigned to help a patient who had been in the PACU area going on 2 days. Normally, once the patient comes from surgery they are only in the PACU area for a short period of time before they are discharged home or given a bed in another area of the hospital. This particular patient still had not received an assignment for a bed. The physicians would make their rounds to come check on him daily. The patient was a 28-year-old Hispanic male, non-English speaking, he had a hemicolectomy. He had a NG tube, urinary Foley catheter, and a wound vac. My preceptor had just clocked in and she needed to check on the patient’s vitals and notes from the previous nurse. Once she introduced me to the patient and explained while I was there, she then asked me to check his vitals. (Vital signs indicate the body’s ability to regulate body temperature, maintain blood flow, and oxygenate body tissues. Vital signs are important indicators of a client’s overall health status (Hogan, 2014). I froze for a quick second. I have practiced taking vitals numerous of times and I knew I could do it correctly. I started with the temperature first, when I was quickly corrected on a major mistake I had made by my preceptor. I HAD FORGOT TO WASH MY HANDS and PUT

Acute care nursing is by far the most interesting and exciting field I have yet to encounter. There are a couple areas for improvement, and there a couple areas that I have exceeded in. With that being said, the first area of improvement is knowledge of the pathophysiology of the most common diseases seen in the emergency department. The second area of nursing that needs improvement is the titration of intensive care unit medications. Two strengths that I can identify are as follows: patient safety, such as hygiene, and patient safe communication. I enjoyed being in the forefront of the hospital, it was truly an excellent learning experience. I am very thankful to the staff in the emergency department at Las Palmas Hospital, they facilitated

At this point I know that I am confident, I can critically think and independently plan, organize and provide quality care to my patient. I have made a tremendous improvement on medication knowledge, application and administration and these competencies will be demonstrated in my clinical rotation at Holy redeemer. I have also put studying materials and practices that will help me recall and comprehend what I had learn so far to help me finish strong in this course that I have journeyed so

As healthcare continues to develop, so too has the technology involved. In the article, “A Controlled Trial of Smart Infusion Pumps to Improve Medication Safety in Critically Ill Patients” the authors seek to understand the impact of smart pumps, how they are used in the clinical setting and how this technology effects medication errors and adverse drug events. The thesis of this article recognizes that while the medication administration process is complex and allows many opportunities for error, the impact of advancing technology has great promise in improving the safety of infusion-based medications. The study also provides an opportunity to understand how critical care nurses are (or are not) integrating new technology into their practice. This non-blinded, prospective time series study sheds light on the fact that both the technology and the nurse’s performance were the critical factors in the current rates of intravenous infusion errors (Rothschild et al., 2005, p. 13, 20).

You are not alone; I feel the same exact way. When I had Sim this week, I felt flustered because I was not confident enough with hanging fluid IV’s. I really want to become confident in this skill because nurses are performing this task every day. Every nurse I had in clinical just did it and never allowed me to.