all in a day's work.

clinicals.

you never know what is going to happen.

it could be a very long, boring day -

or it could feel like you're running around with your head cut off by 10:00am.

today, it was the latter.

and by that i mean, i must have been running around with my head cut off,

considering all the mistakes i made.

{source}

my patient was on dialysis, which means the blood is running continually out of their body - through a machine that cleans the blood, and then back into the body.

a fake kidney, if you will.

{see above? the two red tubes right next to her?  one is dirty blood going out, and one is clean blood coming in.  isn't that cool?!}

well, i had never seen hemodialysis before....

and was entranced.

and flabberghasted when my nurse said i could push his medication into the machine for him.

i was so excited!

so we did the five rights.

{right patient, right drug, right route, right dose, right time.}

drew up the syringes with 50cc,

scanned the bar codes,

and kept everything sterile.

now it was time to put the medication.

i was ready.

i started to uncap the tube on the machine -

at which point a substantial amount of blood starting coming out of the end of it.

ah!  stop it you idiot!

{i thought to myself}

i couldn't reach the clamp without contaminating the end -

i had to re-cap the tube.

and i did after a couple of seconds of fumbling.

{and not until after i had promptly gotten blood on the machine, the floor, and my RN.}

whoops!

talk about feeling incompetent.

{i should remember this stuff! i thought to myself.  i shouldn't be making so many darn mistakes!}

it is all i could do to not go buy the patient, my nurse, and my instructor flowers and cake to show how sorry i am for the {minor} mistake.

i find comfort in knowing the three things that all nursing students come to realize about making mistakes:

{i won't make that particular mistake again - i will ALWAYS check the clamp}

{i'll make 1,000 more before i even take the NCLEX}

{and mistakes - if they are small and no one gets hurt - are all apart of learning and growing}

so even though i made a mistake,

you should know that i love nursing with all my heart.

it gives me a rush doing something good for other people.

so although i know i will make more mistakes in my lifetime as a nurse -

i am okay with that.

as long as i am learning.

oh, and also not killing anyone.