Moving Quickly.

This past week, I almost pulled out an IV. Almost.

How did this happen? I was setting up a patient to sit in their wheelchair for a bit as I usually do after walking some of them and was moving quickly. I was trying to take vitals with the dynamap and sort out the call bell and make sure the catheter bag was clipped on and the IV was plugged in while talking to the patient. It was at that point my foot got tangled in the IV tubing and I tugged on the patient’s IV line and cause them to scream out in pain. I apologized profusely directly to the patient of course and thanked my lucky stars that it had not come all the way out which would have made me a marked woman as far as nurses are concerned. 

After finishing up with the patient and hurrying out of the room I began to reflect. What events lead to me tugging on an IV line and causing a patient undue pain.

I realized it all comes back to what my mom used to say, “A stitch in time, saves nine.” Words of wisdom I am sure her mother passed on to her as well. 

When I was with the patient, I was hurried and unfocused. I was focused on being quick as to be done with the patient so I could move onto charting or see another patient. But would I really be saving any time if I pulled out an IV. Indeed not. I would have to find the nurse, explain what happened, possibly write and incident report and probably have a lengthy debrief with my preceptor.

I sometimes have found myself rushing since then, bumping into things or walking too fast with equipment. It’s better to slow down and take a moment to avoid a dangerous situation rather than rush ahead and try to do something quickly while compromising safe practice. 

I think I have improved since the IV incident and I am lucky that it only was a close call and not a complete disaster that caused me to take a step back and reflect, because now when I am with patients and I find myself moving too quickly I think back to the patient with the IV and my mom’s voice pops into my head.