By 8. Never makes assumptions
I had a very scary learning experience about a year after I began working as an RN on the med-surg floor where I had been a CNA for five years prior! I felt sooo comfortable that I got very cavalier and careless. If the IV supply drawer said 500cc NS, then that’s what MUST BE in the drawer. I picked out a bag, pierced it, hung it, left the room for 10 minutes and when I came back to hang the antibiotics, I discovered to my horror that I had hung NS with 25,000 units of HEPARIN!!! Thankfully I took it right down and the patient was unharmed, but I learned to slow down and READ EVERYTHING! That’s why they spell ASSUME the way they do!!! It makes an “a**” out of “u” and “me” when you don’t take your time and pay attention to everything you do, no matter how “simple” it may seem!
—Noreen on Dodged a bullet
