With the complexity of the job, there are many mistakes that can be made in nursing. Sometimes it’s charting something wrong, but sometimes it’s more serious. The most important things to do after a mistake is made are to take responsibility for it, correct it, and learn from it. One mistake that comes to mind occurred when I had my first patient fall. Thankfully the patient was unharmed, but there were precautions that I could’ve taken to prevent this from happening.
Another staff member and I were transferring my patient from the bedside commode to the chair. Although we were using an assistive device to help her stand and sit on the chair, there were a few mistakes that I made that led to the patient falling. First off, I didn’t use a gait belt, which is safety measure we often use for patients who are at risk for falls. Had I had this on the patient, I could’ve used it for more support when sitting her down. Additionally, the chair was an electric one that had a sit-to-stand feature. This angles the chair so that it is easier for patients to get on and off of it. Unfortunately, I had the chair angled too high, and that combined with the incontinence pad on the chair caused the patient to slide off of the chair and onto the floor.
After a patient falls, we assess them for any injury, and if appropriate, help them off of the floor. We then have a “Post Fall Huddle,” where members of the care team discuss the event as a way to learn from our mistakes and prevent falls in the future. This process helped me to make it a point to use gait belts when moving my patients and to make sure I set up chairs to promote safe patient transfers. Mistakes are not something that anyone wants to make, but as long as something is learned from them, we can use that knowledge to improve our practice to make sure we don’t repeat the misdraw in the future.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought change to all aspects of life. As a nurse working through the pandemic, I have had to remodel my approach to every professional responsibility I have. The most evident changes include adapting to numerous hospital protocols, constant personal protective equipment use, sanitation requirements, patient visitor limitations, and social distancing in the workplace. One aspect of my job that I did not anticipate changing as much as it did was the way we communicate. The pandemic has led me to appreciate the importance of verbal communication when delivering patient care, especially when caring for patients who are deaf or hard of hearing. I never realized the barrier masks impose on individuals that benefit from lip reading and through the pandemic, I acknowledged the hindrance it can have on patient care. Once this issue was identified on my unit, I began wearing masks with a transparent panel when necessary, so that my patients could physically see when I speak with them in order to make them more comfortable with communication. Additionally, the inability to have in-person language interpreters where I work has changed the way I communicate with patients who prefer a language other than English. Over the past year, I have incorporated online language interpreters more than I have ever before in order to facilitate my patients’ cultures within their care. My coworkers and I felt it was important now more than ever to learn basic phrases in languages we encounter most with our patient population, including Spanish, Somali, and American Sign Language, to ensure we were maintaining appropriate communication with our patients and their families. Utilizing technology has also helped resolve communication obstacles inflicted by the pandemic. Due to patient visitor limitations, I found myself incorporating video calls with my patients and their families that cannot be present during their hospitalizations. I’m grateful to have had these resources over the year in order to keep families involved in patient care. Adapting to the changes the pandemic has produced continues to be challenging, but they have also led me to incorporate more creativity in my patient care that I hope to continue beyond the pandemic.
