Let’s Blame it on the Travel Nurse!

So I’m reading this article about a resident who failed to perform a time-out before performing a bedside neurosurgical procedure on an 82-year old woman. The resident proceeded to make an incision into the wrong side of the patient’s head before it became known that it was in fact, the wrong side. This appeared to be an error in not following the procedure, as the hospital did have a policy in place to perform a time-out before every surgical procedure.

Fine, fine, fine. We all know that time-outs are absolutely essential from the most complex surgery down to a simple bedside procedure. Or do we?

It was this paragraph that called out to me:

“The department’s statement of deficiencies noted that “the nurse was a travel nurse and not familiar with the procedure.” Travel nurses are hired through agencies to fill in when a hospital does not have enough of its own nurses available. Gifford said that every hospital uses travel nurses and must have procedures in place to make sure any newcomer knows the protocols.”

I will tell you that I took my first per-diem agency assignment in an ICU last weekend. I will also tell you that I did not receive one minute of orientation, and received no briefing on the protocols, policies, and procedures of the unit. I am told that this is the norm for per diem agency nurses.

Dear reader, it did not go well. I will save the details for a later post, as I am still reeling from this harrowing experience (beginning with my first patient running out of their vasopressin drip and ending with my conclusion that I am a complete and utter failure as a nurse.)

I’m starting to recover, though, and after reading this article I’m beginning to think, “Hey, maybe it’s not such a great idea to take care of ICU patients without any prior orientation to the unit.” More on this later.