Nursing Without Thinking

In any profession, it is important for every employee to be present and self aware of what they are doing. Thinking can and will minimize work errors from occurring and create an environment of safety. Although there are numerous policies that have been put into place to reduce the amount of errors that occur in the nursing field, a nurse that lacks thinking may still make mistakes. It is imperative for all nurses to understand the significance of thinking.
About a week ago in clinical I witnessed an overworked RN practicing nursing without thinking. It was one of my fellow students that actually pointed it out to me. He noticed that she hung an IV antibiotic, but forgot to first mix the drug together. Although the nurse believed that the patient was successfully hooked up the IV and was receiving the prescribed dose of antibiotic, this was not the case. The patient was not receiving any of the antibiotics that they should have been. It
Re-centering may allow a nurse to get back into the moment and be present. In doing so, it will allow a nurse to be more mindful of what is going on around them and decrease the amount of medical errors that occur. If this nurse had taken a moment to re-center, there is a chance that she would not have forgotten to properly mix the antibiotic. Thankfully, my fellow classmate was there to witness the error and was able to notify my clinical instructor right away. This whole experience opened my eyes to the importance of thinking and being aware. It is times like this where I know it will be important to take a step back and re-center my thoughts and truly start thinking mindful. In my short time at clinical I have learned how important it is to know when to take a step back from everything going on and to go back to the basics of doing each movement step by step like it is the first time