Help! What do you do???
I had a young (adult age) pt today in MICU with some developmental disabilities. She was restrained and mom/dad set her up with iPad on her belly so she could watch Dora the explorer.
I did my normal full assessments at 8, 12, 4. At a 530 med pass, I flushed her NG tube and she coughed. My heart sank.
I immediately checked her NG tube marking and lo and behold, what should’ve been at 65, was now at 12. I feel absolutely awful for not checking her placement before touching it. She somehow got her hand wrapped around it, and even though it was still taped to her nose, there was a ring around the actual tube. She pulled it through that ring so everything was still intact, just the marking was incorrect (12 instead of 65). Lesson learned, always check placement! I feel even more awful that it didn’t occur to me to be checking everyone’s ng before accessing.
Thank god it was essentially at back of throat and she coughed up the flush then swallowed it. She didn’t do any more throat clearing, coughing, gagging the rest of shift. I did let the dr know and the poor thing had to get a new NG with a proper bridle.
Is this part of your normal checks too before administering meds? Checkmplacement then administer? Am I really that dull ?