Incident Reports

[smcdpt]

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I'm a PT student out on clinical rotation working in an inpatient setting, and one of my patients had an "unplanned controlled descent" to the floor today. There were no injuries, but I had to file an incident report with the hospital. My CI and the nursing staff all seemed like it was no big deal, but I feel absolutely terrible because this is the sort of thing I'm supposed to be trained to prevent! I'm feeling like a terrible therapist in addition to being terrified this means I will somehow fail my clinical or have to leave school, but my CI says falls are really common and she has at least one per year happen herself. Any reassuring words, thoughts, or advice?

 

[truthseeker]

don't sweat it. It happens. It shouldn't happen a lot, but it happens.

 

[kdubz7w7]

I'm a PT student out on clinical rotation working in an inpatient setting, and one of my patients had an "unplanned controlled descent" to the floor today. There were no injuries, but I had to file an incident report with the hospital. My CI and the nursing staff all seemed like it was no big deal, but I feel absolutely terrible because this is the sort of thing I'm supposed to be trained to prevent! I'm feeling like a terrible therapist in addition to being terrified this means I will somehow fail my clinical or have to leave school, but my CI says falls are really common and she has at least one per year happen herself. Any reassuring words, thoughts, or advice?

No worries.
I had that happen on my first rotation. It happened to a friend of mine on her first rotation too. Neither of us ever heard about it again. In both cases, no injuries, patients were fine, and it wasn't because of something we did or did not do.
It's unfortunate but unless it happened from gross neglect (which you already indicated was not the case).....these things do happen. If you were to get in trouble for it, you would know about it already.

 

[nd_dpt]

I had a patient post-op THA fall during my first rotation. She ended up having a fracture around the prosthesis and had to undergo a revision. Things like this happen and sometimes you can't prevent it, no matter how hard you try. Something I had to keep telling myself after was that "It was a bad day, you're not a bad therapist." I did not fail my clinical and it has been (unfortunately) a good learning experience.

 

[Fiveoboy11]

I'm a PT student out on clinical rotation working in an inpatient setting, and one of my patients had an "unplanned controlled descent" to the floor today. There were no injuries, but I had to file an incident report with the hospital. My CI and the nursing staff all seemed like it was no big deal, but I feel absolutely terrible because this is the sort of thing I'm supposed to be trained to prevent! I'm feeling like a terrible therapist in addition to being terrified this means I will somehow fail my clinical or have to leave school, but my CI says falls are really common and she has at least one per year happen herself. Any reassuring words, thoughts, or advice?

They happen even to the most seasoned PT's. They're preventable but inevitable at the same time. As long as you did your job as trained you're fine in most respects.

 

[easb]

You cannot control everything. You cannot eradicate falls by 100% - impossible. Accidents will happen. "Controlled descent" is better than just a "descent" - so you probably did your best in that situation.