Blasted Sterility

Today I had my second check off for semester 2 on hanging IV's. That's all we had to do. Hang them. We didn't need to start the IV or anything. The demonstration was this the last couple of weeks was a disaster. It was like the professors didn't even know what they were doing for sure.
I was very frustrated and talked to my professor about it and she apologized and said things were a little more messy than she'd like. I was nervous.

When we walked into lab they made changes to the check off process, and I was irritated. But I went in confident that I had practiced it enough and my peers checked me off and I did great. But there was one thing that nobody, not even me noticed. The reason I failed the check off!

I get everything ready, do my three checks, five rights, prime my tubing beautifully with no bubbles, and then things start going downhill. I could not for the life of me find the little alligator tail piece that I brought in with me. So I raise the side rail, lower the bed, leave the room, get the darned thing, and go back in. Check my pt again just to make sure, hook the IV up, regulate my rate, and I'm thinking even with the stumble I did pretty good. My professor came and checked my drip rate and it was good, then my timer went off. And she said I didn't pass. I thought dang it! If only I had not lost the little tail piece.

But that wasn't it. Apparently I broke sterility because when I left the room I didn't recap the tip of my tubing and just placed it on the bed. I was flustered because we were never taught how to do it. I wiped it with alcohol before I hooked it to the port because I knew I had set it down but she said that wasn't good enough, but it was no longer sterile. I really wish our professors would get it together. How am I supposed to know these details if I'm not taught them? So off I go to recheck later this week or next.