Ugh...bad day at work

Specialties Emergency

Published

I just needed to post this to help clear my head a little. I don't want to get into too much detail, but we had a young adult code over the weekend and it was so sad. The sig. other was in the room at the time and we worked the patient for about an hour and a half. It almost reminded me of a megacode because we saw several different rhythems and gave so many different meds and even had to defib.

I guess this code was very hard for me to handle afterwards because the patient left behind the sig. other and very young children - it just really broke my heart. I think the only other code that was quite this emotional for me was a peds. code, but that was 3 years ago.

I've been lucky during my years in the ED to have not seen too many peds or young adult codes...but I guess that is why this one affected me so much. Thanks in advance for listening...you guys are great and I knew you would be able to understand.

Specializes in NICU.

That's what we talked about in post conference with our instructors too. They told us the nurses weren't being numb to what had happened, but they just deal with it in different ways because they have to keep working. That day was really hard and I felt so sad for a long time after that ..... I didn't know how those nurses could finish that day at work, where we were just able to go home after clinicals. I have major respect for all of you ED nurses :icon_hug:

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Specializes in Emergency, Cardiac, PAT/SPU, Urgent Care.

Thanks, Raindreamer.:) Good luck to you as you graduate in a few days! How exciting...I remember that day like it was yesterday...enjoy!

Also, thanks again to everbody else for your support...I am ok and I accept what happened...it just hit home because I have 2 very young children and it could have easily been me in that person's shoes. It's amazing how fragile and short-lived life can be.

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Specializes in ER.
The nurses just all seemed like it was no big deal ....

We had a bad nightshift, on Saturday, young people dead and dying despite our efforts. You could not see that affect me then, because I had to do my job and then be ready for the next patient. When I came home I put on a U2 CD I love and just cried. It has to come out. After all that is why I am a nurse, so I can do my best to help in the worst of situations. We had debriefing a day later. I love the people I work with. The only good things with these bad shifts is that the staff gets closer to each other.

I am sorry for your bad day Softballmama. Some things are almost to much to handle. Maybe you should talk to some of your coworkers, I bet they feel the same. It is good to talk.

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing Advanced Practice.
I agree with the post code debriefing. You don't need to "carry" this around with you.

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Just an observational note here....

Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM), and its defining intervention Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD), were introduced to EMS in 1983. Since then, it has become widely used in EMS, fire departments, police departments, and other agencies to supposedly mitigate the effects of traumatic stress.

However, there was never any quality scientific evidence to support the practice of CISM/CISD. In fact, most quality studies have found the practice ineffective while some have found that it actually harms some of those debriefed.

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Specializes in ER.
Just an observational note here....

Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM), and its defining intervention Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD), were introduced to EMS in 1983. Since then, it has become widely used in EMS, fire departments, police departments, and other agencies to supposedly mitigate the effects of traumatic stress.

However, there was never any quality scientific evidence to support the practice of CISM/CISD. In fact, most quality studies have found the practice ineffective while some have found that it actually harms some of those debriefed.

To me debriefing is a way to put something stressful in perspective and to find answers to questions. You don´t have to talk much if you don´t want to.

I guess it would be harmful if someone feels forced to participate, but I think more people have been harmed by trying to pretend nothing happened.

I would like to read those studies though.

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing Advanced Practice.
To me debriefing is a way to put something stressful in perspective and to find answers to questions. You don´t have to talk much if you don´t want to.

I guess it would be harmful if someone feels forced to participate, but I think more people have been harmed by trying to pretend nothing happened.

I would like to read those studies though.

Go to http://www.bryanbledsoe.com , go to "Handouts" and then "CISM Debunk". This is a large PDF file based on his PowerPoint presentation.

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To me debriefing is a way to put something stressful in perspective and to find answers to questions. You don´t have to talk much if you don´t want to.

I guess it would be harmful if someone feels forced to participate, but I think more people have been harmed by trying to pretend nothing happened.

I would like to read those studies though.

i think cisd makes management feel better. the best way for me is to talk to the staff and docs that were in the code - more personal. but i guess sometimes a personal level can have a negative affect as well. i have done cisd also and was forced to. i don't think it was much help because it was negative from the git go (being forced to attend.) however, i worked at a place where a 1 year old died in an mvc, coded and failed, and no one offered cisd. there were 2 staff members that did very poorly. it was a small community and the patient was known by some staff. i think that if offered, it would have been benificial in this instance.

hope your days are better in the future!

magik :)

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