Dreaming About Work

Nurses General Nursing

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I'm off of work for a few days in a row, but my mind can't seem to leave work in my sleep! I just thought I would share two of the weird dreams I had this week.

I was caring for a patient who has been chronically in and out of my unit over the last several months and quite debilitated. I wanted to ambulate him around the unit. My unit secretary (who, in real life, I feel often oversteps her bounds as a unit secretary and is a know-it-all with no real knowledge or experience to back it up) told me I should have 2 people and have the patient use a walker. Telling her I knew better than her, I walked him with no assistive device and just myself. He fell and broke his front teeth. I guess the lesson here is better safe than sorry, and don't let pride get in the way of safety.

In my second dream, I was caring for another one of our chronic patients when I was watching the cardiac monitor and he was having all kinds of ectopy. I thought that was odd as he had previously been quite stable. I watch some more as he goes into SVT and then pulseless v-tach. I start CPR and call a code and as I'm doing compressions ask the wife if she has any idea what could be going on, if he complained of anything recently. She tells me that the head doctor came in and asked if he was sick of living like this and the patient had said yes, so he said he would be back in with something to put him out of his misery. The wife proceeds to tell me that he's now a DNR. I tell her that the paperwork hasn't been fully signed yet and continue CPR. He dies. Afterward, I check the pyxis and find that every opiate and benzo was totally emptied out of it under the head doctor's name. I panic and try to sign out of the pyxis before anyone links me to it or gets me in the middle of the affair.

I woke up from this dream literally in a cold sweat. I don't see what the point of sharing it is other than that it was eerie and I wanted to share it with people that might understand.

Specializes in ER, progressive care.

I ALWAYS dream about work. I thought this would go away by now (two years in), but I just cannot seem to get a break.

I have had the dreaded "forgotten patient" dream and I also had a dream where one of my patients ended up with a STEMI and I would run to their room but I just couldn't get there (never ending hallway, I guess!)

I also dream a lot about the shifts I had just worked.

Specializes in ER, progressive care.
I never dream about my job ... Ever ...... I feel so left out ... Waaaa

You're lucky! :arghh:

Specializes in Med/Surg/Tele/Onc.
At least your dreams are exciting, I just dream about IVs beeping.

I was dreaming one morning that pumps were beeping everywhere and I was winded running from room to room, trying to find the bleeping, beeping pump. When I woke up, a neighbor was having work done and some type of back hoe or something kept backing up, with that annoying beep those things make. Sigh!

I used to work in LTC , full-time nights. For the most part of my shift I would help the aide change incontinent pads of the residents. At the end of my shift, I'd go home, fall asleep exhausted, then dream that I'm still changing incontinent pads.

This was when I realized I had to get out.

Specializes in Oncology.
OK, in general, the times I have had this happen, it was when things in the unit/s were incredibly stressful or overwhelmingly bad--like multiple kids deaths, parents wailing in grief, incredibly gruesome acuity. It was a sign to me to take care of me in whatever way possible. It's like your subconscious is telling you that your are reaching critical mass. Find a way to limit your stress or do things to ameliorate the impact of stress, such as increasing your exercise, meditation, you know. All the healthy stuff. Spend more time with love ones. Reassure yourself that you are doing the very best for your patients, but you just canNOT control every outcome. As nurses we take it so hard--we feel that somewhere we might have done something wrong--or that we were too short-staffed--or whatever. We internalize so much. Also, if there has been a lot of deaths or gruesome events, your hospital should supply counseling and debriefing. You have to unload and de-stress, or you will not be any good to yourself or anyone else. Listen to your subconscious and take the appropriate steps. If you can get some time off, do it. Try not to wait or put off taking a break, if at all possible. IMHO, nurses often need more mental health days that those in other lines of work.

Take care of YOU.

This is very true. My unit has been wicked bad lately.

I worked as an RN in hospital nursing for 25 years. I have been a school nurse for 12 years. I still have the hospital dreams of not seeing my patients, never getting my work done, not knowing someone was my patient. I never dream about being a school nurse. I am always in the hospital. The two other school nurse in my district tell me they also are still having the hospital dreams. It's like the stress never left. I wake up exhausted. I am glad to hear that I am not the only one with "the dreams" or is it nightmares?

I do telephone triage. My husband found me in the kitchen at 2:00 AM trying to call a patient. He could not convince me that I wasn't at work!

When I was a new ICU nurse we took q15 minute VS on all the open hearts (thankfully, later we switched to q20 minutes). Anyway, after about a week of orientation I dreamed an entire 8-hour shift of every set of q15 minute VS, every chest tube stripping (this was a loong time ago, I know they don't do this anymore), every chest tube output q15 min, every turn, every lab draw, ABG, vent check, suctioning, family visit, doc visit, RT rounds, charting every mg of MSO4, IVs and drips, UO, I&O,.... jeezu, I dreamed every single thing, and charted it, too. When I woke up to go to work at 0630 I was exhausted, felt like I was about to do a double.

Specializes in Pedi.

I had a very specific dream about one of my patients last week. Patient is a school aged child with newly diagnosed cancer. I saw him on Friday for line care. He answered the door in his underwear because, as a kid, he just decided he didn't want to wear clothes that day. I asked him something like "you didn't want to get dressed today?" and he and his mother had a good laugh. In my dream, the child's father (who is out of the picture and lives in another country) called my boss to complain and said it was inappropriate for the nurse to ask why the child wasn't wearing clothes.

When I worked in the hospital, I had work dreams all the time. Without fail, something would always happen (codes, deaths, horribly emergent OR trips) right before I was about to go on vacation and then I'd spend my whole trip dreaming about the patient.

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