How to tell you've worked too many shifts in a row

[nerdtonurse?]

1. You reprogram the telemetry monitors and now have Mario scrambling over the QRS complexes and hopping over the P waves for extra credit
   
2. Your patient bradys down from a steady sinus tach to the 30's, and you run up the hallway yelling, "oh, hell no you are not making me fill out all that paperwork this late in the shift!"
   
3. Your coworker trips and falls running to the same code, and all you can think is, "great, I'll end up with 2 of her pts when she goes to the ER."
   
4. You are hauling your now dead pt to the morgue, your coworker's went to the ER, leaving 2 nurses on the floor with 28 patients, and you hear another code go off for your floor, and you jump out of the elevator and run...leaving the corpse in the elevator as a present for the next person who pushes the button....
   
5. You have a conversation with the admin rep that sounds like this...."I lost my patient...no, I mean really lost them....no, they were dead, they can't find their way back to the unit...."
   
6. When you hear a scream, you know someone found your deceased patient.
   

[Poi Dog]

When you choose having to sleep over having sex

[knittingfan283]

1. When you wash your body with shampoo and wash your hair with body wash.

2. When you walk past the time clock and think "did I clock out? I don't care, i'll just write the time I left when I come back."

3. you walk into the door even though you saw that it was in front of you and say out loud, "where the heck did that door come from?"

4. your spouse tells you that you kept pressing his forehead and muttering "why won't this @#$$%^ thing stop beeping" while sleeping

5. you dream you're at work and charting and when you wake up in the dream you're at work and you have been caught sleeping on the job and are gainfully unemployed. Then you wake up all the way and you're in your bed at home, so you've not been fired; just had a terrible night mare.

[ghostchili]

i'm currently on night 8 of 8 (doing 12-hr shifts) and i don't even feel like i can do anything *but* work. i think i've had 4 nights off in the past month, and i never know what to do with myself if i'm off...i end up coming in to work for a couple hours in the middle of the night just to bring my working coworkers food and just hang out. :/

[RNJill]

1.) You warn people that if they want you to do anything fun with them now that you're off work, they can't let you "just sit down for a minute" or you'll never make it back up!

2.) You had a dream that you were running around the city you live in with your charge nurse, both of you frantically trying to avoid being late for your shift

3.) Absolutely NOTHING around you can beep/alarm in any way

4) You end conversations with people by asking, "Is there anything else I can do for you?"

5) You look forward to having an adequate intake/output now that you are away from the madness of the floor =)

[Aeterna, BSN, RN]

A co-worker and friend of mine actually came to work with her scrub top on backwards and wearing different shoes on each foot! LOL She said it was because she was working too much.

Or this gem from one of my non-nurse friends, who wrote something like this to me on Facebook: If you're not buzzing around the hospital like a hummingbird and trying to suck nectar out of your patients' heads, then you haven't been working too many shifts.

I told her I was nearly at that point, LOL

Although for me, I've stood by my apartment's elevator and dreaded going in because I thought I was entering the hospital elevator xD

To be truthful, though, I don't like working more than 3 in a row. I've done 4 in a row before and I thought I'd die by the fourth shift! I also promised myself way back in high school not to over exert myself because I've been there, done that, and it isn't pretty.

[LaterAlligator]

I was taking a nap on the couch & my husband kept trying to wake me up, so I mumbled something to him about how I'd find his caregiver to help him. Ha ha, it was obviously a long week at the dementia unit for me! I didn't come fully awake until he told me he was sick & running a fever, poor guy. Then I woke up real quick & asked what the temp was, patting my pockets for a nonexistent pen. Sheesh.

[teeniebert, LPN]

1.) You warn people that if they want you to do anything fun with them now that you're off work, they can't let you "just sit down for a minute" or you'll never make it back up!

:yeah::yeah:

[Poi Dog]

You spend more time in your car then you do at home.

Your laundry consists mainly of scrubs.

Your laundry pile is higher than Mt. Everest.

You find that you cannot sleep because you are always revved up.

You keep a blanket in your car.

[dynoboy]

When you have to think when someone says "If you say gullible really slow it sounds like ORANGE!" Dang it was a long night.

[uptoolateagain]

When you look at the orders for your migraine pt with a caffeine drip and wonder if pharmacy can make you one too!

When you get to work and realize your socks are two different colors.

When you park in the parking garage, and after your shift is done you calculate the difference in distance between taking the stairs or riding the elevator, and then realize you parked on the first level!

When you leave the hospital, and then realize you parked in the parking lot that is on the other side of the building!

[Iri5hd4nc3r_RN]

No. 17 - "it's usually the bra that doesn't make it".

[beckster_01, BSN, RN]

When you have to think when someone says "If you say gullible really slow it sounds like ORANGE!" Dang it was a long night.

When you read the above post and sound out "oooorrraaanngeee" in your head before you realize that not only was it a joke, but you got it backwards too