So about two nights ago, I had a really awful shift. I’ve been a nurse for about two years and I’ve been in the ICU for about 10 months. This patient was my first 1:1 assignment. I was in an awkward position because the patient was admitted under an aggressive cardiologist (they were family friends or something?) and one of our more righteous intensivists was on that night. Neither the cardiologist nor the intensivist were willing to step back and let the stroke doctor run the show, so I was bombarded by orders from all three doctors competing for control over the patient. Long story short, I was screamed at by the intensivist once in the middle of the unit, and again over the phone. There were two nurses on that night with several years of experience on this unit, and they assured me I wasn’t doing anything wrong, the intensivist was just “in a mood”. I did Q30min neuro exams until midnight, and then Q1H exams for the remainder of my shift, just as the protocol states. The repeat head CT was stable. The patient’s exam at 6am was consistent with previous exams. Then at 7am, I went in with the dayshift nurse to do a neuro exam as part of our handoff. New mouth droop. No commands. Nonverbal. Stat head CT. At this point, I’m emotionally and physically exhausted, and I became upset and began to frantically wrack my brains for a sign I must have missed at 6am. The oncoming nurse insisted that with the microhemorrhages, there’s a very good chance things DID change within an hour, but I can’t stop feeling like there’s something I must have missed. I offered to help take the patient to scan, but the oncoming nurse insisted that I had a rough shift and she could take things from here. I started crying as soon as I got to my car, and I’ve been crying on and off my two days off. I’ve gotten really good about “leaving it all at work” and I haven’t been this upset about a shift since I was a new grad. I’ve dealt with a lot of unpleasant people, but I’ve never had a doctor publicly degrade and humiliate me like this before. And I can’t stop feeling like I missed something and I failed the patient because of it. I feel like my confidence was shattered, and I feel so ashamed I don’t know how I’m ever going to show my face at work again. Does anyone have any tips for bouncing back from a bad shift? Usually I’m fine but this night just broke me. My management’s super approachable, so I’m on the fence about asking someone to talk with me privately and help me debrief. Any advice is much appreciated ?
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So about two nights ago, I had a really awful shift. I’ve been a nurse for about two years and I’ve been in the ICU for about 10 months. This patient was my first 1:1 assignment. I was in an awkward position because the patient was admitted under an aggressive cardiologist (they were family friends or something?) and one of our more righteous intensivists was on that night. Neither the cardiologist nor the intensivist were willing to step back and let the stroke doctor run the show, so I was bombarded by orders from all three doctors competing for control over the patient. Long story short, I was screamed at by the intensivist once in the middle of the unit, and again over the phone. There were two nurses on that night with several years of experience on this unit, and they assured me I wasn’t doing anything wrong, the intensivist was just “in a mood”. I did Q30min neuro exams until midnight, and then Q1H exams for the remainder of my shift, just as the protocol states. The repeat head CT was stable. The patient’s exam at 6am was consistent with previous exams. Then at 7am, I went in with the dayshift nurse to do a neuro exam as part of our handoff. New mouth droop. No commands. Nonverbal. Stat head CT. At this point, I’m emotionally and physically exhausted, and I became upset and began to frantically wrack my brains for a sign I must have missed at 6am. The oncoming nurse insisted that with the microhemorrhages, there’s a very good chance things DID change within an hour, but I can’t stop feeling like there’s something I must have missed. I offered to help take the patient to scan, but the oncoming nurse insisted that I had a rough shift and she could take things from here. I started crying as soon as I got to my car, and I’ve been crying on and off my two days off. I’ve gotten really good about “leaving it all at work” and I haven’t been this upset about a shift since I was a new grad. I’ve dealt with a lot of unpleasant people, but I’ve never had a doctor publicly degrade and humiliate me like this before. And I can’t stop feeling like I missed something and I failed the patient because of it. I feel like my confidence was shattered, and I feel so ashamed I don’t know how I’m ever going to show my face at work again. Does anyone have any tips for bouncing back from a bad shift? Usually I’m fine but this night just broke me. My management’s super approachable, so I’m on the fence about asking someone to talk with me privately and help me debrief. Any advice is much appreciated ?