"You made a mistake."

[CharleeFoxtrot]

"You made a mistake." whispered my friend and co worker. I wondered what that could have been. She whispered "the gabapentin, you made an error". I mentally went over the list of medications for this patient-it was short less than 10 but no gabapentin. I racked my brain, I hadn't taken any new orders from the attending. It was hard to concentrate it was so loud. The phone was ringing, customers were lined up at the counter to pick up their doughnut carryouts and there was a delivery guy standing there telling me his truck needed the AC worked on. My task box was overflowing. Call lights everywhere. Standing there with a piggyback in my hand spinning in a circle.

The cat jumped up on the bed and then I woke up in a cold sweat. Two years off the floor and I still have anxiety dreams

[LibraSunCNM, BSN, MSN, CNM]

My bad nursing dream has always been the patient that I actually KNEW was assigned to me, but I just...couldn't...get to...all shift, thereby increasing my stress as the dream shift goes on. Shudder.

[FolksBtrippin, BSN, RN]

No, that is my most frequent recurrent dream and figured prominently on a similar thread a few years back. Since neglecting a patient for a whole shift is a pretty rare occurrence, why is it such a ubiquitous dream among us? Anyone have any theories or research?

We could be dreaming about coming to work naked, or making a terrible error and killing someone, so why is it about the neglected patient? Where does that come from?

Me too on this dream. Sometimes it is more than one patient. Sometimes it's a whole load and I wasn't even on the floor.

My other recurrent dream is the one where my car has no brakes.

I think it's anxiety because we are overburdened.

[JBudd, MSN]

Chiming in with the forgotten patient; multiple times. I haven't even worked the floors since 1996 (been in the ER since then), and I STILL have those dreams.

The worst one was when I was 6 months pregnant, and I dreamed I woke up in room 2212 (just a plain old MS room), with restraints on, no longer pregnant and no one could tell me where my baby was.

[StrwbryblndRN]

Same here. Last one I was in my bathrobe and a pair of sunglasses. I had not seen a single patient and the sun was coming up. I dreamt I stood in a corner and cried till day shift came in.

The worst was dreaming I finished a shift. My husband woke me up to remind me to get ready for work. I almost cried. I thought my last shift for the week was done.

[NurseCard, ADN]

I always dream that it's the end of the shift, and I have barely laid eyes

on any of my patients, and I haven't given them any meds, so now I'm

scrambling through the MAR, the PAPER MAR, to see what all I haven't

given that I was supposed to.

I also always have this vague, kinda fuzzy dream, that I'm supposed to

be working, I have a patient assignment/list, and yet I'm actually

lying down asleep somewhere.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

Looking at all the responses to this thread, I feel a little better about having that same dream of the neglected patient. I haven't worked in a hospital for over a decade, but I still have this recurring dream of running all night and finding out I've been assigned a patient that I didn't know I was supposed to have. Naturally the manager who actively harassed me IRL finds out about it just before the end of my shift and rips me a new one right in front of the patient, who happens to be half-dead, and my co-workers. By the time I wake up in a cold sweat, I'm almost as tired as if I'd actually worked that shift. I wonder if I'll ever stop having that dream.

[NurseCard, ADN]

For me it's never one neglected patient; it's a whole group of patients

that I knew I had and kinda ignored all shift. Is that bad???

[rn1965, ADN]

Oh my goodness, I have had this one a lot!

[Jedrnurse, BSN, RN]

What's worse is when you wake up out of a deep sleep and remember that there was something you didn't do.

For real...

[K9lover, ASN, RN]

How about the dream where I am giving report at the end of my shift and I suddenly discover that I was assigned a patient but didn't realize until now, and have not even laid eyes on them? Or the hallway I am working that doesn't have an end, just door after door going into infinity.......

I have had that exact dream!

[K9lover, ASN, RN]

I wake up at 3:30 AM for work, lately I have been waking up at 5AM thinking I am late for work and cannot possibly get there by 05:30 AM, I start thinking I better hurry then I realize it is not a work day,

Did it today, decided just to stay up and do exciting things; pay bills, fold laundry etc...

[K9lover, ASN, RN]

That is my most common one. Another is the dream that I am the only nurse on the floor with 18 call lights a buzzing.

When I was a young waitress would dream I was only one in a full restaurant; this dream just carried over to nursing *sigh*