Personal emergency...forget how to be a nurse?

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

When you guys have a personal crisis, do you forget how to be a nurse?

I ask, because last night I had a little emergency. My 6 month old schuanzer decided to unzip my purse, and dig around. She found a nice little round container that looked fun. Or else she's been romancing the neighborhood males. Either way, she eat a few of my BCP. When my husband called me in the room, everything left my head. Yes, I know she is just a dog, but a couple of dogs can be quite important to a couple without children.

basically, it took a good minute and a half for my senses to return, and more "nursing common sense" to return. And after we finally got a hold of our vet, things got even better. It was very comforting to hear him say I did the right thing, and she would be just fine.

Anybody else had experiences like this, and took some time to return to your senses? Is this is a young nurse thing that if I have kids in 10 years might be better? Just bugs me that I "lost" myself for that long.

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

It's almost always harder to remain clinically objective when the "patient" is someone you love.

Usually I can get through the emergency OK, and THEN I fall apart. But that's because I've been a nurse for over a decade, a mom for two and a half, and a pet owner forever.

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

Yeah, I made a terrible mistake a couple of nights ago, around 9pm or so, while I was at WORK.

I was having a good night so far. Great mood, patients seemed pretty good.

Then I decided to open my paycheck stub that my charge nurse had just handed me. And found that I was about 300 dollars short on my check. Money that we were counting on and had plans for.

I kinda lost my senses for about five, ten minutes or so, then I was OK.

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Specializes in Telemetry, Case Management.

The more experience you have, the more "being a nurse" is second nature. I've been a nurse for 24 years, a mom for 27 years and a grandma for 5 years.

When things happen, I deal with them calmly (usually) and effectively. Then when the crisis is over, I go all to pieces rather quickly. I'd rather it be that way than go all to pieces first.

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

I went through an experience the other evening that made me feel like a complete idiot.I am a fairly new grad so I haven't had a lot of experience but..I still felt silly.

My 16 yo daughter and I both had the flu. About 10:30 at night I told my kids I was going out on the deck to get some fresh air because I wasn't feeling well. After a few minutes my daughter joined me. She was white as a sheet and said she didn't feel well. All of a sudden her eyes rolled back in her head and her body stiffened with her back arched with her arms twitching.. After about 15 seconds she became limp and slid to the floor of the deck with her eyes still rolled back. I started calling her name and checked her pulse and then ran for the phone to call 911. Within a couple of minutes she was awake and talking and by the time the ambulance came she was completely alert. At the hospital they said she had a vagal response and fainted. I had seen fainting before but not with the arching of the back thing.I talked to some of the girls at work and they said they had seen that happen before but agreed it is scarier when it is your child.

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My son has been in status epilepticus a couple of times. My nursing sense did not desert me. Years of experience has taught me to shut off the panic button and act appropriately.

My first thought was the A-B_C's while having husband call 911.

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Yes. I was an ER nurse and could work blindfolded. When my brother was in the ICU with a CHI, my dad asked me what all the equipment readings meant. Everything I knew had flown out of my head, I knew nothing.

When my son developed a bug so bad he had projectile vomiting, I panicked and wanted to take him to the ER after one episode. My husband asked me "What would you tell another parent who took her kid in with the same thing??"

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Specializes in LTC , SDC and MDS certified (3.0).

been there and my nursing degree isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

HATE it when hubby says that!!!

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Specializes in ER.

I can clean up someone else's limb when it isn't even attached to their body any longer. Have never lost my cool in the ER.

But I passed out in recovery after my son's perfectly normal T&A. And when my partner found a lumb in her breast this past week, I have been a wreck. Didn't have a clue how to educate, support, or reassure her because I was so scared myself. Fortunately, all the tests were neg, but I've learned a valuable lesson. I'm just a family member when it comes to someone I love. Better leave the nursing to someone in a position a little more distant.

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Specializes in ER.

And a P.S.: I have a dog expecting puppies in 16 days. I KNOW I'm going to be of no help there I will be such an emotional basket case. That puppy is my other baby, and she's having babies!!

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I'm still just a student - though a month off rego exam. But this "emergency" happened the same day we'd learnt about the subject in class.

I came home and found blood all through my ratties' cage and huge clots. I knew one of my rats was pregnant and I figured she'd miscarried. I didn't know what the hell to do. I found her in the rat igloo and picked her up and she was a little limp and I was like "OH *($(@))%_##(($*!!!!" Thinking she was unconcious and really sick and dying and I kinda had a slight panic and was like "what now?" Then I grabbed the phone book with intent to ring the afterhours vet and with one rat in hand an phone book in other she woke up - she'd been sleeping!

Got hold of the vet, he gave me some advice, within an hour she was her usual self, so thankfully it wasn't an imcomplete and she didn't retain any rat babies.

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Before I started nursing school I dealt with my mother's breast CA, her burst cerebral aneurysm (she's still going, yay, Mom!), my first baby seizing and turning blue, my mother choking (thank you, Dr. Heimlich), a daughter who bit through her tongue, hit her head and had post-impact seizures, broke her arm, broke her collar bone, smashed her mouth and lost teeth (baby teeth, thank God, and thank God she outgrew her ER days), second son who would hit 104.5 every time he had a fever, and got dehydrate (thank you Pedialyte), number one son who fractured his skull and had blood-streaked vomit... I never panicked, just dealt with it, sometimes very scared inside.

The one time I lost it, I was carrying my 2 y.o. and holding my 5 y.o. by the hand and a car backed into us, pinning my little boy's foot and still moving - I pictured him with a spiral fracture of the leg or getting knocked down in the path of the wheel - and I started screaming and pushing on the car with one hand trying to keep my son out of the path and not drop my daughter. I could not stop those short, high screams even after the driver finally noticed and pulled forward again. My son had only a friction scrape on his leg.

One of the four men in the car told us he was a doctor and my son wasn't hurt. But no apology, and no one in the crowded lot came to help us or offered to call the police because that man being a "doctor" settled everything for them. And I was too shaken to call the police myself. I just wanted to get us home.

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