When you save a life

Nurses General Nursing

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When you save someone's life do you still get a rush or a high after doing it for so many years, or does it become "just another day at the office"? I know many times you are so busy that you don't have time to process it because you need to be ready for the next one, but on your drive home do you ever reflect on things like that? I know many of you say that you sometimes vent to your husband's when you get home, but do you share when you save some lives? I know if my wife came home and over dinner she told me a story about how she saved someone's life, I would think to myself "I have one awesome wife."

This may be an odd question but I'm curious.

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You usually just get better at it if you learn from your experience. I've never stopped getting a "high" because each time I get a sympathetic reaction d/t the situation. Some more than others. I saved a child from an occluded trachea and did get too worked up over it (and that was my first save). Each person will also react to various levels of urgency differently. And I don't believe desensitization is really an issue. I've seen people get used to seeing blood, viscera, death, etc. and get used to it, but their moral reaction to save someone, as opposed to emotional reaction of something violent like a ruptured AAA, stays intact.

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Nursing isn't rushing from one code blue to another.

I've never saved a life in all the years I've worked, never had a patient code on me.

I've prolonged a few lives that the patients went on to live with an institutional outlook.

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Specializes in ICU.

I still get a rush, but I only have a year of experience, so I'd imagine that would be expected. It is also a fantastic feeling when a patient is a ton more stable when I leave in the morning than he/she was when I got there at night. It's especially gratifying when my day shift coworker immediately notices improved vitals, and goes, "Wow! What did you do?" That's a great feeling.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

I'm not an adrenaline junkie, so I have never felt this 'rush' or 'high' that others are mentioning. I prefer to work in environments where the patient populations are less acutely ill because I dislike codes and rapid responses.

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Specializes in Oncology.
Nursing isn't rushing from one code blue to another.

I've never saved a life in all the years I've worked, never had a patient code on me.

I've prolonged a few lives that the patients went on to live with an institutional outlook.

A patient doesn't have to code for you to save a life. In the past few months I've caught two very irregular heart rhythms by doing a thorough assessment- on that the doctor didn't catch who assessed the patient minutes before I did. My catch meant that my patients got treatment before a code situation. I've also reported changed breathing patterns and gotten treatment for that initiated. Again, changes a doctor who spends 10 minutes a day with a patient might not catch and again, avoiding a code situation. I've also caught that pharmacy sent up the wrong chemo dose- a dose three times too high. I definitely felt like I saved a life that day and had a little bit of a high the rest of the day from it. I was in charge one day and one of the nurses told me that her patient had new onset confusion and was sweating. I grabbed a glucometer and some d50 and went to assess him. His glucose was 35. I had him fixed before the doctor even saw him. Definitely felt like I saved his life.

I can come up with dozens of these scenarios just from the last few months, so I find it hard to believe that you've never saved a life. Definitely get a high from all of them, at least in the sense that it puts me in a good mood.

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Specializes in NICU.

I work on a surgical floor, I'd say we have a decent amount of codes...more pre-code situations though (respiratory distress is the most common thing we see), but probably one code or pre-code per week on average....sometimes more, sometimes less.

I enjoy the adreanaline of a code, I have had one of my patients code on me on my second week as a new grad...but the patient was already deceased when we found him (advanced CA, poor quality of life). I have been present for other codes but I usually am delegated as the note taker or the person to run and get things. I haven't actually had to do compressions yet and I really fear the day when I do because I feel I wont know what to do or I won't do it right. I guess only time will tell.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
A patient doesn't have to code for you to save a life. In the past few months I've caught two very irregular heart rhythms by doing a thorough assessment- on that the doctor didn't catch who assessed the patient minutes before I did. My catch meant that my patients got treatment before a code situation. I've also reported changed breathing patterns and gotten treatment for that initiated. Again, changes a doctor who spends 10 minutes a day with a patient might not catch and again, avoiding a code situation. I've also caught that pharmacy sent up the wrong chemo dose- a dose three times too high. I definitely felt like I saved a life that day and had a little bit of a high the rest of the day from it. I was in charge one day and one of the nurses told me that her patient had new onset confusion and was sweating. I grabbed a glucometer and some d50 and went to assess him. His glucose was 35. I had him fixed before the doctor even saw him. Definitely felt like I saved his life.

I can come up with dozens of these scenarios just from the last few months, so I find it hard to believe that you've never saved a life. Definitely get a high from all of them, at least in the sense that it puts me in a good mood.

THIS.

Most of the advocating and investigating to solve a active issue is "life saving" to me.

I have actively saved someone's life recently in terms of "adrenaline rush-worthy"; it was an infant; and it was an automatic feeling to go though the motions. It was my first time ever doing compressions on an infant and it was successful; albeit this child having a poor prognosis, it did prolong the child's life enough for the parent to make the decision to make a decision, instead of continuing to the potential to perform continual resuscitation effects.

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

I get a quiet little high when I notice a patient starting to go bad before we get to the "save a life" scenario and I successfully intervene so said scenario doesn't happen.

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Specializes in ICU.

I guess I've saved some lives working in a NICU. What really sticks with me, however, is the lives I've prolonged long past the point of futility.

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When I worked in the ER and ICU I got a rush during every code and rapid response. With that being said, I didn't like high acuity and stress of both specialities. Now I work in Post partum and do miss the "rush" of codes and rapid responses. However, I've still saved many lives just by being prudent and competent.

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.... However, I've still saved many lives just by being prudent and competent.

This I agree with. The way the OP was written it was more like code=life saving.

Yes, I've caught people as they were going sour. But I don't consider that saving lives. I consider it knowing my stuff and part of my skill set as a general duty surgical nurse.

Do I get a rush from it? No. Heck, I don't even get a pat on the back from my manager or a thank you from the patient.

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