Horrible Dream!

My mom and I both have that same dream about forgetting about a patient or patients all night! Guess it's a deeply seated fear.....

I think every nurse has that dream. We are in a profession that no matter how orginazed we are or how good we are, we can loss control of the situation in an instant. I think that is where it stems from.

I have that dream too often, though usually just 1 pt. I am so paranoid that I recheck my pt assignment almost as often as I recheck my MAR! At the top of every hour I double check my work list, meds due, and if I have looked in on all my pts.

I've had similar dreams as well.

OoOoh I had a dream like that once! and in the dream i decided to clock out for a minute to go get something I forgot at home, and I ended up coming back and realizing that I had patients?! And i had a wall bed that I never knew I was assigned... and I woke horrified with my heart pounding... and it took forever to convince myself that it wasn't real.

Clearly, we deserve a spa day or something.... this stress is even creeping into time time we spend unconscious!!

:) It's totally normal. I've had similar dreams several times...usually after a particularly hard day. I laughed out loud at the skin melting and arms missing. :)

My last 2 nights at work were really tough. Today I was extremely tired and decided to take a short nap. I had a horrible dream. Here it is in a nutshell:

I dreamed that I was sitting there charting about 3AM, when I realized that I had forgotten about 6 of my patients. I had not assessed them, given them their meds, or even SEEN them since I came on shift. Panicked, I went and checked on them. I found one Cheynne-Stoking, one with his skin melting off his body, one with his arms and legs missing, and the other who had moved in the whole family and hung curtains. The other 2 were climbing out of bed, and starting to fall.

Then I woke up!!! Augghhhh!!!!

Translations, anyone? I am a little freaked out!!!

:omy:

I guess it's the professional version of the school dream where you suddenly realize it's finals and you forgot to study or even attend class.

I have that dream alot and HATE it every time. It takes awhile to talk my sympathetic sytstem down.

Horrible Dream! permalink

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My last 2 nights at work were really tough. Today I was extremely tired and decided to take a short nap. I had a horrible dream. Here it is in a nutshell:

I dreamed that I was sitting there charting about 3AM, when I realized that I had forgotten about 6 of my patients. I had not assessed them, given them their meds, or even SEEN them since I came on shift. Panicked, I went and checked on them. I found one Cheynne-Stoking, one with his skin melting off his body, one with his arms and legs missing, and the other who had moved in the whole family and hung curtains. The other 2 were climbing out of bed, and starting to fall.

Then I woke up!!! Augghhhh!!!!

Translations, anyone? I am a little freaked out!!!

I hate those kind of dreams. What I'm surprised about yours is that you knew what the other five were doing. After finding the first one, I would've been freaking out till I woke up.

I've had similar dreams, except it seems like I'm actually about half awake when I have them. I mean, it's like I'm actually in the process of waking up, and I think that I'm actually at the hospital and I'm laying there thinking "What am I doing lying here asleep? What about my patients????"

Someone else does this too?!?!

I thought I was losing it!!

I lay there and I'm halfway asleep, and I know I'm in my bed, but my brain thinks I'm at work, and I'm literally there with my eyes shut thinking "AHhhhgg,, 5 needs to go to x ray..."

I had been working in ER about 7 months when I would sleep walk out of the living room and insist to my (then) boyfriend that there were patients in the (living) room that needed to be moved. (I work nights so this was mid afternoon).

I vaguely remember actually seeing the stretchers lined against the wall as they would have looked in our ER and realizing at the same time that I was looking at our couch not a stretcher. Happened several times. He'd take me back to bed and I'd fall back asleep instantly.

Talk about stress.