So...as a brand new grad from nursing school, I was wondering if this is a unexpected, albeit NORMAL side effect from working in a hospital.
I first noticed this into my 3rd week of working 12 hr shifts. When I would arrive home after work, I would literally hear call lights, monitors, telephones RINGING in my ears... even when I was sequestered away in the comfort of my home! The pitches and intervals were even the same--which I thought was freaky. Try as I might, I could not control the frequency or presence of the noise, and I just had to endure the 'phantom' rings until my unconsciousness finally released me.
I'm now into my 6th week of hospital staff nursing, and I'm still bothered by these auditory 'hallucinations.' I was just wondering if this is a common phenomenon that is a result of the excessive noise stimulation nurses are subjected to...?? Or am I just going crazy...?
If there are BYCHANCE any fellow sufferers of this, please feel free to recommend how to
rid your mind of the phantom beeps...they are interfering with my sleep schedule. :-/
I get that quite often as well. To the point that I tell friends and family if they need to get ahold of me after a shift, send an email, my cell phone goes off until the next morning.
I have gotten a similar PTSD-like aftershock of alarms and beeps just like you, OP. I agree with others in that it often happened after a particularly stressful shift especially if staffing was short and census was high. This happened quite a bit on an oncology floor which was my first job as a new grad and I worked with patients that were s/p chemo and radiation or at the end of life. Eventually the sounds die out but it is a bit unsettling especially when you're trying to go to sleep and they persist in haunting you. What's even better is when you start to dream about work and you wake up in the middle of the night (or day, depending on your shift) terrified and haunted by what's happened at work. Thankfully I've been able to leave most of the intense "stuff" at work and no longer perseverate on what I might have missed or what the outcomes were. I haven't had a work dream in a long time and only occasionally do I hear the call bells and tele alarms after I've left work. It helps that I have a lengthy commute that serves as a buffer. I agree that some white noise or even some soothing music like piano or whatever helps you relax maybe even a bike ride or job on the treadmill--some kind of buffer--is helpful. The better you become over time at putting work "on the shelf" I imagine the easier it gets to ward off the phantom noises after work. It might also help to have adequate staffing or address root causes for the stress. I'm glad I'm not the only one that has experienced this. You're not alone, OP.
I feel your pain. I have gone from having normal senses to now my hearing is super sensitive ( Esp. Call lights, pump alarms and cell phones) and my sense of smell is little to none. The sacrifices made for nursing. :)
This is absolutely real. Years ago before I was a nurse, I worked at UPS. Scanning packages on a line of 4 or 5 trucks. My line beeped every time I scanned a package, & the other 5 did as the other workers scanned packages. It sounded much like the checkout line at the grocery store. It didn't bother me until I would start to drift off to sleep at night - the phantom beeping would start & I'd be right back on the line scanning packages in my sleep.
Several years ago I spent 4 months in the NICU with my daughter & listened to apnea alarms & other alarms dinging all day & night. When I did sleep, which wasn't often, I would immediately hear her alarms dinging & jump up in a panic. Thankfully, I work in a clinic now & there are no alarms. :) Nice.
I've been retired quite a while now. A couple of weeks ago in Walmart I heard Code 3 domestics.......I slapped the imaginary beeper at my waist and started at a fast walk to domestics.....after a few steps it sank in....looking around I saw several other nurses blushing whole doing the same thing. "Persistence of Memory?"
It's bed alarms for me. Especially if I'm on a unit that has a lot of pysch patients with bed/chair alarms. It only seems to happen when I work nights though. I usually come home and plop in front of the computer for a couple of hours but for most if it I keep hearing bed alarms -_- After I sleep though it's done.
Where I am shell shocked is the word "Code". I have a grocery store nearby that has a Code 26. I have no idea what the hell that is, but when I hear the over head come on, and say that word, it's all I can do to refrain myself from jumping on some poor soul and starting CPR.
I laughed until I almost peed reading this! A cartoon started in my head! It's still going too...
While I don't hear beeps, what does happen is the weird ringing in my ears like after a loud concert. It subsides by the time I get up again- (I work nights) but it tells me those beeps and such take a toll on hearing, even if it doesn't seem that loud at work.
I started working in a nursing home yesterday and also worked today. I'm at home now and I keep feeling like I'm hearing call lights and smelling things even though I know I'm actually not. I kind of hate it LOL
Jack245
102 Posts
I get that quite often as well. To the point that I tell friends and family if they need to get ahold of me after a shift, send an email, my cell phone goes off until the next morning.