So I worked christmas night in a MICU and we only had 2 patients. Only 2 RN's were on staff so it was a 1:1 ratio with both patients doing well and sleeping most the night. Also we had an RN on orientation so really we had 3 RN's. I was up most the day doing normal christmas visiting so I got minimal sleep.
I got tired fast, and I found myself doing the most ridiculous things to stay awake after the conversation ran dry with my fellow employees.
I was drinking as much water as I could, hoping it would make me have to pee, which would keep me awake,
While in the med room around 2am I did about 50 push-ups, that only made me more tired after about 20 mins. Also I was sore the next day, sad, I have to get to the gym, wait I have to get a gym membership first.
I cleaned every room to perfection(and I'm not one of those neat freak RN's)
I would sit in my chair and try to sing lyrics in my head word for word, my coworker saw me at one point slightly rocking my head to the beat in my mind. She got a good laugh out of it. I was slightly embarrassed....
I called the ER about 6 times to talk with some former co workers. I think they realized why I was doing it and gave me a few "wake up" calls as they so lightly put it while they all laughed at me in the background.
I think I checked on my patient 1000 times, she must have felt I was a pretty creepy nurse walking by that many times. She told me at one point that she wishes she was sicker so I would have something to do.(I love patients with a solid sense of humor)
I wrote a record amount of nursing notes. I mean seriously, I had time to proof read them all, Charles Dickens ain't got nothin on my nursing notes.
I would pray for a call light to get me up and moving. It was like a race between me and the other nurse when one did go off, like the chair caught fire beneath us both at the same time. I'm pretty athletic, I usually won.
I played with the ventilator with the RT for about 15mins to try and learn some more settings and things. If I was a little more bored I might have intubated myself and set up the vent just for giggles. Or research....I've always want to know how awful it must be to be on a vent.
I drew some pretty good art on the back of my kardex. Mostly of 3D cubes and blocks with shadows, I'm still drawing at a 1st grade level.
I wiped down every surface there was in the whole ICU.(again I'm the farthest thing from a neat freak), It was gross how brown the wipes would be. Seriously, I might turn OCD after that night.
In the end we got an overdose at about 530am and it got me wide awake and saved me.
I really hope the review this chart and documentation of mine because it was immaculate, I mean, Florence Nightingale never charted or gave patient care the way I did that night.
I do rotating shift so it seems like I go through this the first shift on my rotation through nights every time, and looking at all the things I do, I find them hilarious, almost embarrassing, but mostly awesome.
SO..........what do you guys do on those days that its not that busy and you didn't get much sleep, I know you all are usually busy as 99% of the time we are too, and never face this, but when you do, what crazy things have you done to stay awake and alert?
Ugh, I work 7a-7p. It's NEVER slow enough to go to sleep, or use the bathroom most of the time. This question just irritated me.
I can understand your feelings, I worked days and still do, on a 3 weeks nights, 3 weeks days basis (awful I know, but such is life). But I will say, nights is a different kind of busy, you really have to work it a while to understand. I respect both now because of this swing shift I work. Days are crazy indeed, I remember saying that same stuff in my head, but I've seen the other side and realized its just different. I like love and hate both for different reasons, know what I mean?? I'm equally beat from both when I head home.
I also want to state that I am extremely mad at myself for posting this, ever since that day every night shift has been awful, very sick unstable patients and multiple admissions and crashes. Like some people in my community read that and said, "you know, them lazy overpaid RN's do nothing but sleep and play games at night in that brand new ICU they built, well I'm gonna eat 3 chocolate cakes, throw away my insulin, turn off my Bipap for 5 nights in a row and turn off my home 02, and I might as well finish this bottle of percocets now, there's 20 left and they expire tomorrow" Touche' Patients. You won this round.
Specializes in private duty/home health, med/surg.
I actually had two nights in a row with the same patients where they all slept at the same time for a 3-hour stretch! And they were low acuity, very few meds to pass so I actually had all my charting done by the time they were all sleeping. My floor has enough staff that I walked around & offered to help others, when that ran out I read case reports on Pub Med. Yes, I am a nerd, lol. Oh, and coffee. I drank too much coffee.
umn, north carolina has been like 20 degrees. I go out on the heathen smoke break, freeze my tush off and get a good awakening with nicotine and the cold.
For those non smokers, I invite you all too, to get away from the floor, get some semi fresh air (if you're not down wind of me) and wake up with the chill.
I also want to state that I am extremely mad at myself for posting this, ever since that day every night shift has been awful, very sick unstable patients and multiple admissions and crashes...... Touche' Patients. You won this round.
Yep, you said the Q word, or close enough that the gremlins heard you. I have a few coworkers who get angry when we all frantically say "shut up!" if anyone dares say Q; but those gremlins are out there:clown:
highlandlass1592, BSN, RN
647 Posts
IPod with Netflix...'nuff said. :-)