How to tell you've worked too many shifts in a row

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

  1. You reprogram the telemetry monitors and now have Mario scrambling over the QRS complexes and hopping over the P waves for extra credit
  2. Your patient bradys down from a steady sinus tach to the 30's, and you run up the hallway yelling, "oh, hell no you are not making me fill out all that paperwork this late in the shift!"
  3. Your coworker trips and falls running to the same code, and all you can think is, "great, I'll end up with 2 of her pts when she goes to the ER."
  4. You are hauling your now dead pt to the morgue, your coworker's went to the ER, leaving 2 nurses on the floor with 28 patients, and you hear another code go off for your floor, and you jump out of the elevator and run...leaving the corpse in the elevator as a present for the next person who pushes the button....
  5. You have a conversation with the admin rep that sounds like this...."I lost my patient...no, I mean really lost them....no, they were dead, they can't find their way back to the unit...."
  6. When you hear a scream, you know someone found your deceased patient.

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Specializes in PACU, ED.

You've worked too many shifts in a row if ;

1. When you finally get home, you check pulses, respirs, and BP on your sleeping spouse.

2. You decide to sleep in the waiting room because you're unsafe to drive.

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When I got in my car to drive home - my feet hurt so bad I could hardley press the gas.

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:lol_hitti Way too funny. My favorite was a co-worker falling asleep on the toilet. Woke up with elbow dents on her knees and a BIG circle on her...well let's just say gave new meaning to circling the drain.

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Specializes in tele, oncology.

Nerd, I can't tell you the number of times I've read posts from you and thought "She SO should come to work on my floor!" You'd fit in great with our fun-loving, wacky team.

I recently worked four in a row, starting off with a 16 hour shift which actually turned into a nightmare of a 18 hour long shift. By the time I left on that last morning, the day charge nurse told me that I was no longer allowed to survive on coffee and chocolate alone, b/c she was afraid the patients would think I was on crack. I was bouncing around like a hyperactive gerbil who drank a six pack of Red Bull. The worst part was I was so hyped up that I couldn't fall asleep until about 1400 once I got home!

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

Yikes, mama_d, I've done that (ice storm) and it stinks.

Getting ready to go home from the ice storm, I was changing into my snow boots and actually caught myself trying to change into jeans when I had my scrubs off and my snowboots on. Dang near wiped out and died right there in the bathroom.

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Ok tonight I have cried and now I am laughing so hard I am crying....who told you all that my eyes swell shut, and my nose swells and reddens....Here I was going in for a family portrait tomorrow now... with a hippo face. LOLOL I love every one of your posts Thank-you all. Just kidding about the portrait though.

Hmmmm more than once when I have worked too many in a row ...I get to work and realise my pants are inside out, of course not before I am on the floor and try to put something in my pocket.

TuTonka

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Hmmmm more than once when I have worked too many in a row ...I get to work and realise my pants are inside out, of course not before I am on the floor and try to put something in my pocket.

TuTonka

OK now you have me LOL. What was it you were trying to put in your pocket?

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

You know you worked too many shifts

  • when you think about taking a short nap at the 8-minute redlight on the way home.
  • When you take off your shoes and steam comes out.
  • When you have to peeeeeeeeel your socks off.
  • When your DH makes coffee and you wish he could make it like the hospital's coffee.
  • When you start to think that the hospital's food is really pretty good, all things considered.

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Specializes in LTC.

You know you've worked too many shifts when...

1. You come home and tell your husband "You can give me report on the kids whenever you're ready"

2. You want to take some Tylenol for your pounding headache but feel the need to check the MAR and make sure you have an order for it first

3. You fall asleep after working noc shift and are awakened by the beeping of a truck backing up and your first thought is "What now? Which alarm is that?"

4. You have a BM and you think to yourself "I'll have to remember to chart that"

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

  • When you finally get home and answer your cell phone with, "Good evening, This is Nurse Angie on Unit 5E" --and not only is it your private number, it's 11 am.
  • When you haven't been home in so long there's dust on the dishes you left in the sink.

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Specializes in Psych, M/S, Ortho, Float..

You fall asleep in the car in the driveway at home. It is just 10 steps too far to get into the house. Hubby wakes you up asking why you are still in the car 6 hours later as he pulls in from work.

Sugar in the fridge and milk on the counter.

You try and put deodorant on your toothbrush and can't figure out what the problem is.

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