Hypochondriac Nurses

Nurses General Nursing

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Anyone work with any of these? In both hospitals I have worked I have seen nurses of all ages hooking themselves up to monitors-telemetry, EKGs, pulse-ox, BPs, worried over the smallest things. How common of a practice is this?

One nurse I work with now always has a "problem of the month." One month she'll think she's diabetic, the next is CHF. It's absolutely crazy. Wondering if anyone else had these same experiences with nurses?

Oh my!!!!!!! I thought that I was the only crazzed nurse out there with these feelings lol..... Since I graduated I have started having anxiety attacks. Eveytime my shoulder aches I think it's an MI. My anxiety attacks have become fewer and fewer over the past yr. It is comforting to know that others have the same feelings. I work in surgery and my patients come in with all these horrible conditions and have to get surgery to cure it or just make it better than what it currently is, and I am always worried that I will need that surgery.......:uhoh21: Once I thought I was truly going to die with one of my anxiety attacks.....It's funny now that I look back at it......

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Specializes in cardiac med-surg.

we went through this in college as we reviewed each system

weird and funny

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We had a "hypochondriac" nurse. He was always complaining about something, but his favorite was having palpitations and SOB that would come and go. He did scenes like Red Fox in "Sanford and Sons." So we hooked him up to the EKG to humor him. He was having bigeminy runs.

Just cuz you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.

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Specializes in Med-surg, Critical Care.

Oh my! Well I'm SO glad to know others are out there like me! I have seriously considered in the past that maybe I DID have a mental health problem and should go be put on medication. I do believe it's stress from working with so many sick people and dealing with illness and death on a daily basis. It's so hard to not fall into that trap of thinking "what if..."

I just don't want to continue always doing this and having it interfere with my daily life. I hate having to always worry about something.....but it really helps knowing other nurses do the same thing.....GREAT thread!

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Oh my!!!!!!! I thought that I was the only crazzed nurse out there with these feelings lol..... Since I graduated I have started having anxiety attacks. Eveytime my shoulder aches I think it's an MI. My anxiety attacks have become fewer and fewer over the past yr. It is comforting to know that others have the same feelings. I work in surgery and my patients come in with all these horrible conditions and have to get surgery to cure it or just make it better than what it currently is, and I am always worried that I will need that surgery.......:uhoh21: Once I thought I was truly going to die with one of my anxiety attacks.....It's funny now that I look back at it......

Yep, me too about the anxiety attacks!!:no: :no:

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Also doesn't help that many nurses neglect their health. There are many nurses out there with a chronic illness of some sort. Those with a legitimate disease, in my opinion, tend to downplay them out of fear that they'll face wrath from managers or coworkers however. I have to go for an upper GI series this Thursday, and I'm already afraid what my manager is going to say about that. Just presenting a different viewpoint, but it can be a real challenge to get time off to go to the doctor, so many nurses use the equipment at work to keep tabs on things...

i agree w/you ortess.

i've neglected myself terribly-never go for pe's.

deny all pains and other s/s....

with that said, i am reminded of a nurse i used to work with.

daily she would come in and complain of a dozen ailments.

it got to the point where people avoided her.

she quit, ended up taking another job.

a few months later, we read her obituary.

she had died, at the age of 44, from complications from lupus...one of the ailments she had complained about.

leslie

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

I've been in healthcare so long I'm over all that checking myself for s/s stuff.

Because when I get right down to it, if I think I have something, then I have to go to the doc.

I hate going to the docs and waiting for results so much, I tend to stick to complaining about aches and pains and fatigue and early-onset dementia, but no way will I have it checked out. I just like to have something to complain about, I guess.

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Specializes in OR.
We had a "hypochondriac" nurse. He was always complaining about something, but his favorite was having palpitations and SOB that would come and go. He did scenes like Red Fox in "Sanford and Sons." So we hooked him up to the EKG to humor him. He was having bigeminy runs.

Just cuz you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.

Ha Ha! So funny-I got the greatest visual from the Sanford and Son reference!:lol2:
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Specializes in Neuro.

I'm in my first quarter of school, but we are already coming down with "medical student syndrome" and diagnosing ourselves, or each other, with everything, mostly in a joking manner. I think we have all diagnosed ourselves or our classmates with some form of dementia due to our total lack of concentration, memory and everything else associated with school stress.

We also look at all the risk factors for developing diseases and figure out which ones we're going to get. We're trying to come up with designs for a class shirt and one of the ideas is "Nursing School put me at risk for:" and name all the diseases associated with things like stress, long periods of standing (in clinical) or long periods of sitting (in lecture).

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Specializes in OB, ortho/neuro, home care, office.

I have a sweatshirt that reads

"Activity Deficit r/t NURSING SCHOOL!"

I still wear that sweatshirt - people think I'm weird, but I will hopefully have a real need to wear it in the future.

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.
i agree w/you ortess.

i've neglected myself terribly-never go for pe's.

deny all pains and other s/s....

with that said, i am reminded of a nurse i used to work with.

daily she would come in and complain of a dozen ailments.

it got to the point where people avoided her.

she quit, ended up taking another job.

a few months later, we read her obituary.

she had died, at the age of 44, from complications from lupus...one of the ailments she had complained about.

leslie

This reminds me of a nurse's aide that I used to work with, though she hasn't died yet (at least not to my knowledge). She complained of a LOT of different ailments. She complained of fibromyalgia, foot swelling, abdominal cramps (from "female problems"), and much more. Once she came to work and wanted me to find her some info about MS; she thought she had it.

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Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.

I have a friend who claims she is a nurse but doesn't work as one. She is a hypochondriac of the strangest kind. She gets "yeast" infections in her knees. She cures her anemia with Wonder Bread and raisins. OMG I can't even remember most of the foolishness. CBC = Colored Blood Count not Complete Blood Count. It goes on and on. Thank God for caller ID!

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