Most Stressful Day

Specialties Emergency

Published

Specializes in ER.

So I know there are a ton of posts in here about your most memorable drug seekers, the craziest patients etc. so, here's a new question that I haven't seen asked yet. We all have stressful days, days where we don't win, days where we just wanna cry at the end of shift. So, what are some of your most memorable stressful day stories? Where maybe you lost a patient that hit you harder than most, or did you just have family members that were too involved in their own feelings rather than the good of the patient?

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Specializes in Gerontology RN-BC and FNP MSN student.

I had a home hospice patient who was dying and her husband was laying in bed holding her hand....While 5 of the children were fighting over the parents belongings and who was taking the dad to live with them. They were also drinking and physically going at it while I was in the bedroom with the parents.

It was so absolutely sad and disgusting how they were carrying on rather than in at the moms bedside where me and the Father/husband were.

We could hear everything and it went on for hours..... and yes I had two back to back 12 hour pm shifts. The next day some of them had sobered up but they still weren't talking amongst themselves. People can be so shallow at times... :banghead::thumbdown:

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Tele, Dialysis, Hospice.

The day (and night!) that I was made to work 21 hours straight in acute dialysis. I thought I was done after 13 hours but got called back when I was about halfway home. Then I though I was done after 17 hours, but got called back, again, on my way home. By then I was so tired I could barely see straight, but there was an ER patient that needed dialysis and I was told that I was on call and I had to do it...or else, because there was no one else to do it and the patient's K+ was 6.5. I ended up working from 6 AM Thursday to 3 AM Friday, was still on call until 6 AM, and I was scheduled to work on Friday...at 6 AM! And no, in case you're wondering, there are no laws in my state governing how many hours straight a nurse can work.

Needless to say, I am OUT of there!:eek:

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.

LTC gentleman passed away, and he was a bit of a grumpy old man. Nobody even knew he had family as they never visited. His body was still in the bed and his kids were in the room fighting over who was getting what. I don't know if he was grumpy because his family never visited or if his family never visited because he was an awful parent, but either way I was disgusted by the tacky display of nothing but greed.

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The ones that stick are my 2 peds codes, neither one made it. The first, a 6 week old SIDS/poss suffocation. The next day, a 5 yr old. Saddest week if my life. Sorry to be a downer

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Most stressful day that rolled into a week was terrible. LTC I was working at, had 6 residents die the same day. Lots and lots of paperwork. The DON/ADON/administrator too busy to help me. We had no paper towels to dry our hands, ran out of soap the third day. The hot water tank exploded on day four. Day 5 finally got water again however, 8 residents had MRSA d/t no soap and no paper towels. It was cross contamination causing it to spread. Day 6 lady fell through a glass door, blood every freaking where. Day 7 invasions of cockroaches crawling every where. Hearing them crunch under the med cart. Day 7 I quit! Don't plan on going back to a Medicaid LTC ever again.

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Specializes in hospice.
Don't plan on going back to a Medicaid LTC ever again.

Note to self: buy long term care insurance!

That was truly a horrifying read.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Tele, Dialysis, Hospice.
Most stressful day that rolled into a week was terrible. LTC I was working at, had 6 residents die the same day. Lots and lots of paperwork. The DON/ADON/administrator too busy to help me. We had no paper towels to dry our hands, ran out of soap the third day. The hot water tank exploded on day four. Day 5 finally got water again however, 8 residents had MRSA d/t no soap and no paper towels. It was cross contamination causing it to spread. Day 6 lady fell through a glass door, blood every freaking where. Day 7 invasions of cockroaches crawling every where. Hearing them crunch under the med cart. Day 7 I quit! Don't plan on going back to a Medicaid LTC ever again.

Ding! Ding! Ding! I think we have a winner, folks! :eek:

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That sounds like hell! Getting me scared for my new ltc job....:(

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.
Most stressful day that rolled into a week was terrible. LTC I was working at, had 6 residents die the same day. Lots and lots of paperwork. The DON/ADON/administrator too busy to help me. We had no paper towels to dry our hands, ran out of soap the third day. The hot water tank exploded on day four. Day 5 finally got water again however, 8 residents had MRSA d/t no soap and no paper towels. It was cross contamination causing it to spread. Day 6 lady fell through a glass door, blood every freaking where. Day 7 invasions of cockroaches crawling every where. Hearing them crunch under the med cart. Day 7 I quit! Don't plan on going back to a Medicaid LTC ever again.

Oh my God! That is absolutely awful! Stephen King could get some ideas for his next project out of that horror story.

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

Having two siblings literally fighting over their dying father, one (POA) wanting us to abide by the patient's AND order, the other (not the POA) begging us to save her father, alternating with screaming and wailing that we are killing him/letting him die/she's going to sue us all/slapping her sibling. The non-POA had called EMS for transport when the POA had left the house for a bit. It was a most awful, heart-wrenching display of family strife and disagreement. This was on a Sunday, they were scheduled to go to court the next morning, but the patient stymied all legal manuevers by expiring, poor guy. The whole deal was emotionally stressful, more than anything.

Probably my worst, or up there: mass casualty situation with a bus vs. Taliban IED, lots of peds blown up.

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Specializes in Emergency, Trauma, Critical Care.

All 4 of my patients turned into ICUs in the ER. One had a hemoglobin of 5, active GI bleed. Another was active gi bleed, and he was in severe alcohol withdrawal. The other two were neuro ICUs because of stroke and no coworkers could help me because we got two severe burns at the same time.

I never charted so little in my life because I was too busy doing everything I could to keep these patients alive.

it made me rethink my career and harbor permanent distaste for the one coworker who was available to help me, but just refuses to do bedside care.

Luckily, it was just my worst shift ever....

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