Night shift nurses! Have you ever been SO SLEEPY that....

[NurseCard]

you found youself charting something about a patient that made ABSOLUTELY no sense whatsoever??

As in... it's 2:30 in the morning, you are sitting there trying to chart... and you find yourself kinda... drifting off... AS your hand continues to write or type?

As much as it PAINS me to admit that I was actually this sleepy... last night I was sitting there charting on the computer about a patient... I was typing a patient note... and I kinda felt myself drifting off to parts unknown, yet I continued to type... then I managed to kinda jerk myself awake, looked at the screen, and found that I had typed something about this patient that looked kinda like this:

"Patient able to open eyes, is somewhat alert, follows commands, and is somehow able to create his own video game"

I'm glad I actually did wake myself up before hitting "save". =)

[ERnewbieRN, BSN, RN]

I feel like I'd be doing all these things if I worked day shift... I can't keep my eyes open in the morning!! I've always been something of a night owl as far back as I can remember... Kudos to the day nurses who can actually function in the morning! :rotfl:

[allthingsbright]

I am in hysterics here..............

[rn/writer, RN]

I feel like I'd be doing all these things if I worked day shift... I can't keep my eyes open in the morning!! I've always been something of a night owl as far back as I can remember... Kudos to the day nurses who can actually function in the morning! :rotfl:

Yes! I look at days like others look at nights. "Don't make me work days, please, don't make me work days. I'll be good. I promise. Just don't make me work days."

[Imafloat, BSN, RN]

When I worked nights I would get words confused around 0300-0400. I would call an ETT a trach, get the left and right side of the patient confused, dumb things like that.

[nursemike, ASN, RN]

I woke up one in the middle of recording report. I wish I had thought to play it back, but I know I had recently purchased a boxed set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVDs, and I believe I had been talking about demons. Now let's just try to find some nursing diagnoses for that. It didn't occur to me, at the time, that I could record over whatever I'd said, so I just ended by saying, "Uh, I'll have to give you a verbal on this one."

The nurse who followed me said it was pretty weird stuff, but she was more distressed to learn that she had two patients with trachs. Seems I'd recorded a more or less lucid report on the first patient, then pretty much the same thing on the second (who did not have a trach) and total gibberish on the third.

I've learned to take my car out of gear and set the emergency brake at stoplights. It's sad, but I've found I can keep it together when I'm doing something active, but am more inclined to nod off when I'm stationary.