What kinds of nightmares or dreams do you have as a nurse / pca / healthcare worker?
As a PCA - I used to work at a nursing home with the same group of residents. I would dream about doing a toileting round on them, taking each one to the bathroom in my sleep, in the same exhausting pattern I had been doing for years. I would never wake up refreshed!
As an RN - I have recurrent nightmares about forgetting I had a patient on my assignment. I'll get to report and then the horror dawns on me that I forgot about the patient in room "7" all shift - never assessed them, checked on them, or gave them meds, even though they were assigned to me. I have nightmares about missing entire med passes (i.e. I suddenly realize it's 1030 and haven't done my AM med pass). Not really a dream, but the first time I rotated to night shift, I forgot and woke up in the afternoon in a blind panic that I was late for shift - I even called the hospital to try to salvage myself.
I have retired from Nursing for 7 years but continue to have crazy work related dreams of IV alarms, overloaded and understaffing, Vent alarms, etc. I must have " P T S D" from my 34 years working as a hospital staff RN ??? I don't know if these crazy dreams & nightmares will ever stop??
OMG!!! I am so relieved to know I'm not the only one who dreams they completely forgot about a patient(s) for an entire shift!!! I have literally woken up in a panic, walked down the hallway in my house thinking I was at work. Last week I woke up from a dream, got out of bed and said to myself "Well, you finally did it. You actually forgot to see your patient the entire day. Your dream is truly real." Then I got my wits about me and realized I was dreaming about my bad dreams. That's messed up.
It's getting better though and I'm dreaming it only rarely now because at the end of my shift I double check every single patient in the computer, double check my MAR to make sure I didn't miss anything there and literally in my mind tell myself "You saw all your patients and all your work is done." I do that every day and it seems to help.
My husband (a police officer) said he often dreams he has to pull his gun on someone and the trigger malfunctions. He said a lot of cops dream that.
I only dreamed about work once. After the first time I experienced death of one of my pts, I woke up for several weeks my cheeks soaked in tears and saying her name. That was it. Only work related dream I ever had.
Specializes in Acute Care - Adult, Med Surg, Neuro.
2) I had to give 2 units of prbcs. I took a temperature right before I hung the first bag. A few hours pass, I hang the second one and realize that I never checked another temp after starting the first transfusion. I check and the patient's temp is 106F.
I've had the same current nightmare where I was taking care of pts in a skilled surgical unit . First dream I was caring for the wrong pts (not assigned) 2dream is I was taking care of the same pts and realized I never gave meds or dud the treatment tube feedings or changing a colostomy. The pt with colostomy refused care, and all pts with treatments got their treats late but recurved then . And the tube feeding waSs completed by my LPN. I woke up so upset that I didn't do a med pass .I've never had any of this happen to me in real life setting, but I was truly disturbed that this is the third dream of the same thing in the same facility or so it seems I was horrified to think This could happen if we don't stay determined and focused on our responsibilities and duties and prioritize approximately.
I hope to never to have this dream ever again. But it has made me more conscious and aware it could easily happen
retired-603
14 Posts
I have retired from Nursing for 7 years but continue to have crazy work related dreams of IV alarms, overloaded and understaffing, Vent alarms, etc. I must have " P T S D" from my 34 years working as a hospital staff RN ??? I don't know if these crazy dreams & nightmares will ever stop??