Nursing nightmares.

Nurses General Nursing

Published

35 years of experience and retired for 2 months.

My current nightmare is ... I can't find the door to get out at shift change.

What are your nursing nightmares?

Specializes in Case manager, float pool, and more.
That's another dream... have to pee, no time.. no place. Luckily.. I can still wake up and make it to the toilet. So far..so good, it's only 10 feet.

Oh my gosh, that is so my nightmare right there. Gotta go use the facilities & can't make it. There is an "out of order" sign on all of them.

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Specializes in CEN.

Some of my dreams are so vivid they actually wake me up and I spend the first few moments wondering how I wound up in my bed if it was the middle of my shift.

My most recent dream involved me trying to triage a child whose family did not speak English. All I could get out of them was that the kid was running a fever. I woke up and promptly roused my husband to ask him if he knew where my patient went so I could finish the triage. It took me about 30 seconds before I fully woke up and realized it was my night off. Scary thing was that I kept dreaming the same thing all night long and it always felt just as real as the first time I dreamt it.

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I don't remember if I told this one on AN or not, but I once had a nightmare that I was walking down the hallway at work and one of our little tiny old ladies was shuffling slightly behind me. Suddenly, the lights went out and it was pitch black. I could see absolutely nothing. I stopped and frantically attempted to find the little old lady because I didn't want her to get hurt.

I could feel that I was touching her and then I realize she has the fingers on both of my hands in her mouth and she is biting down hard. And not only could I sense enormous pain, I could also sense that she was something much more malevolent. I can see nothing but black.

Terrified and in pain, I manage to reach my thumbs out to gouge her eyes and make her let go of my fingers... but I could feel this little old lady, this evil thing did not have any eye sockets! It had no face at all but the teeth biting off my fingers!

I woke up trying to scream. My husband was all concerned and stuff, but when I got to the part where a old lady monster with no eyes was biting my fingers off, he could not stop laughing. Thanks, Honey.

One more: I had a dream I was walking down the hall (again!) and that my night was so stressful, I could feel my heart racing, then becoming very irregular and then beginning to stop.

As my heart began to stop, I began to pass out and fall to the floor. As I was going down to the floor, I thought, "This is it" and I guess I died, because I woke up at that point.

Well, that's a doozy. PTSD stinks. Take care doll.

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I had a nightmare about projectile vomit landing on me.

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Oh my gosh, that is so my nightmare right there. Gotta go use the facilities & can't make it. There is an "out of order" sign on all of them.

Or you finally find already full of you know what. Welcome to my nightmare.

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I had a nightmare about projectile vomit landing on me.

Hah.. small stuff... had my kids and patients barf in my hair.. no biggie.. was not even a dream.

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Well, that's a doozy. PTSD stinks. Take care doll.

I took care, my friend. I quit.

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

I've been out of nursing for several years, and out of med/surg nursing for far longer, but I keep having the same recurring dream that there's that one patient I didn't know I had and I ignore him (it's always a him) all shift. I'm always running up and down the hall like a chicken with its head cut off, never quite getting on top of things, and then the nurse manager comes down the hall for report and comes unglued because this poor guy hasn't been tended to all night. She berates me for neglecting him and I keep protesting that I didn't know he was my patient. The dream usually ends right there, but when I wake up I'm almost as tired as if I'd really worked that shift!

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Specializes in Gerontology.

My nightmares are usually about forgotten pts. End of shift and I discover a pt I have had for 12 hours but gave no care to.

One very vivid nightmare I had many many years ago was I lost the med cart stocked full of meds and narcotics. I woke up, jumped out of bed and started running around my apartment trying to find that cart. Full panic mood. It was only when I opened my oven and looked in to se if the cart was there that I came to my senses and realized that I was at home and the cart was not missing.

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I took care, my friend. I quit.

Quitting does not treat PTSD. Dream on.. hope they are good ones.

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First of all, Congratulations Been There,Done That on retirement! My nightmares are all the same, I am running and my legs won't move. My real life nightmare is my alarm clock - the beep is identical to the beep of an IV pump going off! I HATE my alarm clock!

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My dream is based on the reality that 20 years ago I was night supervisor at a small county hospital. I called in the OR team for emergencies. The absolute worse was stat C-sections.

I knew less than a person on the street about OR's. It was decided that for C-sections the supervisor would act as circulating nurse, get the case started, till the on call nurse came in. Yeah we got a little orientation, but!!!!!

My once every few months nightmare is I'm helping out in the OR. Last night it was for a C-section, (not stat). I was in the OR but couldn't find which room they were setting up in. I'm wandering around, there are a lot of fellow nurses, they try to direct me, but it's a maze.

I finally ran into the obstetrician, think I'm saved, I'd just follow her, but lose track of her.

Later on In real life I worked in out patient surgery, pre-op and recovery, never in OR. But I still have crazy dreams that I have to help out in OR

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