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?

For me it's the one where I discover a whole bunch of patients at the end of the day that I have never laid eyes on all day and I have to explain why. Or the one where I find out all my patients are some building offsite, so I have to go out of the building to take care of them then I can't figure out how to get back in.

A classic nursing nightmare, wishing you sweet dreams.

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

My reoccurring dreams:

That I am on a med surge unit with about 5-6 patients

that I barely lay eyes on all night, and then at the

end of the shift I'm rushing to see if they had any meds

that I didn't give.

Or:

A dream that is honestly kinda hazy, but involves me,

supposed to be at work, but instead I'm sleeping. I'm

not sure if I'm AT work but in a bed sleeping, or what.

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

One nightmare no one has mentioned yet is about SCHOOL----I'm about to graduate, but realize there's a class I

didn't take! :arghh:

Oh my gosh, I'm constantly dreaming that I'm back in college, and

have like 4 classes that I've never even been to, and the semester is

ending!

I also dream that I'm back in high school. I dream that for some

odd reason, I have to repeat all four years of high school.

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.
I have been retired for about twelve years, the night mares have finally gone away. But I rememer being a young nurse and dreaming that my manager walked into my bedroom and demanded to know why I was sleeping when evey light was on down the hall. I actually jumped out of bed and ran down the hall trying to answer them. My husband chased me and woke me which I believe saved me from being hurt. Gives you some idea of the sever stress I was under as a new nurse. It has all been over for a while but I still thank God every night when I go to bed at 10pm instead of going to work.

Oramar!!! Ohmygosh, I remember you from WAY back!

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I had just discharged an extremely challenging and abusive patient then went home and dreamt that I was trapped on a 12 hour bus ride with her.

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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 an 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.

HOLY CRAP. This gave me chills. Very scary. :(

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Specializes in Med/Surg/Infection Control/Geriatrics.

My nightmare use to be being able to get to the shift change on time! That, and wondering if I really did hang the next heparin???? EEEKKKK

Glad those days are over!!!:)

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I always dream that I'm back on my old unit (I'm a school nurse now) and can't do anything right (i.e.: dropping EVERYTHING, misplacing meds, forgetting to "badge in" on the computer etc. etc.) I look like one of those really bad info-mercials where the people are dramatically dropping everything....I usually wake up so frustrated because I know what to do and how to do it, but I just couldn't, for the life of me, make it happen!

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Specializes in Psych, Peds, Education, Infection Control.

I moved into a more administrative position (infection control and staff education) in November. While I pick up floor shifts occasionally if we're short, it's not my norm. I still have that recurring dream where it's the end of the shift and I realize I forgot to pass any meds! Or my "naked at work" dream, but that one also takes place in other settings.

My weirdest work dream was when some of our adolescent female psych patients started Hulk-throwing cars at us in the parking lot. :-D

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I make it to the end of the shift and have forgotten about a patient and haven't seen them all night.

That is standard. I have this dream often.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
Ugh, I have the recurrent nightmare of not knowing a patient was assigned to me, too!

I worked NICU many years ago, and have had many dreams where I take care of the babies in my house.

One nightmare no one has mentioned yet is about SCHOOL----I'm about to graduate, but realize there's a class I

didn't take! :arghh:

I sometimes have a dream that I'm taking care of patients in a house, sometimes its mine, sometimes it's another family members with a patient in every room. And I'm always busy and running around and wondering why the patients are there.

When my grandma was alive I'd dream I was visiting her and working pool at the local hospital and getting lost on the way there and being afraid to work at a hospital I didn't know. I'm not someone that would do agency lol. I need stability, but in the beginning I thought I would move up north by her and work at that hospital. We were very close and I'd been to the hospital when she was a patient. It was actually a beautiful hospital with the rooms arranged around a courtyard so every room had a view! In reality I got a job at a hospital in the city I was born and just spent my off time visiting her frequently hence the dream I'd pick up a shift at the hospital while I was visiting her. Never did it in real life though.

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Specializes in Intensive Care and Perianesthesia Care.

Arriving to work and realizing I left a patient in PACU!

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