Nursing nightmares.

[Been there,done that]

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?

[crashcartqueen, BSN, RN]

Okay, mine is a bit dark. I once dreamt there was a kid coding and I couldn't find any other staff to help. I tried my best to save them and couldn't. Where it gets extra weird and unsettling is I kept dreaming it over and over, and I had a sense of deja vu that I needed to do something different each time, but no matter what I did it had the same outcome. Creepy and horrifying.

[bananas1]

That I am late for my shift, like 1hr late. This has been a recurring dream.since my student days and I wake up feeling so horrible.

[AlwaysLearning247, BSN]

I've had dreams where I go the whole shift without realizing I had a certain patient and by the time I look them up their labs are all messed up, bunch of meds are due etc. When I worked 7p-7a and went to bed at a normal time during my nights off I would wake up in a full panic at like 3 AM thinking I fell asleep at work, it was the worst!

[cmilly4]

Some of those dreams are so creepy. I had a dream I completely forgot to go into work. It was late in the evening and I suddenly remembered I had work that day. I was so panicked. Lol

I also have the the constant ringing of call lights playing in my head.

[Been there,done that, ASN, RN]

No, it was like the exorcist vomit and I tried to run away from it but it followed me down the hall.

Projectile vomiting is the worst. Did the patient twist their head around?

[NurseBeans, BSN, MSN, RN]

This one goes back to my days in the OR: I am scrubbed to assist a surgery that is either a new type of procedure or it is a mean surgeon I have never worked with, but either way I am confused and disoriented, and I keep contaminating my field and the trays are complete nonsense, and the circulator keeps opening more and more stuff I either recognize and don't need, or don't recognize at all. And then usually anesthesia is yelling about some sort of catastrophe with the airway. Ugh. My husband calls it working the night shift.

[Leader25, ASN, BSN, RN]

​Mine is I am awoken and I am late for work or forgot to go to work.

[Crush]

Had one last night. I dreamed I fell asleep at work and woke up with a sudden head jerk only find a pool of drool on my desk. My co-workers were standing around me laughing.

[chocoholic999]

Recurrent nightmare of a co-worker wandering around unit asking if "anyone knows where we keep the gun" because the doctor's order said "make sure patient gets shot in a.m."

Told co-worker about it. She never looked at me the same again.

[OncoRN84]

Ditto the forgotten patient dream. I think everyone has that one.

I used to have one where I come home and the patients are all over my apartment. There was even a med cart in the living room. I haven't had that one in a while.

The most recent was the hospital is on fire and we"re running, closing doors. Finally, there is no where left to run and the windows are locked shut. I look over and see the flames licking the oblong window of the stairwell and resign myself to my fate. All the while, thinking how much I hated my management position and missed patient care.

I have since applied for a transfer.

[PocketSize, BSN, RN]

Recurring nursing nightmare where I'm dealing with angry, abusive pts, helicopter visitors with ridiculous requests, people with unrealistic expectations of how an ED works. I pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming. Oh, wait. This is real life!

*been rough out there lately*

But really, it's going home forgetting to document something or document something appropriately, especially on super chaotic days

[nikegirl09]

Is it strange that I've never had a nursing nightmare? Not one that I recall anyway..,