passed out

Specialties NICU

Published

Last Friday was my second day on the NICU as a new nurse. One of the NP's was about to insert an umbilical line and my preceptor asked me if I wanted to watch. I'm standing there watching the NP who was having trouble getting the line in. The warmer is on and the lights are really bright. I start feeling really hot. So I took a step back. Then I see my preceptor walking towards me and I passed out. :o When I woke up, I was sitting in a rocking chair. My nurse asked if I ate breakfast and I told her I did. She gave me a drink of water and told me to go on a break. Well, I was pretty embarrassed, but the nurses in the room were great. My nurse educator came to check up on me and shared her "fainting" story with me.

I'm not really sure what happened. I don't get grossed out easily. I think it was the heat and the bright lights that got to me. Putting my embarrassing moment aside, I must say I'm really enjoying my orientation.

Any fainting/embarrassing stories you would like to share??

Specializes in NICU.

People do pass out in the NICU from time to time. We've had nurses, doctors, and visitors all go down on occassion. It's understandable.

The most ironic pass out was when the surgical team was coming by to dilate the ostomy of one of our babies - it was kind of shrinking. So the surgical resident has that big metal rod and he's moving it in and out of the stoma - and the medical student with him passes out! He took a few steps away from the bedside and said he had to sit down, then walked DIRECTLY towards another baby and went to the floor. He hit his head on the linen bin and his feet kicked the bottom of the other baby's isolette, moving it a foot or two. And this baby was on an oscillator! Thank goodness no extubation occurred and the student was okay as well. But the ironic thing was that he was all hot to specialize in peds surgery...

Specializes in Telemetry, Nursery, Post-Partum.

I can remember two times I almost passed out. The first time I was in a TB isolation room (so, gowned,gloved and masked, ie hot!!) assiting with an LP and I just started getting so dizzy, fortunately I was in a position I could kinda lean backwards against the wall and I was okay. And another nurse had come in with me because she wanted to watch, so I knew I had back up. The 2nd time I was in a patients room, with her meds, waiting for her to come out of the bathroom, and I got so dizzy, nauseous, just ill. I leaned against her wall for awhile, till I was able to hand over her meds, then I booked it out of the room and flung myself into a chair. Fortunately I was on a busy hallway and was able to get some help fairly quickly. I was told I was just dehydrated, but that seemed weird to me, since I keep up with my water intake. So, anyway, it happens. But it is embarassing!

I'm not an RN, but on my first shift at a new job as an MA I passed out. Had been sick a few days before but went since it was my first day. All I remember is saying " I don't feel so good..." and I woke up in a chair drink in juice. I was so embarrassed.

I think God does this to show us it is ok to feel stupid some times, and to give us a little humilty.

Hi, I almost passed out in the NICU once. I was a new nurse extern and I was working with a nurse who was changing an ileostomy bag on an intubated micro preemie. When she pulled the wafer off, a pretty good sized area of the baby's epidermis was ripped off. It looked so extremely painful! The baby starts crying, but obviously can't be heard because he his intubated. It was pitiful!

I don't get grossed out/ bothered by things easily either, and I don't know if my almost passing out was just a coincidence or what I saw really bothered me that much, but I started to get that tunnel vision where everything was starting to black out and I couldn't hear anything, and I had to go sit down. I went to the bathroom and vomited a small amount, then I was fine. I've seen lots of things now in my short amount of time in this field, but this is the only time I came close to passing out...and it was over some torn skin! (I guess)

Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

I passed out in Nsg School--had cramps sooo bad that day, and they sent us all in to watch a circumcision. The poor baby is strapped to the circ board screaming his head off, the idiot resident is actually laughing @ him, I'm feeling worse by the second. I didn't fall down cuz I was leaning against something, just a lot of noise in my ears, blacked out visually. When my vision cleared, I staggered out of the nursery, went to the bathroom in hte L&D lounge, and just sank down. One of the staff nurses came in after me, "oh, you poor thing". I must've looked like...... They sent me back to the dorm to curl up w/the heating pad.

I hate circs to this day!! @ least now they KNOW the baby has pain, do a local, give sweet-ease, etc., but I still offer to pay someone to do it for me if I'm on mother-baby and one of my babies is going to get one!

Nothing at work fazes me but I did pass out the last time I gave blood.

Specializes in NICU.

I passed out last year during a circ. I'd been an RN a little over a year, and so had assisted with more than one circ. I remember I had on my jacket, so I was a little warm, but figured I'd wait to take it off until after the procedure, since I was holding the baby with both hands and he was doing pretty well with my hold. Well, the next thing I knew, I was on the floor trying to get up. I didn't realize at this point I had passed out, and still wasn't entirely there, and I ended up passing out again! It was so embarassing, because this was at shift change, so EVERYONE saw it happen. I hit the baby's open crib (which was empty, since he was strapped to the circ tray) and the rocking chair and had quite the bruise on my back for awhile...

Anyway, I've done everything I can to avoid circs since then. I never liked them anyway, but now I REALLY don't like helping with them!!!

Specializes in NICU/Neonatal transport.

Be sure to not lock your knees, that's a common reason people will pass out.

Don't worry, it's pretty common. I have a touchy vagal response myself :)

Specializes in Geriatrics, Transplant, Education.

Not a nurse yet (NCLEX in 2 weeks!) but I've had a few times getting quite lightheaded in my work as a tech & during school.

My number one favorite, was the first day of my critical care rotation. The instructor I had was rumored to be very difficult, and I had myself so wound up about going to her clinical that I could barely get anything down for breakfast. So there I am, in the room with my patient, all gowned & gloved because she had MRSA. I was working with the primary RN, who had me take down a dressing on a skin tear and re-do it. So I take down the dressing, and am assessing the site, as the primary RN is hanging blood and explaining to me how two nurses have to check it, how it's going to run etc. The skin tear was kind of oozing, and all of a sudden I get very hot & turn white as a sheet, just as the nurse goes "Oh sweetheart, you don't look so good." So I go and sit down outside my pt's room. Said scary clinical instructor came to me and asked if I ate breakfast, at which I remarked that I didn't because I was so nervous, and I was immediately sent to the cafeteria. It was a standing joke for the rest of the rotation (every time I got to class she'd ask if I ate my Wheaties, lol) & now this so-called "scary" instructor is actually a great mentor for me (as well as one of my favorite professors ever)

I also almost went down during a chest tube insertion in nursing school. I was wedged up againt the wall behind the pt, and would have disrupted the procedure to leave, so I just sat on the floor because I felt myself getting lightheaded.

There have also been a couple doozies at work, the biggest one being an open femur fracture for which a comfort measures only pt refused tx. I was helping the RN change the dressing, but had never seen the wound before & almost dropped to the floor when I saw a quarter of the pt's femur sticking out :eek:

Specializes in Med-surg; OB/Well baby; pulmonology; RTS.

We had a young woman on our unit awhile back that had just recently had a baby (I think she was 1-2 weeks post partum). She developed a massive infection along her c-section incision and required an extensive debridement. We had to pack it TID and I assisted her nurse with the first one. I was totally unprepared for what I saw-her wound was so deep, you could see ALL of her reproductive organs along with her bladder. I knew I was fixing to pass out so I exited her room quickly and got some help. My co-workers put me in a empty room and got cold washcloths and some juice. That is the first time I ever did that during a dressing change.

Specializes in NICU.

Second semester of nursing school, I was watching my professor demonstrate how to start an IV on a dummy. Well the fake blood was going everywhere, the room looked dark and I felt nauseated so I went to sit in a chair and got all sweaty with 9 classmates giving me funny looks. I didn't actually faint but was moved to a bed for 10 min to recover. I was SOOO embarrassed!

When I was in nursing school doing my OR rotation, I knew it wasn't going to be pretty when I first put the mask on. Number one, I am claustrophobic and have issues with my face being covered (with a blanket/sheet, whatever) and can't even stand someone touching my face. So breathing the hot air in was a huge issue for me. Then of course since i'd never witnessed surgery in real life, I was watching open heart surgery. I started breaking out into a cold sweat then wildly searched the room for a chair or stool because I knew if I didn't sit I was going to hit the floor. So I sat down and poured ice cold sweat...it was awful lol. I got over it fast though.

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