Recurring Nursing Dreams?

[nurse82318, BSN, RN]

Anyone else have recurring nursing dreams?

I’ve had this recurring dream that occurs at least once a week for over a year now.

I started my nursing career in a hospital but left after two years because night shift was damaging my physical and mental health. I’ve worked in a clinic for almost two years now and it’s overall a much better fit for me.

I learned so much as a floor nurse and am grateful to have had that experience. However, I dreaded going to work every day and couldn’t wait to move on to a different job.

Ever since I left, I have this recurring dream where I’m working at the hospital again. In my dreams, I usually am aware of my current 9-5 M-F clinic job and am just “picking up a shift for the weekend”. They are usually good dreams, which is surprising to me because I mostly hated my hospital job. In real life, I’d never go back to working in a hospital setting, but in these recurring dreams I end up considering working there again.

Also of note, there are a few of the same coworkers in my dreams as well sometimes. These are coworkers I was friends with on my floor and did things with outside of work during the two years I was there. However, I have had trouble getting in touch with them ever since - I feel like we ended on a bad note, but am not sure what I might have done wrong to end the friendships.

Anyway, I guess I am trying to process why these dreams keep coming back. In reality I don’t feel very nostalgic about my old job, so I’m not sure why it keeps popping up in my dreams. I can understand why my coworkers keep making an appearance in these recurring dreams, as I haven’t been able to get closure as to why our friendships ended and I do miss them.

I have had recurring dreams of my teenage waitressing job - but those are more like nightmares where I forget people’s orders, break glasses, or spill coffee on a customer. I’m surprised I’m not having more anxiety-related dreams of my old nursing job like making a med error, experiencing a patient death, or getting fired. In real life I was anxious and stressed at my first nursing job most of the time.

Just curious if anyone has ever had this experience or a similar one with recurring nursing-related Dreams?

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

I have the one where I get to the end of my shift and realize I haven’t laid eyes on a pt through the entire shift. Usually they’re on an insulin or vasoactive gtt ?

[dream'n, BSN, RN]

This must be kismet because I had a nursing dream last night and I've haven't worked in the hospital for 4 years now. In my dream I was back working in the hospital, but on some weird unit. I couldn't figure out the medication system; where the medications were or how to find out what medications were ordered. My patient was a random coworker I knew in the past in real life. It was a weird dream to say the least.

I don't think I've ever had a good dream about nursing. Something bad always seems to happen. I've had dreams where I'm precepting and the student makes HUGE mistakes without my knowledge or I've fallen asleep and wake up just in time to give report on patients I haven't checked on all night. I've also had several dreams in which I don't know which patients are mine and can't find any other nurse to ask, or where I have a medication pass in LTC that never ends.

[jobellestarr]

They’re called nursemares. Pretty common.

[nurse82318, BSN, RN]

22 hours ago, Here.I.Stand said:

I have the one where I get to the end of my shift and realize I haven’t laid eyes on a pt through the entire shift. Usually they’re on an insulin or vasoactive gtt ?

Yes! This is what I keep expecting my dreams to be like, more like nightmares. Recently my dreams have been sitting at the nurses station, taking a lunch break in the sunshine...things I never spent much time doing (I worked nights). Makes no sense!

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

On 5/19/2020 at 8:56 PM, Here.I.Stand said:

I have the one where I get to the end of my shift and realize I haven’t laid eyes on a pt through the entire shift. Usually they’re on an insulin or vasoactive gtt ?

This.^^

I haven't worked in a hospital in 15 years, and I've been completely out of nursing for six. So why do I still have this same dream? Drives me nuts!

[TriciaJ, RN]

I had the ubiquitous nurse dream for about 10 years after I left med surg. The one where I hadn't seen a patient the whole shift.

To the OP- we are most likely to have pleasant dreams during times of low stress. You obviously made a good career move. It seems odd to have pleasant dreams about a previous bad situation. I wonder if your brain is finding a way to put that in a better light or at least put it behind you.

I've had some odd dreaming experiences, including lucid dreaming. I find dreams satisfying and would love to understand them better.

[TriciaJ, RN]

10 hours ago, TriciaJ said:

I had the ubiquitous nurse dream for about 10 years after I left med surg. The one where I hadn't seen a patient the whole shift.

To the OP- we are most likely to have pleasant dreams during times of low stress. You obviously made a good career move. It seems odd to have pleasant dreams about a previous bad situation. I wonder if your brain is finding a way to put that in a better light or at least put it behind you.

I've had some odd dreaming experiences, including lucid dreaming. I find dreams satisfying and would love to understand them better.

I meant to say I find dreams fascinating.. It seems like an odd form of auto-correct so I must have been really tired when I typed this.

[Davey Do]

My latest nursing dream, in cartoon fashion:

[guest1163268]

One of the best places to indulge in dreams is Naples in Southern Italy. There are many small shops where you buy lottery tickets and knick knacks etc that has all these dream interpretations hanging on the walls so that when you buy a lotto you can utilize your dreams. Plus it's also beautiful.