Sweet Dreams, Baby! Tell us about your strange dreams r/t nursing

Nurses General Nursing

Published

  1. How often do you dream about nursing?

    • 41
      Always
    • 116
      Frequently but not all the time
    • 130
      Sometimes
    • 31
      Never

318 members have participated

Nursing is nothing if not an intense occupation. Sometimes we dream about it.

I just woke up horrified to discover that I had five out of seven patients that I never got a chance to look at or assess for the entire shift! :uhoh3:

So glad THAT's never happened in real life, but it's 0530 and there's no way I'm gonna be able to sleep.

How often do you dream about your job?

Specializes in Picu, ICU, Burn.
There you have it, my standard nursing anxiety dream :uhoh3:

I had one just the other day. I knew I was sleeping, and my ICU was in our living room and no one was minding the patients while I slept. That was a new twist on the above theme.

I alse dream of scenarios where some of my coworkers play roles. :trout:

That is hilarious!! I have that same dream in different variations. Once I dreamed that I was taking care of the wrong list of patients on the board so they all got double medicated and my actual group got ignored for 12 hours. :nono:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in CVICU, CCU, MICU, SICU, Transplant.

Worst dream I've had involved all the nurses on my unit calling in sick except myself, and I had to care for all 18 patients.

Another involved more than 1 patient coding at the same time (and one time this actually happened to me in real life).

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ER!.

My last job, I worked 11a-11p, 12 of the most hectic hours in the ER. Frequently I'd get home near midnight, get to bed around 200a, and start dreaming that I still had my patients, but since I was home in bed, I had no way of obtaining lab results, or MD orders, and panicking about how i was supposed to take care of them from home. I'd wake up fully in the kitchen, phone in hand, about to call the ER to ask if so-and-so's results have come back, and can I medicate for this or that.

My husband (who gets up at insane hours like 430a) will frequently reheat his coffee in the microwave, and more than once, after hearing that monotonous tone, I've stumbled into the den from bed and asked which bed was alarming. Then I'd freak out because I couldn't find the monitor and see where I needed to go. He eventually grew used to this and would wake me up and gently remind me that I was home, other people were at the hospital taking care of these people, and I could go back to bed.

Since I switched back to agency ER, I have dreamed about work very little. But for those 3 years that I spent 40+ hours a week between the hours of 11 and 11, I dreamed about work almost every night, or at least a non-work scenario that was populated by fellow employees.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Not directly nursing related but medical field. I was having surgery a few days later.

I was in the OR, on the table. I had the anesthesia mask on. Some female (anesthesia or nurse maybe) was saying "Blow up the bubble Blow up the bubble" since I had bubble gum flavored gas. Then a male (prob a nurse) said "Let me hold your hand" and grabbed my hand.

I had the same dream as I was going to sleep for the surgery, unless it actually happened.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
I don't dream about the job like I used to.

In fact, when I do, they are nightmares.

My most vivid one involved a student.

I was the instructor for a nursing program in another city from where I am now. This particular student was very difficult and was on the "strange" side. One night I had a horrible nightmare about said student. I was walking in a parking lot and kept hearing someone behind me. I started to walk faster and faster. Kept hearing footsteps coming from behind; I would glance over my shoulder only to see shadows. I finally became so ****htened that I stopped and knelt down behind a car. Then, the footsteps ceased. I was lying underneath a car. I could see someone coming towards me and realized they were bending down to look under that car. This student bent down .....looked me in the eyes and said, "I'm going to kill you". I saw the blade coming towards me and I woke up.

I was always a little leery of that student from then on.......

That is scary. Wow.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in midwifery, NICU.

I often have dreams about the babies, after there has been a bad experience. It's then I have screaming night terrors.....not a pleasant experience for the hubs and kiddos!. Me...I am a bit oblivious, cry myself back to sleep, whilst their hearts are going ten to the dozen!!

Just this am, I had a bad terror, as usual it involved babies, was aware I was screaming, but calmed quickly back to sleep whilst the DH cuddled me(his account, I dont recall).

Dang this mind, for not switchin off!!!:lol2:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC.

My brother and sister-in-law are planning on adopting and are really close to being done with the application process (LOTS of paperwork, we think WE have it bad LOL). A couple weeks ago I dreamed that she gave birth to twins and I delivered the second one. I woke up thinking "Awwwwwwwwwe..." It was such a cool dream.

When I worked graveyards at a nursing home (it was usually really quiet overnight) I would dream that I fell asleep in one of the patient rooms on the job. I'd wake up in my own bed thinking "OH thank GOD I'm at home!" Seems like REM sleep is always weirder when you work nocs. :lol2:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in CVICU.

It sounds like this might not just be me. Frequently when I'm dreaming about being at work, I'll either wake up, or alarm clocks will wake me up, but I'll be so disoriented that I'll try to go back to sleep because in my dream, I'm much too busy working to get out of bed and be awake at home!

A few weeks ago, I dreamed that I was going to be getting a patient on a Cardene drip. I woke up, got out of bed, and walked to my living room in anticipation of their arrival.

I remember waking up one Sunday morning before church knowing that all I had to do to get all the way ready was get dressed and do my hair. I think I also had been reading a thread on here about someone's experience with a home health patient in liver failure. Well, I woke up thinking, "I know I need to do my hair, but what am I supposed to be doing for the patient that's in my bed with me in liver failure?" (I sleep alone - the patient was my cat.)

The most memorable nursing dream I've had yet, though, is one where I've floated to the ICU at work. Their monitors are a little different from ours. I was dreaming that I was trying to print a routine rhythm strip for one of my patients, but it kept printing off looking exactly like V-tach. So I just kept on printing strips and getting more and more frustrated - and they were all V-tach! I don't know if anybody in my dream ever did call a code... :rolleyes:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Float.

I'm a pretty new nurse and have anxiety nursing dreams most nights. It usually involves something about pt not getting their meds and I'm at home instead of doing my job. I lucidly in my dream will tell myself I'm DREAMING that I'm at home because it's not my shift and someone else is there taking care of the patients!

I had similar types of dreams at other jobs..that I couldn't get a task done because something keeps happening and I get further and further behind on the job. Guess I'm just a natural anxiety dreamer lol.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Nothing but ER.

Yes, I frequently dream about work. Some are funny, some frusterating, and most often all are stressful! I also have sleep terrors since starting working in the ED 3 years ago. Sometimes, I wake up to hear my self shouting in my sweet boyfriend's arms. He pats my back untill I wake up. Other than that I am a healthy normal person. I just figure it is a "side effect" from working in a stressful enviroment, as well as from working nights.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in EMS, ER, GI, PCU/Telemetry.

i have really random dreams about nursing.

the other night actually, i had a dream about work (outpt endoscopy unit)...

i had a dream i was in the procedure suite with the pt prepped, and paged the dr. to let him know i was ready to get started. he came in the room in his gown and just as he started to put gloves on, he looked at me and said "you know what, i am really tired and i am going to take a nap." he then pushed the pt on the floor, got on the stretcher, snuggled up in the blankets and fell asleep!

i thought it was pretty funny.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I always have dreams about IV pumps going off, tube feeds alarming, Bipaps going off...

I was involved in a (true) incident where someone dropped a loaded gun near my foot at work...I have had a couple nightmares where it went off and shot me. The weird of the dream is the part where I keep arguing with Dr. XYZ, the surgeon, to use different antibiotics because I took care of MRSA+ patients that night and didn't realize it till later when I reviewed their labs.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment