What do you fear most on the job?

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Specializes in LPN.

I was thinking about different things that scare me on any given day as far as being a nurse. I am not paranoid (really), but I would like to hear what are the common fears that you have. I think it would be good to air them, and to find solutions.

For instance, I am afraid of is hanging a wrong IV bag. I don't know why that scares me more than anything else. I go to extremes to make sure I am hanging the right one. I know of a nurse who did that and got fired instantly. So, it has always haunted me.

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Making a medication error that kills someone.

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Specializes in MSP, Informatics.

OK, I'm going to be selfish on this one... my biggest fear was getting a contaminated needle stick.

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Making a medication error, particularly one which causes harm or worse. We give a lot of IVP drugs, and to this day, I always feel a little nervous about making an IVP error. Though any kind of medication error could potentially cause harm or death.

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Having the flow rates reversed on IV pumps when you have 2 or more running at a time. Like NSS at 100mls and Heparin at 12.0mls! Pt. falls. We have become obsessed with fall prevention.

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Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.

Now that I am on days I fear a big wig walking up that I don't know while I am stuffing my pregnant face with Doritos!

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Specializes in chemical dependency detox/psych.

I think that my biggest fear is someone killing themselves on my unit. I had someone slash their wrists a year or so ago, and it was pretty scary.

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My biggest fear is inadvertantly contracting something and bringing it home to my family. In LTC you have to do your own research on each patient to find out if they have anything communicable (its not public knowledge) and when I have a patient with HepC or the flesh eating bacteria, I just dont fell like PPE is sufficient.

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A pt in DIC (which we had the other day), placenta abruption, uterine abruption or PIH pt with seizures. At my facilitiy you'll never know what you get!

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I fear the yet to be named bacteria and viruses.

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Getting a phone call the day after I worked a 3-11 shift, asking me "what the heck happened last night?"!!!!!!

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What I fear most is ignorant, obnoxious patients/family members who lie about the nurses and then we get fired, without having an opportunity to explain what happened or DIDN'T happen.

I once had a pt complain about me to a doc, who then insisted I should be written up. My head nurse did the write up without even checking the chart or any kind of research.

In heavy black ink I quoted directly from the patient's chart - - 'Pt states she is very happy with her care, would even recommend to family, bring her daughter here if needed.' This pt needed to complain about something all the time, and I got caught in her crosshairs.

So you can take all the 'what if' situations, when it come to 'they said/I said' as long as the admins (you know, the people who work 9-5, Mon-Fri, the ones I have referred to in the past as the M-F'ers) feel the customer is always right, our jobs will never be safe, and we are only 2nd class citizens.

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