What has been your worst nightmare about work?

[JessiekRN]

Spent one whole day asleep dreaming that I was running from room to room adjusting malfunctioning IV pumps. I awoke to find road work out front. Apparently the backup "beep" on the dump truck was the same tone as our IV pumps!

I had the SAME thing happen to me..only it was my cell phone beeping because the battery was dying..and in my dream I couldn't figure out which room the beeping IV was in..so I was just wandering around the unit in circles. What woke me out of this dream was staffing calling to see if I could work that night..I answered the phone with my unit's name, as I would at work- and the staffing lady couldn't stop laughing. I realized I REALLY needed a vaca!!

[nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN]

My most recurrent nightmare is getting to the end of my shift and realising there is one patient I have never even seen and don't know if he is even still alive. I tell myself "Gosh, I've dreamt this so many times and now I've gone and done it." I'm always fully convinced that this time I'm not dreaming and really have neglected a patient. You can't imagine my relief when I finally wake up.

I have this same one!

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

When I first started working, I would have a recurring dream that I opened my front door, and there were literally hundreds of injured and sick animals on my lawn. I would immediately start tending to them and feel overwhelmed that I couldn't help them all, and I didn't know what to do with some of them.

You don't have to be an expert in dream interpretation to figure out what that one means.

[JeneraterRN]

I hear bed alarms in my sleep, does that count?

[JeneraterRN]

Bad news, this question has been asked and answered, check out the allnurses central site. It has non-urgent, non-technical, not strictly nursing related topics.

I disagree that it not strictly nursing related. Dreams about work show our anxieties and coping methods' effectiveness. As far as being non-urgent and non-technical, that is not a requirement to post. I must have not used the correct words in a search, but resurrecting the topic can be fun. I'm glad you like it though!

[rn4babies63]

I've had a recurring dream that I dropped a baby. I work L&D, PP, Nursery.

[wanderlust99]

I've had a dream where I'm floated to the floor or tele ( I usually work ICU ) and I was assigned to say 5 patients. Well in my dream I never saw the 5th patient. All day I forgot about him, I didn't even go in my room and assess him.

[exnavygirl-RN]

I dream about leaving used syringes in patient's beds. eeek. Luckily, I've never done it. *knock on wood*

[Penelope_Pitstop, BSN, RN]

I had a horrible dream once where I walked into our ER and there was so much blood on the floor, it was about 2 - 3 inches deep. Even worse a dead child was hung on a hook on the back of a door like you would hang a bathrobe on a hook, the hook was through the back of his neck!

What on EARTH did you eat before bed?

[brownbook]

DeLana,

I don't think it was what I ate! Maybe I had been watching too many homicide TV shows!

Like I said the worst part was I didn't wake up all upset and don't even remember feeling upset during the dream. I think the ER was empty of staff and other patients, I think I was more concerned where the staff had gone than feeling upset about the child and the blood!

I was the night supervisor when I dreamt this. The worst part of that job was finding staff if we got a lot of admits during our shift, and finding staff to cover high census or sick calls for the day shift.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

when i first started working cardiac surg icu we did 15 minute vs on our fresh postops. i dreamed an entire shift, every single vs, drip rate, cardiac output determination, ms ivp, lab draws and k+ replacement, abg, vent change, suctioning, unit of blood, chest tube stripping, and u/o, the works, the whole damn flow sheet, every fifteen minutes, all of it. when i woke up i was absolutely exhausted, like i'd just worked a double. in a way, of course, i had.

[turnforthenurse, MSN, NP]

I just had a dream last night about "the forgotten patient" - It was already 0400 and the patient's wife came out wondering if we were short-staffed or something because no one has been in there since 1830. Very scary!

And for the record, I have been off for 6 days, too...tonight is my first night back!