What's the worst injury you've ever worked with?

[val421]

I understand that in caring for others, we must see to our own health first - but in the real world things are not always as cut and dry.

I don't ask this question to incite competition or to glorify doing continuous harm to oneself, but I wonder, in a profession that demands the level of martyrdom (and I don't use such a word lightly) that nursing does, have you ever had to continue working, despite desperately needing time to recover?

This could be due to any reason - needing the money, your absence being a blow to staffing, not realizing that you were as injured as you were due to constant stress on your body being normalized, etc. I'm just curious how often it occurs that someone is physically a deficit upon arriving to their unit and charging ahead anyway.

As for myself - running around a floor for eight hours with what I now believe may have been mild gout in my left ankle (I never got it checked out) was horrible. I'd experienced ankle pain for a while and thought that it was simply the same issue exacerbated by working too many days in a row. I've also come to work with a not-entirely-healed herniated disc - stupid, terribly stupid, I know - but was able to take it somewhat easy with the help of other staff and it resolved itself in a few days with lots of ice packs, careful movement, and staying in bed once home. Calling out would have left a floor that is already regularly forced to run on a skeleton crew even more short.

[xtina15]

I am a relatively new nurse, a few years into this gig, but I worked as a nursing assistant for years before also. And although I have not been officially diagnosed with an injury, I can tell you that I am in my late 20s and require a chiropractor to function. If I don't go to be realigned at least once per week (which my insurance doesn't cover) I get shooting paints down the back of my legs that start in my lower back and my neck becomes immobile. This job is unforgiving on the body. I sleep terribly due to my back and neck. Before this gig I was very athletic so I had a decent build to start with. If I'm honest, I fear for my body. It's enough to make me want to leave some days. Your body is the car you drive through life in, and floor nursing beats that car to hell.