When has your intuition saved the day?

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  1. Do you frequently depend on your intuition in your nursing care?

    • 12
      Yes
    • 1
      No
    • 1
      I'm not sure
    • 10
      If yes, my intuition has helped save lives.
    • 0
      If no, I really wish I were more in touch with my intuition.
    • 0
      If no, I don't believe in intuition.

24 members have participated

Specializes in Travel Nursing, ICU, tele, etc.

Assertion: Great nurses are incredibly intuitive.

Please share when your intuition has saved or helped a patient or when has your intuition helped in other areas of your life?

What is intuition? How would you describe it? How could others develop theirs?

Have you ever felt what your patient is feeling? Chest pain when they have chest pain? etc. Are you too empathic? If so, how do you manage it, so it doesn't disempower you?

Or is intuition really experience along with knowledge?

All opinions welcome.

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Or is intuition really experience along with knowledge?

I would like to hear the opinions myself. I am a prenursing student so I can't really give opinions on this one but would love to hear what others think.

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Well it's the same feeling I get with my kids when they are sick or with a stranger walking down my street. I feel it in my gut and its like my mind clicks like HEY HELLO DON'T YOU KNOW SOMETHING IS UP. My residents are alzheimer/dementia and sometimes I can sense when something is going to happen to one of them. Maybe it is my knowledge and common sense working together like oh he stumbled, he is going to fall kind of thing. I once had this resident when I worked 3rds, well one night I just had this urge to check on her, so i peeked in to not wake her and her eyes were open and I could tell she was having trouble breathing. I raised the head of her bed, and realized she had a piece of candy lodged in her throat. The patient lived and I believe that if it weren't for me going in there when I did, she would have choked to death. Scary....

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Specializes in Cardiology.

the time that comes to mind was when i was on my third night of taking care of the same gentlemen. i just felt like he was beginning a decline... i couldn't quite figure out what it was though, nothing concrete to base my feeling on. i watched him very closely, and part of the way into the night, he started getting a little sob (chf exacerbation was his admitting diagnosis). i called the doc got a lasix order. some improvement with his lungs but not what i thought was enough. called the doc again. attempted to get a stat cxr order, but with no luck. ended up calling the cardiologist. next thing i know he bradys down to the 40's and then swings up into the 120's.... iv lopressor was ordered but my gut told me not to give it. shortly thereafter, he bradies back down to the 40's and stays there. thank god i didn't push the lopressor.... i had called rrt by that time and we ended up transferring him to the unit. fortunately he made it.

learned several things that night. one, trust my gut when it says something seems off. two, don't back off just because the doc blows you off, and three, don't hesitate to question an order.

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When working as an NA in ALF, one gentleman I always checked on late in the mornings, but something told me that day to check on him early. I walk in and he is on the floor with a major head lac , covered in blood. I think these little " gut feeling" are angels calling out to us humans to act.

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Specializes in Travel Nursing, ICU, tele, etc.
Well it's the same feeling I get with my kids when they are sick or with a stranger walking down my street. I feel it in my gut and its like my mind clicks like HEY HELLO DON'T YOU KNOW SOMETHING IS UP. My residents are alzheimer/dementia and sometimes I can sense when something is going to happen to one of them. Maybe it is my knowledge and common sense working together like oh he stumbled, he is going to fall kind of thing. I once had this resident when I worked 3rds, well one night I just had this urge to check on her, so i peeked in to not wake her and her eyes were open and I could tell she was having trouble breathing. I raised the head of her bed, and realized she had a piece of candy lodged in her throat. The patient lived and I believe that if it weren't for me going in there when I did, she would have choked to death. Scary....

You are kidding me!!!??? That is incredible!!! That is defintely a "knowing" beyond what can be logically explained. Very very cool.

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Specializes in LTC , SDC and MDS certified (3.0).

prowling I couldn't have put it better myself. I like the way you put that. Many times my gut has saved people. But I took care of this lady for 2 years and I knew something was wrong but I couln't put my finger on it. (my guess was Ca) but the dr kept blowing it off. I'd send her out they would send her back. She would cry and ask me what was wrong with her and why did the dr, blow her off ? Eventually she gave up and died.(first time I cryed in 10 years) I did chart every time I called the MD to cover my self, I told the DON, the social worker but nobody did anything. But I couldn't talk bad about her DR and she wouldn't get anoither opnion. It was one time I hated to be right!!:cry:

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Specializes in Travel Nursing, ICU, tele, etc.
The time that comes to mind was when I was on my third night of taking care of the same gentlemen. I just felt like he was beginning a decline... I couldn't quite figure out what it was though, nothing concrete to base my feeling on. I watched him very closely, and part of the way into the night, he started getting a little SOB (CHF exacerbation was his admitting diagnosis). I called the doc got a lasix order. Some improvement with his lungs but not what I thought was enough. Called the doc again. Attempted to get a stat CXR order, but with no luck. Ended up calling the cardiologist. Next thing I know he bradys down to the 40's and then swings up into the 120's.... IV lopressor was ordered but my gut told me not to give it. Shortly thereafter, he bradies back down to the 40's and stays there. Thank God I didn't push the lopressor.... I had called RRT by that time and we ended up transferring him to the unit. Fortunately he made it.

Learned several things that night. One, trust my gut when it says something seems off. Two, don't back off just because the doc blows you off, and three, don't hesitate to question an order.

Wow!! What a lesson for us all. You saved his life by not giving that Lopressor!!! No Doubt!!

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Specializes in Travel Nursing, ICU, tele, etc.
When working as an NA in ALF, one gentleman I always checked on late in the mornings, but something told me that day to check on him early. I walk in and he is on the floor with a major head lac , covered in blood. I think these little " gut feeling" are angels calling out to us humans to act.

Angels are all around us, I have no questions about that. Check out my Avatar. I ask them to help me when I come to work.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

I was a Nurse Tech working in the telemetry unit, and i had sat down and started eating dinner in the breakroom. Suddenly, I had this weird sensation (the best way i could describe it was it felt like someone had whispered in my ear so softly that all i could feel was air, and couldn't hear a sound) I turned my head and something said, "walk down the hall, NOW". the closer i got, the heavier the feeling got in my gut, and then I heard one of our ladies screaming for help. turns out the woman all the way down the hall had fallen, ripped out all of her ivs and was laying on the floor, by the time I got to her.

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Specializes in Travel Nursing, ICU, tele, etc.
I would like to hear the opinions myself. I am a prenursing student so I can't really give opinions on this one but would love to hear what others think.

I was a Nurse Tech working in the telemetry unit, and i had sat down and started eating dinner in the breakroom. Suddenly, I had this weird sensation (the best way i could describe it was it felt like someone had whispered in my ear so softly that all i could feel was air, and couldn't hear a sound) I turned my head and something said, "walk down the hall, NOW". the closer i got, the heavier the feeling got in my gut, and then I heard one of our ladies screaming for help. turns out the woman all the way down the hall had fallen, ripped out all of her ivs and was laying on the floor, by the time I got to her.

Did you really hear or feel someone tell you to walk down the hall?? Wow!!

Have you ever had that happen other times in your life?

Have you ever thought of trying to further develop your abilities and tune into those voices and guides around you? That is really awesome.

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Specializes in Travel Nursing, ICU, tele, etc.

As a nurse, I have had to be really careful not to take on what my patient is experiencing. I am not just talking about the emotional stress of being physically ill and all the tragedy that surrounds people in that situation. I will actually physically feel what they are feeling.

How common is that out there with us nurses?

It was happening to me on and off as a new nurse, but I was trying to ignore it, until one night when a patient called and complained of chest pain. I sat with her as the house superviser, who just happened to be on that wing at the time (this was a long term care facility) got the nitro. As I sat with her, I thought I was going to collapse with the intensity of the chest pain I was feeling. We got the first nitro under her tongue and as she felt better, I felt better. I could feel the chest pain gradually decrease and go away with my patient. That really freaked me out!

Then a week or two later, an older gentleman was having difficulty breathing. As I assessed him, I began feeling this pain in my right lower lung, I was getting short of breath and began to perspire along with my patient of course, we both were febrile. It takes a long time to make anything happen in a nursing home, but we got the people to come and take the x-ray and then it had to be read, etc. The man had severe right lower lobe infiltrates and he ended up being transported to the hospital by ambulance for treatment. Oh my gosh, it took me days to get over that, as I still had that connection to my patient, and I didn't feel better until he was feeling better far away in the hospital!!! That's when I knew I had a problem and needed to manage it.

I have learned to not get so connected that I can't disconnect when I need to for my own well being, but that has taken some work.

Has anyone else had to deal with that?

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