Why do I always get the disaster patients?

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I am starting to really hate my job. Every night I have to go in I dread what disaster I will encounter this time. Even my fellow colleagues "joke" with me about how I always get the "bad" patients. Problems with BPs, pain med oversedation leading to 40% room air sats, unarousable patients and Narcan. Chest pain. Code ones have always been my patients since I have started on this floor. I have had 3 people fall. One was completely with it until he had Ambien (darn that Ambien) and I hear a crash and an "ahhh!" at 2am and find him face down on the floor in a puddle of urine. He wasn't hurt thank goodness. My most recent fall was just Friday morning at 0700 when I'm trying to finish and leave after my 12 hours of suffering through patients going into CHF and dealing with a woman who was oversedated on Versed at noon still feeling the effects. I heard someone yell "Can someone help, I have a fall in 17" and my heart just dropped. I knew it was that little old woman I just helped get up. She wanted to go in and clean her teeth and "try and pee" (I just took her foley out). She wanted to pee on her own so she could go home. I go in and she's yelling ow my head, I broke my leg. We all lifted her into the chair and then into bed and wouldn't you know, her left leg is externally rotated and about 3/4 of an inch shorter than the right. She had a big blue egg on her forehead and cut her left shoulder. She is nearly in tears and so am I. I feel HORRIBLE for what happened and I have not been able to sleep for the past few nights. I was afraid for my license but I have been assured by the other nurses at work that it will be fine. "People fall" they say. Yeah well why do MY patients always have the disasters?? I feel like a HORRIBLE nurse. They tell me "But you're a good nurse". I have to go in tomorrow night and I begin to cry just thinking of it. I know this woman will still be there, waiting to get surgery on her hip. I have wanted to call and ask about her but at the same time I don't want to know. She was the sweetest thing, telling me I did so much to help her last night and not blaming me at all. She wasn't on fall precautions, her score was only 6 and it has to be 10 to initiate that. She says she thinks she passed out. She has some kind of problem where she gets "whoozy" in the head as she puts it, but that had not happened all night. I just don't know what to do. I really, really hate this job lately and I feel like I just suffer through the nights I have to work and then dread going back on the nights I have off. No matter what I do, something horrible happens.

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Specializes in Trauma ICU, MICU/SICU.

First of all, try not to be so hard on yourself. Second of all, let's learn from this... Fall scores are a tool and should not be ultimate in how you make a decision to put someone on fall precautions...

I work on a Trauma floor and many are on fall precautions that don't "score" high enough. The fact that she gets woozy at times, would have made her an assist in my book. However, I might have left her alone in the BR and told her to pull on the cord before getting up. Sometimes, however patients aren't compliant anyway.

Please do make sure they got a CT of her head. Is she on anticoags? If so she is at serious risk for a bleed. CT of head is essential. As the witness to the event, you need to make sure this was ordered.

I hope she does well.

Also the patients that were oversedated on pain meds, was that for you or had someone else over-medicated? Why were they overmedicated? You need to find out why in order to prevent in the future. I'm still new myself, but deal a LOT with pain meds and am always careful re: respirs with what I'm giving out when.

HTH. :icon_hug:

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Specializes in Neonatal ICU (Cardiothoracic).

I know how you feel!!!

I only just recently got rid of the "black cloud" that was hovering over my head. I work in NICU, and for the pas few months, I have gotten what has usually been an assignment which consisted of the sickest baby (ies) in the unit. Once I had 3 intermediate babies on nasal cannulas, and by morning, I had two of them intubated, on the vent, and septic. It got to the point where I needed to ask for a different assignment as I left in the morning, one that wouldn't stress me out to the point of a nervous breakdown. Granted, I am a bit of an adrenaline junkie, but running to a crash c-section to resuscitate a 25-weeker, then try to admit him while titrating dop/dobut, giving blood products, etc...... You just can't hold up under all that pressure for 3 nights in a row.

Ask the charge nurse if she can give you another assignment for when you return the following shift, that usually helps to give me the break I need for a night or two.

Then.....it's right back to looking for that adrenaline rush.

-->Woohoo....Soon I'll be off to save another baby!!!!!

Stevern21:lol2:

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