Work is literally making me sick. At work.

[SqueakRN]

Well, I don't know what to do. I've posted on here about how working nights has been tough for me, especially physically. My body did start to become "adjusted" to nights after about 6 months and really trying to stick to a vampire-like schedule on my days off. Well, I went on vacation for a couple weeks last month in which I'd gone back to living on a day schedule (big mistake) and came back to being cancelled frequently due to low census, which was actually fine with me. Now our census is back up, and I'm doing back-to-back shifts again.... and my body is having a hard time once again. Enough to have landed me in the ER twice, WHILE at work!

One time was for a terrible headache and dizziness in which I totally lost focus and began to feel unsafe. I told the charge nurse that, and she sent me to the ER. The second time was for heart palpitations... and I've had palpitations before, but these were different, and they happened twice towards the end of my shift. They lasted several minutes each time, and I felt very weak and lightheaded, just a flush of uneasiness and wooziness. The first palpitations happened right after I'd left a patient's room and was starting to feel very tense due to feeling overloaded. I went into the med room, and that's when it happened. I sat down for several minutes, took long deep breaths, tried to calm my mind. A co-worker took my BP which was 148/96, which is quite high for me, as my SBP usually runs in the 90s-100s, 110 at the most (I'm pretty little and relatively young). I decided to just finish out the shift, try not to freak out about the load of work still ahead of me, and go to the ER after work. Well, then the second bout of palpitations hit.... again, I felt unsafe continuing...

Anyway both times happened on my 2nd subsequent night. I don't work more than 2 nights in a row, thank God, but that 2nd night I am a mess! I don't sleep well, despite taking melatonin and Trazadone in the a.m. and then another melatonin in the afternoon (my shift doesn't start until 11pm). I think that my body has reverted back to a day schedule after coming back from vacation, and now I feel like I'm back at square one, with the whole circadian rhythm readjustment!

The thing is, I am scared to go back to work now! It is embarrassing plus I HATE that another nurse has to take on my assignments when I leave for the ER! Thankfully, we have break nurses who do not have patient loads, so they were able to take my patients each time I left.

I'd already been looking for another job for months and am actually waiting to hear definitively on a job outside of the hospital, a lower stress job and with DAY HOURS, of course!! It is very likely that I will get the final job offer, but the lady said the whole process takes about 1-2 months. I don't know if I can last that long at my current position!! I'm surprised that I've lasted on nocs as long as I have!!!

I'm not sure what to do here. Any advice? I want to just quit my job but what if the new job doesn't work out? I think it will, but I'm a practical pessimist. I'm not the sole breadwinner of the household, just to give a picture of my financial life.

[Blackcat99]

Are you taking any "little breaks" while you are working night shift? I made the mistake last week of only taking a 5 minute break instead of my usual 15 minute break. Big mistake. I was so dizzy when I did the 6am meds that I thought I was going to pass out a few times. Looking back I also realized that I had forgotten to drink a lot of water before I left for work. I think I felt dizzy due to mild dehydration and not allowing my body to rest for 15 minutes. Try drinking a lot of water before you leave for work and taking more breaks. Go back to work and hope for the best. Don't ever quit any job until you have in fact started a new job. Good luck.