You know it's a bad night when......

Nobody seems to be sitting at the nurses station and the crash cart is parked outside someone's room.

when you walk up to the ambulance bay and its got the good old crime scene tape around it with a vehicle that was used for the drop off "my friends been shot"...

...You come onto the unit and can't find anyone because the entire crew is either at the Rapid Response or the Code Blue, both called within three minutes of shift change.

...When you come onto the unit and the Charge nurse and half the staff look like they've been crying and the assignments haven't been made out yet.

...When you get your assignment and you're met at the door to two patients' rooms, one of whom is screaming that he needs to be discharged NOW (no doc's order), and another has a family member smelling of beer standing in the middle of the hall screaming that the patient needs pain relief NOW (patient is asleep and no doc's order).

...When the CNA assigned to your group, which is the heaviest on the unit, decides that he's too sick to continue the shift, and has to go home right this minute, and nothing, not one blessed thing, has been done for any of the patients. No vitals, nothing. Because said CNA has been in the bathroom puking for the past two hours. And oh, by the way, you have an admission and a transfer on the way.

You know it's a bad night when...

you start with one patient or two (discharge one hour later) then you know that you get your admission at 0645 am...

Every single piece of fire apparatus/ambulances in a 50 mile radius is lit up and parked on your apron (well, the fact that you could see the glow from 5 blocks away was your first clue!).

That we have three helos on the ground - 2 on the pad and one secured in the adjacent field.

And you get to pull over to allow the LEO's running hot to pass you - so they can hurry to the ED too.

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Also, anytime you show up for work and a police officer escorts you behind a vehicle as his fellow officers have drawn down on a armed man at the entrance to the ED.

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The presence of that pesky yellow "CRIME SCENE" tape anywhere on the hospital campus!

Stay SAFE!

When you hear two level one traumas and a cardiac alert being paged overhead within a half an hour of each other.

...or when a patients family member says "It has been really quiet in here tonight"

...and like other people have said, when you walk into the unit and you don't see any day shift staff at the nurses station, but you do see a crowd of people standing around a room and the "bad alarm" going off and you hear someone say "oh, by they way that is going to be your patient, have fun!"

When all your pts have PRN IV pain meds q3hrs

When your alcohol dtx pts have nothing ordered for agitation

None of your Pts's 1800 meds were given out

All your pts are under contact isolation precautions for either C-Diff or MRSA

When you have 2 admissions that have been on the floor since 1730 and NONE of the work has been done

When it's Friday the 13th and also a Full moon out

My first year and a half I must have avoided working on any friday the 13th's, but that didn't stop the one this july from being a showstopper.

My first year and a half I must have avoided working on any friday the 13th's, but that didn't stop the one this july from being a showstopper.

God ain't that the truth night FROM HELL!!!

When everyone is wearing a mask...

Nobody seems to be sitting at the nurses station and the crash cart is parked outside someone's room.

Or worse, its actually in the room waiting.....