You know the shift is gonna be a hot mess when ...

[CardiacDork, MSN, RN]

You know your shift will be a hot mess when your patient is on a PEEP of 25, Fio2 100, PaO2 50, febrile @ 40 degrees Celsius, maxed pressors, white count

Glad I had a cup of joe.

Who wants to continue?

"You know your shift will be a hot mess when..."

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Back when I worked the floor, I knew my shift would be a hot mess when a patient would announce, "I am going to die tonight. I am ready to be with the Lord."

While these patients usually did not die, they almost always experienced a change in condition that could not be handled by the resources on our floor. This caused the night to be horrid.

[Libby1987]

Mine's a bit different..

You know it's going to be a hot mess when half of the agency's service territory is on fire, 1/4 of your staff either need to evacuate or on stand by and you need to account for >50 patients.

[CardiacDork, MSN, RN]

Mine's a bit different..

You know it's going to be a hot mess when half of the agency's service territory is on fire, 1/4 of your staff either need to evacuate or on stand by and you need to account for >50 patients.

home health?

[brownbook]

You walk into ICU and every patient is on a vent, at least half of them are alarming, the whole OR team is in a room trying to settle a fresh post op patient they just brought in, your co-workers are already complaining that there isn't enough staff, and the nurses you are relieving are all saying, "Sorry I can't stay over, I have to go home."

[CardiacDork, MSN, RN]

You walk into ICU and every patient is on a vent, at least half of them are alarming, the whole OR team is in a room trying to settle a fresh post op patient they just brought in, your co-workers are already complaining that there isn't enough staff, and the nurses you are relieving are all saying, "Sorry I can't stay over, I have to go home."

From ICU nurse to ICU nurse.... That sounds like a shift from HE-double hockey sticks!

[CardiacDork, MSN, RN]

Back when I worked the floor, I knew my shift would be a hot mess when a patient would announce, "I am going to die tonight. I am ready to be with the Lord."

While these patients usually did not die, they almost always experienced a change in condition that could not be handled by the resources on our floor. This caused the night to be horrid.

You are so right! When I worked the floor, a patient telling us something was going to happen usually meant something was gonna happen. Those "threats" we're NOT empty! Lmao.

[BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN]

When the nurse you are following just starts laughing before report and ends the manic laughter with Oh ****

[RNperdiem, RN]

When I walk into the unit at 0645 or so I try to gauge the atmosphere.

If nobody is sitting in the nursing station, the noise level is louder than expected, the monitors are alarming, the phone is ringing a lot for such an early hour and there are a lot of doctors around (and it is not for rounds), then I am forewarned.

[Coffee Nurse, BSN, RN]

When you walk in the door and immediately the offgoing nurse is all but clinging to your leg like a three-year-old.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

The call team (of which you are part of) all have a history of bad luck when on call.

Not only will the scheduled shift be crazy (almost losing a patient in the OR and they die pretty much as soon as you hit the ICU room [but probably actually during transport], emergency just before change of shift and everyone not on call is running for the locker room), but you will get called at 3am because the gun and knife club came out to play. And there's still the rest of today and all of Sunday and Monday to get through!

[NotMyProblem MSN, ASN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN]

When you arrive to your floor, the elevator doors open, and you hear your name called before ​you hear the elevator door closes.