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

allnurses Guide · Sep 4, 2016

At my current job... if there is no one at the nurses station... that is usually a bad sign. :)

BSNbeauty, BSN, RN · Sep 4, 2016

When you have a 40 year old first time mom who had flat nipples and want to breast feed and baby had a tongue tie!

MYSTICOOKIEBEAR · Sep 4, 2016

You know your shift will be a hot mess when... You already have an ECMO patient and your attending is running down the hall in street clothes, and then have to help your attending insert another ECMO into a coding patient in the ED trauma bay.

While the above was happening, let us not forgot the type A Dissection coming in, Liver transplant coming out, Heart transplant coming in, lung transplant coming in, and the x2 Open hearts that have not come out from OR yet. :arghh:

CardiacDork, MSN, RN · Sep 4, 2016

You know your shift will be a hot mess when... You already have an ECMO patient and your attending is running down the hall in street clothes, and then have to help your attending insert another ECMO into a coding patient in the ED trauma bay.
While the above was happening, let us not forgot the type A Dissection coming in, Liver transplant coming out, Heart transplant coming in, lung transplant coming in, and the x2 Open hearts that have not come out from OR yet.

Think I peed reading this....

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Sep 4, 2016

When you step onto the unit and the wild-eyed charge nurse yells, "RUN! Run while you still can!"

nursej22, MSN, RN · Sep 4, 2016

Your manager calls you at home on her personal cell phone, hoping that you won't recognize the number to plead that you come in.

AvaRose · Sep 4, 2016

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..."

Sepsis? Just curious I like trying to figure out puzzles...as soon as I have some actual experience I could see myself moving into critical care...

knurse10 · Sep 4, 2016

When the previous shift is tracking you down the second you hit the floor to give you report and you haven't even clocked in.

Lev, MSN, RN, NP · Sep 4, 2016

When you walk in through the ambo bay and there are 6 ambos lined up and it's only 1030 in the morning...

....you go into huddle and the charge nurse tells everybody that there's no huddle today and to just get out there and start working.

decembergrad2011, BSN, RN · Sep 4, 2016

If no one is at the nurses station when I walk on, and report doesn't start until 7:15, I'm scared for what the shift has in store.

CardiacDork, MSN, RN · Sep 4, 2016

Sepsis? Just curious I like trying to figure out puzzles...as soon as I have some actual experience I could see myself moving into critical care...

Not sepsis directly. It could've been sepsis in addition but it wasn't the "killer". There was a lot going on with this patient and this patient went from talking and walking to dead in less than 24 hours. It's immune related. Not HIV/AIDS... Think kinds of cancers.

PM me for more elaborate conversation. I'm up for clinical discussions anytime. I bleed this stuff. True nurse nerd.

blondy2061h, MSN, RN · Sep 4, 2016

Your post-STEMI patient who's been stable for hours bradys to the 40s with pressure in the 50s during handoff
-that fixed, your other patient's daughter watches everything you do like a hawk, tells you "the other nurses don't do it that way" and makes sure to mention that she and the CNO "go way back" to Everyone.

My CNO is super supportive of bedside nurses and thankfully wouldn't tolerate anyone using her as a threat. She has been known to go scold physicians from our hospital of they're the patient to remind them that they're the patient and are expected to act as such.