[Diuretic Junkie]

What are some bad experiences you have had when you have been forced to work a shift and are short at least one RN?

Or, when you've already worked a full shift and have had to stay now for a second shift because there is no one else to work?

Any and all responses welcomed!

Thanks
~Diuretic Junkie~

[medi]

I thunk we've all been there & done that, but I can't think of any "worst stories" at the moment. I'll mull that over. I once got stuck working round the clock in the ER for 4 days and nights when a snow & ice storm hit and nobody could make it in or out. It was kind of fun- like a group pajama party in scrubs...

[mercynurse]

I agree with Medi..none that stand out as they are all terrible.

I had a 1 to 1 pt and was asked to precept a new grad who had 2 patients..."next to mine" !!
I've been stuck @ a facility for several days due to snow...when the national guard came to take me in since I lived in town and all the highways in were closed!!
I'm sure there are others!!

[medi]

DJ...
I remember numerous times having to work 16 hour shifts because my relief couldn't make it in & the supervisor was unable to get anyone else.. and I recall some of those times being so damned tired I was just grateful to have made it through the night and next morning without making any serious mistakes that I knew of or doing anything to kill a patient, or lose my license. *grin*
The worst "horror story" that I can think of though wasn't any single incident, but rather a place I worked for a while once. It was when I was moonlighting (doing extra work on the side in addition to my government position) at a small, dangerously poorly staffed, 40 bed rural hospital where they routinely staffed the place like this:

1 RN, 1 LPN and on good nights, one CNA to handle the 40 bed "floor" which had patients all mixed together with various problems ranging from fresh post operative, senile dementia patients requiring assistance with everything including fall prevention, patients on telemetry (and no one at the desk trained to know what the monitor was doing), brittle diabetics, & you name it...

1 "house supervisor" who was supposed to handle the 5 bed ER, act as pharmacist, and also help with the "floor" at the same time, and one unit clerk who was supposed to e able to handle all the floor charts and the ER charts. Ha!

Because it was an active summer resort it got plenty of water related accidents, heat strokes, car accidents, and cardiac emergency cases into the ER... now, that place was a horror story!

[Diuretic Junkie]

Thanks for your stories!

[Dixiedi]

For the first few paragraphs DJ, I thought we had worked in the same hospital. That hospital was ultimately why I left nursing and have only recently decided to return.
I was the LPN, the RN was green, really green still a GN.
We split the florr in half, I had the chemo/telemetry and she had assorted medical, just like your hospital, a little of everything. Not that there weren't crosses between the two "sides" of the floor, but telemetry only went down one hall and many of the chemo patients were also on telemetry.

Anyway, I was also the backup house IV nurse. If the nurse in here area couldn't get it, she called me. That night, I had gone down to the ER to help with massive MI. We like to have never gotten him. In the meantime, this green RN decided she would sit with my telemetry tech and learn a little about telemetry. This is a good thing? Ordinarily I would have said YES!
Not always, she noticed a strapping young atlas type man (mid-20s) in for obsevation after he experienced chest pain of unknown origin, in a deep sleep, he dropped just below 60. Without saying a word, she decided to push. While I was still downstairs in the ER, with only her and my telemetry teck there (our CNA was busy down the hall turning pts.) she threw him into a fib.
My t.tech, quickly realizing what had happened - cart behind him open, fib, missing GN - hit the code button.
The only in-house MD stayed in the ER. The nursing supervisor and I responded to MY patient.
I lost two patients that night, my young man and the old man in the ER. It was the old mans' time, I can get over that. The boy though, it was not his time. He died becaue a green nurse thought she would "practice" nursing on MY patient.
I couldn't go back when the hospital swept it under the carpet and even allowed this girl to continue working for them!
Come to think of it, this is also the only time I ever ran into an issue with RN vs LPN. She had a real isue with me "taking" chemo and telemetry while she took what she considered the LPNs patients.
Come on, she was new. She had never even mixed an IV when she was hired, and she wanted me to allow her to mix chemo and hyperal before her pharmacy class the hospital required for such? (very small private hospital. pharmacy not open all night, everything came to the floor ready to mix, but anybody who has ever mixed them knows, it's not JUST sticking the syringe in the bag and pushing) I was mixing IVs when meds were still in bottles of 100 or more in a cabinet in the med room and IVs only came in glass bottles, and had taken the short course for mixing chemo and hyper al given by the hosp. pharmacy.) She was to learn these things form me (and take the course,) something she couldn't bring herself to do.
It didn't take long for a young man to pay that price. It's not always licensure, it is very often experience.

This is the first time I've actually spoken this story to other nurses. Oh, my husband knows and some family members but I have never said anything to another nurse. I just walked away. I still feel for that kids family, it was so wrong.

Horror stories, most nights, days, evenings everything works its way through. But not always.

[Aaron C.]

thanks for sharing...

[Diuretic Junkie]

Yes, I appreciate your courage for sharing that story with us, Dixiedi.

Thank You

~Diuretic Junkie~

[SweetHeartNursie]

What about those of us on surgical call who have worked all night and not been able to go home the next day (had to work regularly scheduled shift) due to a heavy schedule and not enough staff? I am a scrub tech and nursing student with no license to lose (yet), but it's horrible to have been scrubbed for hours all night in an emergent case (CABG or AAA) and then to have to work a scheduled shift the next morning. As one of 6 on the open heart team, I carry call about 75% of the time. I suppose it's a risk I take for accepting a position of such responsibility, but shouldn't there be laws for amount of hours worked for patient safety due to RN fatigue?

[Diuretic Junkie]

I agree, SweetHeartNursie, not only is working all night and into the day detrimental to your own health, it is a safety risk to the patients as well--whether you are an RN, LPN, scrub tech, physician, physiotherapist... How can anyone be expected to be 100% functioning when all their body wants to do is sleep?