Health

ER Doctors Share Stories About Their Craziest Nights At Work

1. Getting trampled by a horse, and bringing the stallion with you to the ER. Doctors and nurses like to be fully informed about the situations… Trista Smith - April 19, 2021

Working in an emergency room is a shocking experience: doctors and nurses see a wide range of patients who need immediate attention. Some stories are gruesome, others are sad, and there are even a few funny stories in there too. That’s part of the reason some people choose to work in the emergency room; the other part being that they enjoy helping people who are in dire need. Just so you can see what ER doctors and nurses go through, here are some of the more interesting stories from Reddit for your entertainment. Although these might be crazy, at least they aren’t overly rude, like the time the people shared their worst doctor visits.

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20. The patient didn’t have a leg to stand on — pun intended.

Diabetes is a difficult disease to control and can affect your body in extraordinary ways if it’s not kept under control. One way it does this is damages the nerves of the body and interfering with the transmission of signals. This can lead to diabetic neuropathy, where blood flow is reduced to the nerves, leading to overall numbness in certain body parts. The most common body part is the leg and/or feet, so any sore or wound can appear, and the person won’t feel a thing and won’t get treatment. For this patient, he should have gotten help a lot sooner.

“Well, the grossest thing I’ve seen so far has been a diabetic homeless guy with necrotizing fasciitis and a ridiculously uncontrolled maggot infestation of his right leg. The dude’s entire right lower extremity below the knee was black and smelled like a rotting animal carcass, with uncounted maggots boiling around inside. You could hear them from the doorway to his room. After he went upstairs to the ICU, we had to close that room for multiple days and have it sprayed for bugs because there were thousands of flies in there.” – erdoc_throwaway1

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19. A bloody penis happens all of the time… ouch!

Having a catheter put in is not a pleasant experience, but sometimes it is necessary. It’s a way to prevent bladder and urinary infections from taking place for patients who can’t go to the bathroom by themselves. It’s also used for patients who have undergone surgeries and are put under for a long time. But no one would expect that these patients, upon waking, would resort to these measures to ensure their comfort. In fact, it sounds more like they’re adding discomfort to their situations rather than trying to make themselves feel better.

“This actually happens a lot, but confused patients like to rip their Foley (urinary) Catheters out with the tip inflated. It’s about the size of a big grape and goes all the way up into the bladder down and comes out their penis/urethra. They then get up and walk over to you, confused to tell you that their penis hurts, all while dripping blood everywhere. When I say it happens a lot, if you’re on a team with a lot of elderly/alcoholic/demented/psychiatric patients; it’s about once a month event.” – [deleted]

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18. Seeing Jell-O around the heart is scary — even for the ER.

The heart is supposed to pump blood and nothing else. It’s important that the heart remains in a liquid state so that it can do its job effectively. In fact, there’s probably nothing you can think of that can turn blood into another state of matter without extreme external interference. But for this emergency room technician, he was about to witness something he’d never seen before in his life. In fact, none of the nurses who had been working there for twenty-five years had seen this either.

“Guy gets stabbed in the heart, and medics bring him in. ER doctor immediately “cracks his chest” to get to his heart. There are his lungs (purple btw) and his pumping heart spewing blood. He then cuts open the pericardial sac (thin sac around the heart), and a lot of congealed blood pours out—picture spoon chunks of red Jell-O. So I help him get all these chunks of Jell-O (blood) out of the sac while he desperately tries to sew up the bleed. [The patient] died. But a great anatomy lesson was had by all.”[deleted]

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17. Cough your heart out, kid.

Having any kind of surgery requires delicate care afterward in order to ensure that nothing happens to the stitches or anything on the inside of the body. Patients are usually given very keen instructions on how to take care of their wounds when they leave the hospital to ensure no rupturing or infections take place. Unfortunately, to this one patient, something as normal as coughing could have ended up taking his life if he hadn’t driven himself to the hospital.

“It was probably my second day working in the ER when an older gentleman drove himself to the hospital, and when he pulled in, a bystander came running into the ER asking for help. They rush him in, and there is blood all over the front of him. They ask me to get towels, blankets, a gown, and packing gauze. As I gather all this stuff up and come back into the room, his chest was wide open. It turns out he recently had heart bypass surgery and had a coughing episode that he dehisced his sternal incision, exposing his beating heart.” – BigJRitch

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16. Going from a costume party to the ER makes for a strange night.

Overdosing on strange chemicals can do something to the brain that people don’t expect. It can make them start to hallucinate the strangest things, resulting in bizarre behavior that can be difficult to control. It makes it even more difficult to get them to stop while they’re still under the influence. One unfortunate EMT had to experience the aftereffects of a person getting high and basically mutilating their own body.

“I had a guy who overdosed on research chemicals or something and bashed his face through a plate glass window. When we found him, he was naked, covered in blood, and trying to peel his face off. He had a flap hanging like a mask over the right side of his face that he kept pulling on. We sedated him, and as we were loading him up, I stepped on something squishy. It was his ear.” – PaintsWithSmegma

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15. Removing a coat hanger, but not from a coat.

What can be seen as one set of symptoms for a certain condition could actually be caused by something else. That’s why working in the medical field can be so unexpected, because there’s no way of knowing how a patient ended up a certain way. What could be seen as a mental disease could actually have a physical source. That’s why investigatory examinations are required so as to discover what the real problem is. For one unfortunate medical student, they were not really prepared for the patient that was brought in to see them.

“I was doing my psych rotation and was called in to see this guy who was as mad as a hatter. The guy was restrained and raving and spat his false teeth at me in an effort to bite me. We admitted him, part of which involved a full physical. Got him stripped off and into a gown at which point we determined that a component of his delirium was sepsis-related as he (or somebody else) had wound a coat hanger around the base of his penis; it was gangrenous and necrotic.” – Holgateend

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14. A family survives an incredible car accident.

There’s a reason doctors recommend seatbelts. They prevent you from being thrown from a vehicle in the event of a car accident. Car seats for children and young toddlers do exactly the same thing. In fact, you can get a traffic ticket if you have young children in your car and don’t use one or if you’re not wearing a seatbelt. For one family, they didn’t expect a car seat to work this well, despite their initial panic.

“A family was in a very bad car accident on an interstate. Car banged up pretty badly. The fire rescue got the family out, and the mom realized her child and the car seat were gone. They searched the accident scene and found the infant and carrier about 75 ft down the road, upright with the infant happily watching them—no damage to the child at all from being ejected. I admitted the child for observation but didn’t have a scratch. The whole family was ok. Mom and older child banged up badly, but nothing serious. Was the most incredible thing I have ever seen in the ER.” – rlwiv

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13. Cousins playing BB guns leads to a trip to the ER.

When head injuries occur, it’s very important that the patient is taken care of very quickly. This is because the brain is a vital part of ordinary functions, and any trauma caused to it can lead to irreversible problems. One employee working in the ER had a 10-year-old boy admitted, who had been shot in the head with a BB gun. His cousin, another child, was responsible and admitted that they were playing together. He’d put the BB gun against the child’s head, thinking that it wasn’t strong enough to do any damage. Unfortunately, their little “game” ended up changing the 10-year-old’s life forever.

“He came in alert, talking, normal mental state—just a tiny BB hole between the eyebrows. By the time he got back from CT, his words were slurring. He was a little confused. By the time Neurosurgery called back, his eyes were pointing in 2 different directions. Then, by the time he was going up to the OR, he was starting to posture (abnormal body positioning due to primitive brain reflexes taking over when higher function shuts down). The CT showed the BB went straight into the skull and pretty much just ricocheted all over the place, scrambled his egg. The kid lived, but of course, he’s never gonna be the same.” – Iamthewarthog

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12. Wood that should never be broken.

Pain is a way of telling you that something is wrong with your body. It’s an indication that you should seek help in some form, whether it’s by taking certain medications or by seeking professional help. Some pain may go away on its own over time, but usually, if it’s serious enough, it’s a reason to call your doctor. One medical student working in the emergency room, had the unfortunate case of dealing with a patient inflicting pain on himself for several years, thinking that his actions were normal.

“His chief complaint was penile pain. Guy’s in his mid-forties, seems otherwise normal, no obvious past medical or surgical history. Ask him about when it started, and he tells me that it’s been hurting ever since he “cracked it” that morning. I’m assuming I misheard or that he misspoke, so I ask for clarification. He proceeds to explain that, ever since he was a teenager, he started waking up with morning wood, so he would “crack” his penis to make it go away so he could get on with his day. He demonstrates by placing his two closed hands together on top of each other, then quickly bending the top one ninety degrees.” – genuflect_before_zod

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11. Boiling yourself alive should have a bigger reaction, but not at this ER.

The body has the wonderful function of the autonomic nervous system. This is a system of control that acts on its own, without any conscious input on our part. It largely controls breathing, heart rate, and other functions that we take for granted. One of those functions is reacting to something that is too hot. We don’t have to think about moving our limbs away from something that’s too hot; the body instinctively reacts in order to protect itself. So when this person spilled boiling hot water on themselves, their body reacted by going into shock.

“My girlfriend threw me in a cold shower, and I remember pulling sheets of skin/fat off myself. I kind of came to a bit more and got in some PJ’s and took a Lyft to the hospital. When I showed up, it was a super slow night. When they asked me what I’m here for, I just l lifted my shirt, and the front desk lady just shouted, “Oh my god!” She hit a button, and nurses ran in and put me on a gurney. The weirdest part was there was no pain until the day after, then three months of absolute hell. 2nd degree burns on 30% of my body.” – [deleted]

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10. At this ER, karma is ready and waiting.

It’s generally a good idea to be good to those around you, including your friends and family. In the event that you end up getting hospitalized for a long period of time, you want someone who cares about you to make the best decisions for your care. However, there are those people who end up treating their spouses and family members poorly, resulting in the interesting story below, shared by the Reddit poster’s cousin.

“He was doing side work in a cute care nursing facility and full time as a critical care nurse. He is standing next to the bed of the stroke victim. The guy is twisted into a knot and suffering every moment of every day. There is no going back. My cousin says to his wife, “Look, this is as good as it gets. We can keep him alive for a long time, but every day will be a day of suffering. Maybe it is time to let him go.” The wife responded that the patient cheated on her during their entire marriage, so she doesn’t care. She only visits him because she wants to see him suffer.” – [deleted]

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9. Popping your eyeball back in at the ER.

Our eyes are important to the way we experience the world. So when something goes wrong with them, it’s easy to start panicking. As medical doctors and nurses, they’re the last people you want to panic when you come in with a serious injury involving your eyes. In fact, you expect them to solve the problem right away. Unfortunately for this resident nurse, her spouse had to share her story about a guy with an unfortunate, uh, protrusion.

“When my wife first got her RN, she worked in a clinic and another nurse had a guy come in who had sneezed hard enough that one of his eyes popped out. So here is this poor MD who has no idea what the frick to do with it ans is on the phone with an ophthalmologist down in the cities (this was a pretty rural clinic). The ophthalmologist is talking him through popping it back in and apparently. He basically said, “Just put it up to the socket and squeeze it lightly like a grape, and it should pop back in” – Aurum

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8. Making love can be dangerous.

Accidents and mistakes do happen. On a good day, you can laugh at yourself and walk away from the incident with a little embarrassment. On a bad day, like what happened to this guy’s patient, was definitely not something this guy could easily walk away from. A better question is why he waited so long to get to the hospital, but it’s likely he waited due to the embarrassing nature of his injury. Keep reading for another crazy ER story that affects that particular male part.

“Years ago, we had a guy come into the ER with a broken penis. Yep, a broken penis. He and his wife were having a sexy time at what he described as “a very rapid pace” when he pulled back too far and came out. So, when he went to shove back in, he hit a dry spot on the side of her leg and bent his penis 90 degrees. The problem was that he had ruptured his urethra and had soaked two bath towels in blood before he could get to the hospital.” – Tapol

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7. Showing up in the ER with dirty underwear is your mother’s worst nightmare.

Remember those stories about your parents always telling you to wear good, clean underwear in the event that you end up in the hospital? No one wants to be embarrassed by the state of their undergarments when they have to remove their clothing; other people wouldn’t care because there are more important things to worry about, like the reasons they’re at the hospital in the first place. According to this Reddit poster’s cousin, who was working for their nursing diploma at the time, this patient was more worried about the state of his feet.

“So there is this old guy coming in the ER with a big wound on his leg, and he had to go for surgery. My cousin tried to prepare him for the surgery and asked him to remove his boots and clothes, so he can change into proper clothing. The old guy started yelling and cursing because he didn’t want to get his boots off. Several doctors came by to calm him, and he started to fight them too. After some time, when he calmed down, they injected him with some anesthetic in order to remove his boots without him flipping out. It turns out he was ashamed to take them off because he had his nails painted red.” – SteliosTh

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6. A not-so-holy father needed help with some personal issues.

Even people of the cloth need medical attention every now and again. And like every patient, their information is kept confidential according to the rules of HIPAA. That doesn’t stop medical doctors from seeing some interesting cases, however. So interesting that it would make one question why people even become priests in the first place when they choose not to adhere to the rules of the church.

“I once had a patient that was a catholic priest that developed a skin rash. He was treating it with that spray Clorox cleanup solution which, of course, only made it worse. When asked about the rash, he said he caught it from his wife and then pleaded with us not to report him to the head of his church since he’s not supposed to be married. Obviously, we can’t report things like that due to privacy laws. It turns out his “wife” was a hooker that was also one of our patients (unbeknownst to either of them). FYI, Clorox spray, when applied liberally and directly to your genitalia, WILL cause burns.” – [deleted]

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5. Sharing a room in the hospital can be complete hell.

These ER stories are a bit insane, but the worst is yet to come! Sometimes, it can be a good idea to room two patients together, as they can develop a friendship, especially if they don’t have people coming to visit them on a regular basis. Having such interactions may actually help patients get better over time. Or, like this lucky staff member, lead to some interesting conversations. Some of which they’re not likely to forget for the rest of their lives. Often though, having this interaction is forced, like in this horror story.

“Not ER, but once I took care of the same two patients for three days in a row, and they were separated only with a curtain. On the third day, the nice old man gets distraught and goes, “Nurse! Nurse! I’m so worried I haven’t had a bowel movement in 3 days!!” I inform him that he just had one yesterday. And he relaxes and smiles and replies that he forgot. From behind the curtain, my other patient yells, “I REMEMBER!!!” – Notexpiredyet

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4. Getting UTIs from a sleezy guy is never fun.

When it comes to conditions involving “down there,” people can be hesitant to talk to their doctors about it out of fear that there’s something terribly wrong or they’re just too embarrassed. It’s easy to feel that way because it’s not something you discuss with another person on a regular basis, but letting your doctor know what’s wrong is the best way to receive treatment. Unfortunately for this patient, she was doing everything right… save for her choice in men.

“Once worked with a girl who seemed to have a near-constant UTI. She hated that she’d finish the treatment for it, and finally get back to having sex with her boyfriend. Then a couple of weeks later, she would have a UTI again. I told her it was a small thing, but did she pee after sex? She says, oh no, I hadn’t thought of that. Then one day, it came up in conversation that the alcoholic boyfriend she had unprotected sex with had a couple of really nice lady friends that he usually hung out with before she got off work. Girl, I think we might have solved your mystery.” – PrettyBird2011

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3. Colonoscopies are a messy job, but somebody has to do them.

Prepping to go to a scheduled appointment can be daunting; it can give us tunnel vision to the point that we forget everything else going on around us. After all, we don’t want to end up late and have to wait around even longer or forget something that our doctors told us to do before showing up. We’re so singularly focused that we end up not paying attention to the things around us. This next patient definitely hadn’t been doing so when he headed to a colonoscopy appointment.

“A patient who was taking a colonoscopy prep overdid it and got to vomiting … just when diarrhea kicked in. Eventually, exhausted and empty but feeling better, he thought he’d try to get approved to go ahead with the colonoscopy instead of wasting the prep. I said, ok, if he went to the ED and got checked out for dehydration/infection. He hopped into the shower, cleaned off in a hurry, and came to see me. Having failed to notice that he used his teenage daughter’s fancy silly glitter body wash. This big, macho, muscular conservative-looking 50-year-old man, glittering like Edward from Twilight.” – procrast1natrix

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2. Slipping and falling on a spork is a crazy ER story.

No one thinks that eating utensils, outside of knives, are usually pretty safe to be around. No one would expect that a simple spoon or fork would result in a grievous injury. This patient learned that the hard way, unfortunately, and had to end up at the ER. But that wasn’t the end of the story. In fact, it gets a little more embarrassing. The medical staff treating him were doing their best not to rub the proverbial salt into his wound. But then, they saw what was still attached to the offending utensil.

“My ex was a nurse, and she once attended an emergency surgery of a guy who had been stabbed with a spork- the spoon terminus, mind you. The instrument was still stuck in his chest when he arrived at the hospital. For some reason, on the fork side of the spork, there was a little piece of Wiener Wurst attached. The surgeon’s hand trembled from laughter during the whole operation. When asked during recovery about what happened, the guy said he’d slipped while eating dinner and fell on the spork. However, the authorities suspect there was something more sinister going on.” – EPIC_BOY_CHOLDE

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1. Getting trampled by a horse, and bringing the stallion with you to the ER.

Doctors and nurses like to be fully informed about the situations their patients are in. Gathering all of the facts necessary can help them to decipher exactly what the problem is. However, there are some proofs of evidence that don’t need to be brought in, as this next story demonstrates. Why the husband of the patient thought this was a good idea was beyond anyone’s comprehension. Not to mention that the poor culprit was also spooked out of its mind.

“Not a nurse, but when I was a paramedic, we had a woman who was trampled by a horse. She was in really bad shape. Her husband assumed the doctors would need to see the horse for some reason. He brought the horse in a trailer and tried to trot the thing in through the ambulance bay, and tied it to a gurney. It was chaos, and the horse was panicking from all the commotion. Wasn’t funny until the next day. Also, this was a major urban hospital, not the suburbs or a rural area.” – foreignqueso89

Health

Healthcare Workers Tell Stories That Made Them Quit

Healthcare workers have some of the most challenging jobs out there. Whether it’s a nurse, doctor, or cleaning staff – your life is in their hands.… Trista Smith - April 15, 2021

Healthcare workers have some of the most challenging jobs out there. Whether it’s a nurse, doctor, or cleaning staff – your life is in their hands. Everyone has difficult days at work, but I’m sure nothing compares to having to tell a family terrible news about a loved one. The cleaning crews even have the difficult task of cleaning surgical suites and the tools used for surgeries. From EMTs to RNs, healthcare workers sometimes want to quit — and do — because of demanding conditions.

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However, the doctors, nurses, and hospital staff in the following stories had enough of their positions after certain events occurred. Some of these stories will leave you feeling empathetic towards their reasoning. With the threat of a pandemic spreading worldwide, the stress felt by medical professionals would make any of us want to be as far away from the hospital as possible. Our frontline healthcare workers deserve a comfortable work environment that allows them to effectively care for patients, but that’s not always the case. Don’t believe us? Check out these crazy stories about people’s worst doctor visit! It’s not wonder these healthcare workers want to quit. Keep reading to find out what made certain healthcare workers leave their positions and look for new employment opportunities.

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20. Working in a pandemic unit was enough for this nurse.

Spot on. I’m a respiratory therapist working at the virus specific ICU at my facility. Let me tell you, it’s wearing on us. Hard. My sanity is unraveling. We need help. I will be seeking therapy soon. It’s negatively impacting every single area of my life. I often fantasize about getting into an accident on the way to work, so I don’t have to go. Or I am thinking about flushing my entire life down the drain, quitting my job, moving back home. Being broke and hungry with no place to call my own still seems better than going to work every day.

The insult to injury is just what you said – People scoffing at masks, laughing at/disregarding the experts, etc. As an example, just tonight, I had the pleasure of caring for a patient that tested positive for the virus. They were in the ICU, STRUGGLING to breathe, telling me she “knows this whole thing is a hoax to wreck Trump’s presidency”. People still don’t get it, and it’s getting more and more difficult to explain. I’m just… sad, exhausted, and completely overwhelmed every day. Please, everyone, wear your gosh darn masks. They are helping whether you choose to believe it or not. I will wear mine everywhere I go until it’s safe. –Untogether425

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19. Problems with hospital administration is enough to make healthcare workers quit.

A lot of my healthcare coworkers quit at the beginning because they have immuno-compromised family members. And then a second wave quit when we weren’t getting the PPE we needed. Over the summer, a crap-ton more people quit because, instead of being on our side through all this, they kept threatening to fire people over minor violations. Over the fall, they started being weirdly nice to us, and now that winter’s coming back around, they’re treating us like trash again. I can’t speak for other people in healthcare, but I’ve noticed that most people I know are quitting specifically because of the way admin is choosing to handle all this. I mean, I sh** you not, my boss (the paramedic) constantly argued with us, claiming that sitting in the back of an ambulance with a confirmed positive for the virus is not exposure.

He claimed that as long as you’re not performing aerosolizing procedures or intubating, you won’t get this virus. That is pure bull crap. Our ambulances are enclosed spaces with terrible circulation, and I’m sitting two feet from the patient’s face. I get things are tough right now, and I’ll do my part, but c’mon do the bare minimum and take some fucking responsibility for what you’re sending us into. Anyway, I’ve seen the difference between hospitals, too, in that the ones that seem to be giving a modicum of crap for their staff can retain their staff to a better degree. Who would’ve thought? – hot-gazpacho-

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18. A nurse who is longing for a new career.

I’ve been a nurse for a little over a year and hate it. I’ve hated it since I started, and people told me it was normal. They said it would get better by the year mark, but it honestly got worse. I am severely depressed because of this job. Yes, I spend my days off thinking about the dread of the next shift. I am a more introverted person and am very book smart. Besides, I am highly anxious, which is terrible for working in a hospital where people try to die on me all the freaking time. The anxiety I feel daily is so overwhelming.

Also, I am 23, so I am young enough to switch and not have it affect my life too much, if that makes sense. My entire happiness and hope for life are gone, which is why I want to switch careers. 1/3 of new nurses switch careers within the first five years, and I think I’m gonna be one of them. I just know I will be much happier with a new job away from this hospital. What would you do in my situation? Stay at a job you hate because of the money and benefits or find something you love? I’m hoping for the latter. Please help me! – sopetup

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17. Money talks, so healthcare worker walks.

Do you want to know what else is awful? Hospitals aren’t hiring due to losses during the beginning of the pandemic and also currently during the pandemic. They aren’t making as much money, so they aren’t hiring more doctors. They are hiring more mid-levels because they are cheaper. The job market is awful right now- exactly the opposite of what you would think. It’s difficult to believe this is reality. I just want to find a job in my new area that allows me to care for patients and something that won’t result in a pay cut. I want to at least make what I’m making now.

Source: I’m a frustrated ER doctor looking to relocate in the summer, with exactly zero openings in my field (emergency medicine) in the area I’m moving to. So not only am I working exhausting shifts during a pandemic, there are no jobs, and when jobs do start opening back up, I’m sure there will be a pay cut. I have no idea how I’m going to pay off my loans. I’m just so tired and have no idea how things are going to pan out with my relocation. I’d love to say everything will be fine, but I’m just not so sure. – mpossiblegirl13

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16. Healthcare workers quit after being exposed to infection constantly.

Healthcare workers are overworked and constantly exposing themselves and their families to a higher risk of infection. They are treated as pariahs and disease spreaders or with anger by people who blame them for lockdowns and the holidays being “ruined.” I don’t blame any healthcare worker who decides to quit with that much pressure put on their shoulders. Sadly, this is the state it has turned into. Each healthcare worker deserves respect and praise for their commitment to keeping people safe and healthy. It’s dangerous nowadays to be in any type of setting where you’re surrounded by unhealthy individuals.

Healthcare workers are starting to crack under the strain of seeing patients die alone, sometimes daily. I’ve worked with nurses who broke down in tears in the middle of meetings when trying to give a clinical account of their unit. Six months ago, they were hailed as heroes, now they feel like outcasts or that their jobs are now a political statement. It’s no wonder they are quitting. There’s nothing political about saving lives. Nurses and Doctors deserve the ability to help patients and stay healthy themselves while returning home daily to spend time with their families. – SgtBrowncoat

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15. Mental health concerns are enough for enough doctors to quit.

Interesting you say this. My wife is a family physician in a small town, and it’s insane. Normally she likes to see 25 patients in a day. Over the last couple of months, she has been taking a lot of abuse from patients and demanding appointments, and she is seeing 30-40 patients and working from 7 am to midnight every single day. People call and demand an appointment or a “quick phone appointment.” They don’t realize a 15-minute phone appointment adds another 15-20 minutes of charting/documents/referrals in the evening for her. She covers hospitals, emergencies, and she does see patients not come in due to the pandemic.

They decide to wait, then come in when they’re in critical condition. The emergency department is still very busy. If I had to guess why people are quitting, 90% of it is mental health, and it’s extremely draining. I wouldn’t hold it against my wife if she decided to quit after a grueling day of death and despair. My wife knows some doctors who are staying away from their families completely to refrain from exposing them to the virus. I’m glad she’s provided with all of the safety procedures and PPE necessary to still come home every day. I feel like this helps to keep her stable during these trying times. – scootbert

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14. Being overworked and stressed out forces this pharmacist to quit.

I’m a pharmacist. I just quit my job. In just two months, I’ve had to vaccinate over 1800 people, triple what we as a pharmacy did all of the last flu season. Mainly because doctors in the area don’t want to see as many patients right now, it’s an average of one shot every 10 minutes while also trying to fill 500 scripts a day, all while being the only pharmacist on duty. Getting vaccinated is crucial, but the support just simply isn’t there for pharmacists. It’s grueling work that just isn’t appreciated or even understood by the people in my area.

The absolute worst thing I came across was customers who refused to wear masks. It was company policy that I wasn’t even allowed to ask them to wear one. We all had to sign a statement that we would not engage. The Home Depot in town can enforce a mandate and refuse store access, but me being less than arm’s length to vaccinate, and I couldn’t say a darn thing. It’s too bad it took me contracting COVID to finally wise up and realize it’s not worth it. My health, safety, and sanity are far more important than a job. – EugenesAdminFriend

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13. A surgeon fears of getting his family sick.

My cousin quit. He’s got two little ones and aging parents. He’s a surgeon in his 40’s. After a mix of his hospital not giving a shit, our state not enforcing safety practices(PNW), and months of testing, hotels, and Skype calls to his family. He gave his notice last month. His savings and his wife’s job will be enough for them while he decides what to do next. He’s been suffering from a pretty strong feeling of guilt but said he couldn’t justify risking his kids growing up without a dad or, worse, giving his family the deadly virus.

This man’s cousin quit his job due to fear of getting his family sick. It’s logical to want to keep your family safe and healthy. I’m sure no one blames this surgeon for quitting his job and putting his family first. We’re living in a dangerous world right now, and it’s important to put things into perspective and keep a level head during these trying times. If he chose to stay, there was always a chance of contracting the virus and spreading it to his family, and he couldn’t bear the thought of something like that happening. I’m sure he will find a position where he’s able to be safe. –losteye_enthusiast

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12. ICU nurse quits because of pandemic.

I’m an ICU nurse. You’ve probably heard my exact specialty referred to as ‘travel nurses.’ I prefer to refer to myself as an ICU contract nurse because I’m a professional at this, and I’ve been contracting since 2016. I sign (pre-pandemic) 13-week contracts to rapidly staffing needs. I get the minimal orientation (1-2 shifts), and I am expected to hit the unit running with minimal need for additional help. I’ve worked at 17 hospitals now. Contract nurses are what’s keeping ICUs afloat. I responded at the apex of daily deaths in NJ. We were doing futile compressions on 2-3 patients per shift that ultimately died that night. I stayed there for 12 weeks.

So, starting last week, I’ve decided to take some time off. I’m not the only one. Your ICU nurses that have been chasing this are tired. I tried to the point I declined to make 100k in 3 months. Keep that in mind as you decide not to wear a mask. You’ll be taken care of by nurses less experienced with the pandemic as this continues spreading out to rural hospitals. You’ll get nurses less experienced with vents, pandemic-related ARDS, MODS, recognition of pneumothorax, DIC, and the many ways this stuff tries to kill you. Please continue wearing masks to keep everyone around you safe. – ebdevildog85

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11. PPE woes are enough to drive this nurse away.

Hi there! I’m an ICU nurse. I was eligible to retire after working for 30 years. I decided to retire early when infection control gave us classes on how to reuse a disposable N95 mask, going against everything I have learned throughout my entire career: Ebola, swine flu, shingles, tuberculosis. Take off the mask without touching it, as this is when the risk of touching your face is highest. I handed in my retirement paperwork that day. Management is still not providing adequate PPE, almost a year into this thing. OSHA is supposed to be issuing fines as providing PPE is an OSHA requirement.

Anyway, after three months as a nurse treating the novel virus, I reached the 30-year mark and have left. I couldn’t bear watching all of this unravel. Reusing masks is not okay, and I believe many people in the medical field have caught COVID-19 due to reusing masks. You’d think OSHA would be on top of this thing, but it seems as though things are slipping through the cracks due to the pandemic. I feel terrible for the nurses out there going through their workdays and having to reuse masks, but I’m glad I retired before having to go against everything I learned in nursing school. – benitohug

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10. A sad story from an ER scribe.

Hi, I would like to share my story of the virus from an ER scribe perspective. January: for the most part, no one was taking it seriously. We were following orders from the CDC. No one knew how contagious this virus is and was. February: cases of the virus in the ER were few. However, regardless of what Trump was saying, you knew the hospital was expecting something big to come in the next couple of months. No one knew how bad it was going to get at the end of March. March: the hospital saw an incredibly sharp increase of patients pour into the Emergency Department. A fridge truck was moved to the back because they couldn’t keep up with the death rate.

There was a point in March where the hospital didn’t have enough PPE for the scribes. I had to take the initiative. So, I ran to Home Depot and Lowe’s in search of any goggles and n95 masks to protect the staff, my team of scribes, and attendings. I sent out emails to Harbor Freight (tool warehouse) requesting assistance. Many nurses and doctors got sick and were in bad shape for weeks. Every 5 minutes, the respiratory stat was overhead in the loudspeaker. The ED floor was full. The admission floor was full. At the beginning of April, I caught the virus. Luckily I was never hospitalized, but my symptoms and recovery lasted into May. I have some remnants of PTSD, and it took me some time to understand what happened. – betamonster7

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9. A paramedic with an opinion won’t stay employed very long.

I am a paramedic, and my wife is a nurse. I told her that she could feel free to quit her job. The hospitals are a joke at taking care of their healthcare workers. It is only because of a sense of duty and commitment to others among their staff that they even freaking run. Most of these hospitals are flush with cash. PAY your workers! Give them time off! Hire more staff! Support their mental health! Cut CEO compensation. Make their finances transparent. These healthcare workers risk their lives daily and deserve compensation for the stress and traumatic events seen every day.

This paramedic realizes the importance of protecting hospital staff. He wants his wife to be safe at work and realized the potential of her safety being compromised. BY telling her she could quit her job, he was ensuring her safety and sanity during the pandemic. I’m sure she appreciated his offer regardless of her final decision on the matter. I, for one, wouldn’t blame any hospital staff for quitting during such a trying time. Personal Protective Equipment is difficult to come by, and hospital workers should have enough available without having to reuse them. I hope this nurse weighed her options and made the best decision for her and her family. – Tentacle_elmo

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8. Mental health should come first, even for physicians.

How many physicians are unhappy with their careers? I saw my primary care physician slowly become weighed down and less enthusiastic as the years went on, and I don’t think it was entirely due to age. The ones I know who are happy with their career choice are the high-level specialists. Those are like the top percentage of the entire physician field and generally will have a combination of skills, intelligence, interest, and drive that separates them from the average person, so even their experience is skewed. It is not a job for people who simply want a high-paying job.

It is extremely stressful and not suitable for every person, but I saw a lot of people going into it for the wrong reasons. Also, it doesn’t help that the medical industry and academia seem to think making it harder on physicians is part of the job. This is before the pandemic was even a thing. Every medical professional should take time for their mental health, making appointments to see therapists ensure they are in a good frame of mind while treating others. I believe this is of the utmost importance, as it’s difficult to treat others when having problems of your own. – biowiz

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7. This registered nurse wants to tell everyone how she feels.

I’m an RN. For people of my age and demographic, it’s a cold (and yes, I’ve had it; caught it from a patient. For me, a healthy 35-yr-old female with no preexisting conditions, it was a cold. And a SHORT cold at that.) Living your life in a tight little orbit around the fear of death is a terrible way to live, and most healthcare providers understand that because we see every single day that human beings are mortal. There is no escape from that, and this “we all need to hunker down and hide until it’s safe” is nonsense. You will never be safe, and you will never know how long you have until your death is staring you in the face.

So basically, we keep working because we have a different perspective, and most of us understand that there are things far worse than death. So A) the virus is largely not a threat to most of us (and yes, I know; the media has had an absolute field day making it sound like it is. You need to check the actual CDC data instead of just trusting NYT and WSJ). And B) most of us who work in healthcare would keep working even if it was that dangerous because most of us have accepted that death is going to happen at some point, and “hunkering down” in the hope of some future safety is both doomed and nonsensical. You only have now. – h_buxt

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6. Full intensive care units made this anesthetist say goodbye.

I’m a nurse anesthetist, and right now, we are canceling elective surgeries that could potentially result in an ICU admission due to no ICU beds. Other hospitals are not even doing electives right now. This is a huge problem! Let’s put the pandemic aside for a second…not doing these surgeries alone is creating a HUGE backlog. After we get done dealing with the virus, we will then have to try to get as many of these surgeries done while doing the cases we already have scheduled for the future. Nurses and Doctors are quitting for one reason – The stress associated with these backlogs.

This nurse is extremely stressed out due to the backlogs of elective surgeries. She talks about the ICU being full, with no beds available for surgery patients. It’s a scary scenario when every bed in a hospital is full, and you can’t get the surgery needed. The stress put on nurses and doctors during the pandemic is enough to make any one of them want to quit and find a less stressful job. Imagine going to the hospital for something like a wound and being turned away. It’s terrifying to think about handling something like that on your own or having to travel around searching for a hospital to take you. – zoobzooms

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5. Staffing concerns are no good for any industry.

This whole pandemic situation is bad. I’m a Respiratory Therapist, and we are about to open our third ICU for the virus. Tons of nurses have quit and are burned out. Therapists are on FMLA. People are getting sick from stress and being burned out. I’m in such a bad mood every single day and at my wit’s end, knowing full well I’m gonna have to go another shift with no lunch break. We’re constantly short-staffed. We missed a few rapid responses that ended up being intubated. It’s dangerous to be burned out like we are and caring for patients.

We need some more nurses and doctors available to help. The healthcare staff are constantly on edge and exhausted. It’s just dangerous all the way around. I used to look forward to going to work and caring for my patients, but now it’s a completely different story. It’s not like I don’t care – I do, it’s just such a traumatic turn of events that’s completely changed the way we view our work. You never know from one day to the next what’s going to happen. I’ve considered quitting along with some of my healthcare coworkers but can’t leave these patients behind that need my help. – cube_k

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4. Watching people pass away without loved ones nearby is heartbreaking.

I’m an ICU RN. It’s super busy, worse than this past Spring. One different thing, we now allow visitors for virus positive patients who are actively dying, so we do not have to FaceTime patient deaths as much anymore. (That was gut-wrenching.) Some non intubated patients still deny that they have it. One pt said, “I have been tested three times, and each time was WRONG!” On a positive note, I love the group that I work with, despite the insanely short staffing and chaos. Without them, it would be game over for me. I wouldn’t be able to handle it without them. – OrangeCosmos

This Intensive Care Unit Registered Nurse had a difficult time watching her patients pass away without allowing loved ones into the room. The virus has taken thousands of good people away from their families, and the nurses witness those last moments. They are often the last people the patient sees before passing. This must be so difficult to witness daily. I wouldn’t blame any nurse or doctor for quitting after witnessing so much death in such a short period. Something like that must take its toll on these frontliners. It’s difficult to believe there are still people out there who think this isn’t real.

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3. A cancer inpatient nurse who is scared to death of her own job.

Hello. I’m a Cancer Inpatient Nurse here. I am scared, but not for myself. I am terrified of my patients who have to have chemo and have their immune systems destroyed. Then, a visitor comes in and gives them the virus! Yes, this has happened. Their immune systems are already compromised. Plus, they’re fighting for their lives, only to come into contact with a test positive individual. I’ve seen numerous patients get a positive result after having visitors, and it doesn’t seem to faze anyone. How can we allow visitors during such a terrifying time, especially for my patients with compromised immune systems?

I’m not trained to take care of ICU patients. Have I done it? Yes. I’m not trained to take care of step-down ICU patients. Have I? YES. We are stretched so thin. I’m just completely burned out. We have four inpatient medical surge units turned into virus units. Our ICUs are full. We have more than 100 cases over our April peak, and it’s going to get worse. It looks as though there’s no end to this virus, and my patients are scared as well. I don’t know how to ease their fears. I’m so freaking scared for them and feel like there’s nothing I can do. – lokolovestacos

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2. Unhealthy habits made this EMT quit.

Hello, I started my career as an EMT who was working on becoming an ER nurse. One day, I just noticed myself being burned out three years into the profession. My patience was wearing thin, I was eating unhealthy, I developed anxiety, and my father had recently gone into bypass surgery after being a paramedic for thirty years. It was becoming more and more difficult to go to work every day. I liked helping people, but the expense was killing me physically and mentally–since then, I’ve left the medical field and changed my major to education–for stress relief. – fennelliott

This EMT turned Emergency Room Nurse noticed a change three years into her career. She was completely burned out and realized it was time for a change. Her mental health was failing, and she was dealing with anxiety daily. I can understand why she would want to quit, as her personal health is of the utmost importance. It has to be difficult to help others when you’re feeling unwell. As she said, she enjoyed helping people, so switching to a major in education allowed her to continue helping others in a different setting. I hope she found a way to handle her anxiety and mental health concerns.

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1. The utter and complete burnout nurses face everyday.

I’m a nurse in the process of quitting. So I don’t know if I count. Nursing has changed. It isn’t what I signed up for. It’s hard to nail down just one thing but a list of things that comes to mind. Everything has become death by paperwork. There are policies and procedures for the policies and procedures. The list of mandatory learnings has gone from 5 or 6 essentials to over 20. Things have become so hyper-specialized that once you have worked in one area for more than two years, you almost can’t move to a different area because essential skills have atrophied.

Upper management wants to simultaneously cut costs (nursing hours) and increase besides time (paperwork) and patient service. They want us to stop using the term ‘patients’ and call them clients or guests. Okay, these people aren’t a freaking guest. They are here to get better. No hospitals want to train healthcare staff in my niche area. They all seem to think when staff leaves, they can just hire experienced staff. We tell them they can’t, and yet when someone leaves and operational efficiency drops because we have to train new staff. Being constantly burned out is mentally exhausting. Frugalityreality

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