30 Things Healthcare Workers Say They Will Never Do After What They Have Seen
Working in healthcare can be extremely stressful. The demands of the job, limited resources, long hours, big expectations, lack of support, and gruesome experiences leave their mark.
Content creator ‘Tribe Nursing,’ an emergency room nurse, recently went viral online. He asked doctors, nurses, EMTs, and other healthcare workers to share all the things that they’re refusing to do or buy because of the traumatic things they’ve seen while on the job. You’ll find their insights and stories below.
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CHIROPRACTORS! People need to know that the person who started it was a con man😭
There was a spate of deaths of babies in Australia from chiropractic 'adjustments' which led to them being banned from practicing on children under two in 2019. This temporary ban was lifted in 2023 and then reinstated in 2024.
Former EMT, I refuse to not have my dog secured in the car, for her safety and mine. She rides in a crash-tested crate.
Hair down near machinery or fast moving parts. Seen a lady get her scalp removed from her long hair getting caught in machinery at work.
Metal lathes especially. They have great momentum and spin far faster than human reaction time. Do not look up 'degloving.'
According to one study, depression, burnout, and stress are extremely prevalent among emergency department (ED) physicians. Between 15.5% to 19.3% of ED workers were found to have depression, 18% to 71.4% dealt with burnout, and 19.5% to 22.7% experienced stress.
These factors led to lower job satisfaction, less compassion satisfaction, less life satisfaction, and higher intentions to quit emergency medicine. In other words, the stress of the job has profoundly negative impacts on these workers’ private and professional lives.
Orbeez, small magnets and pill batteries
Button batteries are super dangerous for little kids who put things in their mouth. Many have died from it - they start burning the esophagus as soon as they get swallowed.
Fireworks
Age 6, 4th of July, brand new neighborhood, hiding in the bushes, we watched our drunk new neighbor, beer in one hand, cigarette in mouth, light an original M80 in his other hand with the cigarette in his mouth, fumble and recover the beer, and then realize he still needed to throw the M80. I'm pretty sure we watched him blow off a few fingers, but we ran like we'd just sent a baseball through a plate glass window and 'didn't go over there no more.'
3rd year psych resident…..I will never use chat gpt due to the amount of psychosis episodes I’ve seen it induce in many patients 😭 very random but it’s scary!!
I have heard so many bad stories about people who used it as a therapist!
Meanwhile, another study found that the key sources of stress and distress for general practitioners (GPs) are related to emotion work, practice culture, and work role and demands.
Namely, GPs are required to manage and respond to violent or confrontational patients. They also have to deal with collegial conflict, bullying, isolation, and a lack of support in the workplace. And they have to worry about making potential mistakes, complaints, appraisals, inspections, and their finances.
I’ll never look at alcohol the same after seeing end stage alcoholic liver cirrhosis. I’ve cut it completely out of my life.
I worked in a mental ward and we had a patient who lived in full-on delirium tremens. Watch that for a bit and you lose all interest in exploring that end of alcohol use. Imagine an old Vincent Price style horror film where one of the victims is driven beyond exhaustion by fear and terror, to the edge of breaking down, and getting stuck there, shaking, shivering, gibbering at things nobody could see, moment after moment, day after day...
those damn electric scooters
In the UK it's a requirement that one be pedalling an electric bike for the motor to be activated, and that powered assistance cease when the speed reaches 25 km/h. Otherwise the thing counts as a moped and has to be taxed and insured. One is not allowed to ride electric scooters on a public road, though people do it all the time, sometimes at alarming speeds.
Do we have any Pandas working in healthcare in the audience with us today? What are some of the biggest challenges and daily sources of stress for you at work?
What have been the most traumatic things that you’ve personally witnessed, and how has that affected your habits and purchases? If you feel like sharing, feel free to do so in the comments at the bottom of this post.
Texting while driving
God these people need to burn in hell. I honk obnoxiously loud every time I see these f*****g bastards. Scums of the road.
i’m a vet assistant in tech school and a retractable leash for a dog
I've used them for years. No issues. It never even occurred to me that there could be an issue. Even now, hearing this, I can't picture what might happen with one of these that might not happen just as well with a short piece of rope and lack of common sense/ coordination.
cosleeping. i don’t bash moms who do it but me? seen too much.
Isn't it associated with a higher risk of SIDS? As well as the risk of overlaying- I wouldn't ever risk it.
NEVER DRIVING DRUNK the amount of sad situations and bad traumas I’ve seen...
Drunks should be sent to ride along with an ambulance or FD. "Here, put these gloves on and pick that /those up" Probably wouldn't work on half the useless f***s, but I can dream.
At this point, pretty much everything
Pediatric nurse here: batteries
Steak off a grill cleaned with a wire brush… not a trauma but seeing how close that wire got to his carotid through his throat 😳
Watching kids on quad bikes without helmets 🥺
Even with helmets and roll bars, kids have died. There is no reason I can see for kids to be using them at all.
Single engine aerobatic planes (Doctor Killers). Seen two crashes in my lifetime.
Is it the number of engines or the instant catastrophic deceleration?
high heels 😭
Nothing wrong with em lol wore em from age 14 till I couldn’t anymore loved them could even run in them !
Home births…as a nicu nurse
This depends on the regulations in place. What is really dangerous is these 'free births' influencers are promoting where women see no one during pregnancy and either give birth alone or with an untrained person in attendance.
Anything Styrofoam
Dissolve it in gas, smear it all over yourself and light it up?? Just have to use your imagination I guess :p
Why is nobody talking about mandolines🫢
Never forget your safety glasses when doing DIY and pruning ,etc. It's not just for work.
ceramic wax burners, I never listened to the warning then I fell asleep on the sofa after lightning one in the kitchen. fire alarm woke me. it had exploded and the fire was already pretty big.
Balloons and orbeez are not allowed in my house
Had to look up orbeez: Expandable water toys (also grow-in-water toys or grow monsters) are novelty items made from a superabsorbent polymer. They are toys that expand after putting them into water for anything from a few hours up to several days, depending on size. They shrink in saltwater or when exposed to air. They are made from polymers that can absorb and retain extremely large amounts of a liquid relative to their own mass.[1]
Note: this post originally had 64 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Standing in my crocs, munching popcorn and large marshmallows, I feel like slicing some potatoes on a mandolin to serve with pork scratchings. Sipping my energy drink I realise I am busting for a wee, but there is no time, as I have to fix an ariel on my roof(where is that ladder?) Putting supper in the pressure cooker, I inadvertently pop a hard candy lolly in my mouth and turn on board panda…….. 💀
This is a weird mix of things that are obviously dangerous and things that only completely paranoid people consider dangerous 🤷♀️
but if you had to put Ariel (the Little Mermaid) on your roof, I'm sure that could be terribly dangerous too. That lass, her pals, and her family can be slippery... not to mention the risk of water damage to the property!
Load More Replies...Standing in my crocs, munching popcorn and large marshmallows, I feel like slicing some potatoes on a mandolin to serve with pork scratchings. Sipping my energy drink I realise I am busting for a wee, but there is no time, as I have to fix an ariel on my roof(where is that ladder?) Putting supper in the pressure cooker, I inadvertently pop a hard candy lolly in my mouth and turn on board panda…….. 💀
This is a weird mix of things that are obviously dangerous and things that only completely paranoid people consider dangerous 🤷♀️
but if you had to put Ariel (the Little Mermaid) on your roof, I'm sure that could be terribly dangerous too. That lass, her pals, and her family can be slippery... not to mention the risk of water damage to the property!
Load More Replies...
