Nurse who works 12-hour shifts does the unthinkable: ‘Exhausted’

After working five shifts in a row, a nursing assistant was eager to get home to rest, but even getting inside proved incredibly difficult because she was so exhausted.

Lizzie Barajas returned home from her last shift of the week and she seemed so close, yet so far away. When she approached her front door, rather than pulling out her keys, she instead tried to open the door by scanning her work pass.

Barajas, from Colorado, recounted Newsweek that she was “absolutely exhausted” and didn’t even realize she was scanning her hospital pass on the home security camera. It wasn’t until her husband watched the footage later that she realized her hilarious mistake.

The impacts of physical and mental exhaustion are numerous, which is why getting enough sleep and taking care of your body is of fundamental importance. WebMD indicates that chronic sleepiness can slow down a person’s thought process, leading to reduced alertness and concentration. This is often the reason why mistakes happen when a person is tired – they are not able to pay attention to details.

Fatigue not only encourages mistakes, but it affects a person’s concentration and judgment, which means they are more likely to make bad decisions.

The slower reaction time that occurs with fatigue and exhaustion means that when tired people make a mistake, it also takes them a lot longer to notice it. That’s why Barajas made the mistake in the first place, but also why it took him so long to realize the mistake.

Once Barajas managed to rest after her back-to-back shifts, she shared the hilarious video of her trying to get into her house using her electronic pass on TikTok (@thelizzienicole3).

Talk to NewsweekBarajas said: “I realized what I had done and went up to my husband, and he told me to watch the video. Then I passed out after that.

“I showed my co-workers on my next shift and decided to post it online.”

The video has generated more than 9.7 million views and 1.5 million likes since it was posted, and many fellow health workers have shared stories of their own mistakes they made while exhausted.

Among the 3,300 comments, one person wrote, “Thought this was only happening to me.”

Another commenter posted: “I did this while trying to open my car door.”

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