I am a RN & I worked over 30 years in MICU & CCU. I have been chased by a patient wielding a 4×4 piece of lumber and I've been strangled by an 86 year old with my stethescope. I also was led at gunpoint by a patient in DT'S looking for cigarettes. I have looked at hospital beds and thought I needed it more than the client occupying it. Patient's families have followed me to my car dicussing my "care" of their own. I left my position when I couldn't handle the nightmares I had anymore. I saw things in my practice no one ever needs to see. I left in 2003, but I still dream about packing wounds so deep, my hand dissappears into their flesh. I dream about assignments I've had, abdominal wounds that suddenly pop and pus is pouring out. "How can I contain this?". My husband says he couldn't believe how much I have changed (for the better) since I left. I try not to actively rebuke a person considering nursing as a career (I'm going to need a nurse eventually) but I stress the STRESS they will encounter. I am sure that PTSD is a diagnosis I've "earned."
7
Twenty years as an ICU nurse. I have been punched by patients AND physicians. I have been spat upon. I have repeatedly injured my back. I almost always gave the best care without thinking of myself and it generally worked out well for me: I have lived in such a way that I can have some self respect. I have often not been shown the respect of others but self respect lasts longer.
The most important thing to know about nurses is THEY CANNOT LEAVE. Every other healthcare worker can.
Do I encourage young people to go to nursing school? I do not. I tell them to become a physical therapist instead.
4
38 years nursing - giving it my all, doing the right things for my patients, caring, listening, and putting up with their abuse and disrespect, their threat and the threats of their families, the lack of respect from the general public, and working alongside embittered, angry, poorly trained, unprofessional nurses (nurses are NOT good to each other), and not enough men in the profession - working for treacherous, jealous managers and administrators at institutions which do not value nursing talent, asking nurses to busy themselves with non nursing duties - cleaning stretchers, portering, stocking rooms, then wondering why they bad decisions or errors, and asking us "why aren't you thinking more critically?". I generally like my job, but less and less each year. I wish I had never become a nurse. I don't recommend it as a profession.
4
i am 68 and about to work my last shift in the emergency room. some comments i would to make
#1. i have always had a respectful collaborative relationship with the doctors i have worked with. we rely on each other and need to trust each other. there have been a few creepy ones, but they do not last very long. this profession relys on the strength of all.
#2. it is important to recognize and address the stress of our positions in the workplace. our hospital would have debriefings after especially sad and traumatic events. we would have all the ancillary staff involved ( respiratory therapy, lab, radiology) with a mediator.. these sessions were so helpful. however, the daily stress of patients and their stories and sad turns was looked at as part of the job and these little mental insults wear you down. it would have been so helpful to have our debriefings on a regular basis.
#3. after such a long career i must admit that i am so happy and proud to have been an RN. it is a fabulous job. the stress and frustration and personality issues and electronic charting and the " patient satisfaction" and management bullcrud and all the ridiculous little issues pale against a job well done helping folks one day at a time.
12
@pamela ... As a recently retired RN, I totally agree with you. Thank you for your decades of service. Now enjoy your well earned retirement!
5
I am clinical social worker and therapist. In our field we are exposed to very traumatic situations (child physical and sexual abuse and rape, etc) and are we used to have a lot of burn out due to vicarious trauma. Since implementing Trauma Informed Care (TIC), there has been a dramatic change for the better. In our non-profits in California, we provide a lot of support for all staff to engage in self care and be able to process the vicarious trauma they are exposed to on a daily basis. It sounds like it's time to have trauma informed care in the medical workplace.
12
I am a retired ICU ER RN whose routine workplace duties was to care for dismembered trauma victims, overdose neuropathies, rape, child sexual exploitation, gunshot wounds, starvation, and death. Really, whatever came through the door. We all helped each other in whatever way we could. Our humor was Gallows humor, shockingly callous and grotesque but always out of earshot of patients and family members. We loved what we were doing, standing at the edge of the abyss and hauling back everyone we could. It was glorious. I miss those I worked with. I miss the adrenaline and the urgency, the life and death capacity to act precisely and effectively while always knowing that we could have done something more. I witnessed extraordinary bravery and self sacrifice. Not the banal self sacrifice but those who gave their lives in an effort to save the life of strangers. At the Stuyvesant School after 9/11, Firemen were carried in unconscious with heat exhaustion and dehydration. they routinely yanked out their IV when they awakened and marched back to the pile to”look for my friends...” What we can be as human beings seems to be hidden until we stand at Perditions gate and witness the human spirit. It tears your heart out. It makes ordinary daily activities inane. It reveals what we can be when called upon by dire necessity.
21
No longer a practicing nurse but remained in healthcare in leadership development for the last 35 years, all of the comments by nurses ring true (not that you need my validation). I have been studying and practicing Narrative Medicine for the last 2 years and can attest to the relief, release and healing that reading, discussion, writing and sharing of stories offers to our healthcare providers. I support any efforts at all in bringing this methodology to healthcare providers every where, but nurses in particular. We are the sometimes silent witnesses to all level of trauma (in the family, of the family, of the healthcare system, in our culture) we have stories, that need to be told, that CANNOT remain unspoken, that CANNOT remain in our bodies, stories that deserve to be heard. Tell your stories nurses - no more suffering in silence!
17
@carmen I completely agree nurses are in the silent PTSD group. I’ve been a nurse for 32 years mostly critical care and emergency care. I’ve seen things I’d rather not see again. The trauma involved in a long career in nursing can be devastating to your mind. I’m sure telling our stories and getting them out would heal us in some ways but many stories I will take to my grave because it was too painful to witness the first time. I’d love to know more about your research.
One of my friends tells me all the time “ save yourself” she’s right!
Sarah Sulzinski RN MSN
13
Finally a story about our silent pain.
Thank you.
I knew PTSD set in by the time I was 30. But nurses weren’t suppose to call it that.
We were “ burn outs”as we flitted about from one specialty to another.
Monitoring cadavers for transplants was a real trip. So many horror stories. But no support groups to address it.
19
Should Medicare for all be passed, we can expect there will be a massive shortage of doctors and nurses.
4
@FauxDr. Diane
"Should Medicare for all be passed, we can expect there will be a massive shortage of doctors and nurses." How nice to be able to directly quote from Fox News.
But now for reality. Medicare for would eliminate private insurance, promote cost savings and efficiency.
24
@Dr. Diane turn off the TV. We’ve already got a nursing shortage and an appalling lack of primary care docs. Universal health insurance isn’t going to create that.
14
Looks like “for all” is not to your liking? Real Doctors and Nurses who work in Acute care settings don’t know or care about the payer. The “abuse or overuse” myths are unfounded and reflect the mendaciousness of those who try to scare the public because they imagine that everyone is as abusive as they are.
13
My mother was a nurse and father a doctor assigned to the Pacific theater during the war. They never spoke about it. But my experience of them now as a MH professional was that they experienced depression throughout their life. The incidence of some form of traumatic stress reaction in the population either passed on inter generationally or acquired directly is much higher and more extensive than reported. Very little mental health care acknowledges the long lasting effects of psychological trauma as most treatments are superficial and ineffective; emphasizing only current symptoms and not the deep shattering of what it means to be human.
12
The absolute worst is the boards, the AZ board worse than others. An anonymous fabricated complaint , can be career ending . The boards mandate is to protect the public but only takes down anyone speaking up about dangerous situations,to protect hospitals. If you do not sign , the boards 'consent agreement" , basically giving up all of your rights, with a statement "agree you will not sue the board of nursing or its employees " , they will revoke. If you do sign it , you will be on such a restricted probation , no one can get through, then they can revoke . Signing your rights away. Go to trial instead of signing and exercising your rights, the court that is used is OAH, which is a sham court, Since 1994 when it started in AZ , not one nurse has prevailed ! The ALJ opinion is sealed before the trial starts . IF they don't find anything clinically, they will order a psych evaluation, by the Drs they have chosen . Then anything and everything will be put on the www, you have not HIPPA protection.
IS the America? IS this a country where you can speak freely, and not be retaliated against. Why anyone would get a license as a nurse or in the medical field is beyond me !
7
@Nursey
I lost a job of ten years and almost lost my nursing licence due to a story made up about me: I was secretly a terrorist and planned to bring an "assault rifle" (loaded buzzword, that) to work and kill my coworkers. The story had no basis in fact but the nursing administration found it so thrilling and enjoyable they fired me. I did not and do not have an assault rifle. I did not kill anybody. I did lose my job and quit taking nursing seriously - except for the patients. I was there for them, not the hospitals, not the "nurse managers". Nurses are truly not good to one another.
3
What about mental health workers and social workers? Our daughter is a licensed child and family therapist who handles the mental health crisis of children 8-18 in Detroit, Michigan. Her rounds include a combination of home and school visits for each child. The stories she can tell! And she should be paid double what she currently is being paid. When professional athletes get paid ever increasing salaries our mental health workers deserve our at least our support.
11
It comes down to greed. Nurses and physicians and other healthcare workers keep complaining about their working conditions, but the American Hospital Association, executives (like ACHE), and to some extent, the weak but hypocritical American Nurses Association, side with profit-making- the wealthy and powerful who have lobbyists and influence in the legislative arena. They are the ones pushing for more of the same, and things will only get worse.
Healthcare is not about health or care, it's about making a relatively small number of people rich and protecting their interests. They don't care if healthcare workers are traumatized or what that does to the patients.
What we've been doing- putting up with progressively more stressful and abusive conditions- isn't working. It's time to stop this train. Nurses are their own worst enemies when it comes to organizing and working together.
Nurses need to get past fear, low self-esteem, and whatever other factors are holding us back and sit down, stop, and refuse to work until we get what we DEMAND. Yes it could cost us all in the short run, but in the long run. everyone will benefit (except for those who already are rich beyond imagination). We have to try something to shake things up or things NEVER will change. Public health is at stake here, and look at the outcomes we're getting now. It ain't working. It's up to nurses to lead the way out of this rut.
27
Nurses have to function in a hostile work environment. Everybody has heard about the surgeon who throws the scalpel. But, the worst thing is the gaslighting often orchestrated by a manager. We suffer from unjust discipline. Speaking truth to power is the number one criteria to get a target on your back. Nurses are charged with preventing risk to patients. Raising concerns starts the cycle of being labeled a trouble maker. Management feels threatened. One day you go to clock out and find your badge is disabled. You have been fired. Unsubstantiated charges might be created and the nurse reported to licensing boards. These are the type things that contribute to nurse flight from the profession. I have spent years trying to get this discussed at professional nursing conferences. But, to do so they must admit many of its members are perpetrators. Thus, they are protected. Nurses need their #me too about manager abuses of power. Since the media depends on press releases from the nurse professional associations, and they cover up these abuses, the media is silent. A Columbia Teacher's College study on Unjust Discipline has not received any media coverage. How can we have hope when this can't be exposed? We suffer and move from job to job hoping to land in a safe place. After years of this, of course, we can have PTSD. When we have had enough, we retire early.
27
@John Kauchick, RN, BSN
Thank you, John. As an ED nurse with decades of experience I can concur the damage suffered by staff nurses at the hands of sadistic toxic nurse managers beholden only to hospital administrators is a story needing to be heard by the public at large. The pettiness, nastiness and lack of any proportionality in the punishment of staff nurses who deviate even slightly from policy or procedure is beyond reason or belief.
22
@John Kauchick, RN, BSN
John, You may find this hard to believe but I truly thought that I was the only ED nurse who had a toxic manager. I had been spoiled by an amazing nurse manager whom I worked with for 16 years. With the "restructuring" of the management of our dept. came new managers from the top down. I guess I was still naive even after almost 25 years in nursing to think that we would have the same relationship with an new nurse manager as we did with the previous manager. I voiced my opinion loud and clear, as it had been "safe" to do, when a new manager was chosen for the ED and that was the biggest mistake I ever made in my career. Within a year I was dismissed by the manager, my nursing license was in danger, and I had PTSD that went untreated as I didn't know what was wrong with me. Long story short I ended up leaving nursing altogether after trying to hold on to my career for a few more years. I was on meds. for PTSD, anxiety, depression. I was not the only victim of this same manager, many of my colleagues left the dept. once they saw what happened to me. A dear friend, who is also a nurse, told me years ago that nursing is no longer a caring profession but a business. The more I see, the more I agree. But, I still see caring, confident, competent nurses working in all specialties in hospitals. It's good to know that there are more nurses out there to carry the torch, and maybe straighten out the tangled mess that has been left.
16
@John Kauchick You are not alone. Nurses associations like the ANA and NYSNA are allied with Administrators, toxic managers and Nurse Academics to brainwash the profession into thinking that Unionizing is “unprofessional” This is a lie and it is typical of “corporate think”. Without a union and collective bargaining, the workplace is a dictatorship with kangaroo courts waiting to crush those who object to abuse, and neglect and dangerous understaffing. A union can democratizes the workplace. With a union justice can become the norm.
14
This is a true representation, scientifically explained picture of what a nurse's professional life curve looks like. Very little is done about it,and cummilatively, a monster is created out of a once sweet nurse. The physical manifestation of it,is the rising levels of lethargic, ineptitude,socially isolated,drug/alcohol addicted nurses.
13
This is a true representation, scientifically explained picture of what a nurse's professional life curve looks like. Very little is done about it,and cummilatively, a monster is created out of a once sweet nurse. The physical manifestation of it,is the rising levels of lethargic, ineptitude,socially isolated,drug/alcohol addicted nurses.
5
Social workers and mental health counselors and other mental health workers also suffer from PTSD for the same reasons that nurses may have the disorder.
12
When I read this I thought of the wonderful nurses I've worked with or had the pleasure to know in my years as a patient care technician at St. Peter's Hospital in Albany NY.
I stay in touch with one, Barbara, my landlady and good friend, and another retired nurse, June, from Albany's Veterans Hospital, who I recently met in a memoir writing class I attend here in Albany. Both are outstanding registered nurses full of great stories regarding their years in the field. Barbara's vivid reminiscences and June's superb memoir pieces are constant reminders to me of what great human beings have to offer in caring for the disabled, sick and dying, and the precious comfort they dole out to grief stricken family members and friends.
In looking back, I am in awe of what these women and male nurses do day in and day out, year after year in the service of helping and caring for humanity. Often my job as a tech (nursing assistant) wasn't easy but working with an expert, wonderful RN who treated me as an equal often made my work day a memorable experience.
I shared this touching story with both women. It is a great tribute to nurse Dorothy Still and great nurses everywhere, those in the distant past , present and future.
15
I have been a firefighter and I have been a nurse. Nursing is the toughest job, hands down. Which group gets the 20 year retirement? Not hard to understand why....
27
Short staffed, underpaid, too many patients to care for safely, abusive management, poor leadership, lack of mentorship, no lunch break, poorly maintained outdated equipment, no practice committee, no grievance procedure, etc. Sounds like Nurses need to get serious about getting together on these issues. Unionization in California had made ALL the difference for us and for our patients. I see so many travel Nurses coming to Cali for the good pay and better conditions but they won't do anything to improve their situations at home. A strong Union can't fix everything but it will give you a voice and agency to help yourselves and your patients. Yes, it will be difficult. It was a 20 year battle to organize California. The American Hospital Association is no joke. BIG Money, lobbyists, media access, real power. But it can be done. Please contact National Nurses United and join the Nationwide effort to help out patients, ourselves and the future.
45
@Chuck union RN
I think there finally may be a chance in the next 5-10 years to unionise nurses in Colorado. Most every nurse I work with now wants a union. A few reasons: first is conditions you named are getting worse. Secondly, we are becoming a more progressive state.
14
@Chuck union RN
Almost forgot... Happy Nurses Week to all!! Sent at 0200 from the night shift.
15
@Chuck union RN, you are so right! Unions aren’t perfect, but active members who are actively participating in the decisions and policies that are made in their names make the biggest difference. The National Nurses Association has made a huge difference.
Traveling nurses come to California to work in safer environments, where nurses have mandated ratios for patient and nursing safety, they get sufficient rest periods to recharge, and are paid a fair wage for the service they provide. Many of them travel specifically because the working conditions for themselves and patients are better. It is disheartening to hear that so many other states and hospital corporations do not provide the safe staffing and adequate resources to give the best care. It took the organization of the California Nurses Association to push for reform in our legislature. I hope these nurses from “Right to Work” states push for legislation to protect their patients, as well as themselves, in their home states.
17
Nurses are God's Angels, am not the author, but have heard it and from life experience agree with the comment.
Also after many years in military and civilian police departments also nominate those who serve there for probable PSTD.
6
1980. New RN. I still remember my first patient’s death. We get close to our patients no matter how hard we try to stay objective. We are only human. I have done many different nursing jobs over the years. The only thing that really haunts me still are unnecessary deaths by incompetence, young hospice patients, suicides and and children. Children and especially babies. I applaud nurses in NICU and children’s hospitals. They are brave heroes.
We all try our best. The hospitals do not have good bereavement support for staff. Nurses are not always kind to one another adding to the despair. We grieve but no one cares. Nurse burnout is at an all time high in my opinion and being short staffed is a way of life now. It is not good for staff and not best practice for patient safety.
18
Last 12 years my wife is in and out of inpatient hospital care ,all I see are nurses dishing out pills 24/7 up and down the hallways from a rolling cart with a computer screen.
Nurses aids aka patients assistants do all the hard work ,of
course I speak of a neurological ward with movement disorders usually not bloody work but nevertheless hard doing a 10 hour shift without stopping ,my hat and heart our to nurses.
6
@Carlyle T.
Nice to hear your wife is in a well staffed unit with nurses and aids. Many nurses still do total care. After mandated staffing ratios management removed aides or scaled back aids from many units. Who needs help when you only have four people to assess, bathe, toilet, feed, hydrate, medicate, comfort, educate, monitor, and collaborate with their PT, OT, speech therapist, case manager, doctor, and pharmacist? Not to mention we must chart every move and interaction, otherwise, it didn’t really happen.
11
I am still haunted by the people who I couldn't help during my DMAT deployment to Hurricane Katrina. We were forced to abandon our patients at the Ice Arena (next to the SuperDome) due to (false) reports of sniper fire on our evacuation helicopters. That is one thing we're taught never to do as nurses, and I cried openly in our evac truck. I've been physically assaulted by confused/psychotic patients, verbally assaulted by family members or physicians and also been sabotaged by my fellow nurses in the name of career advancement/personal dislike by the person who was supposed to be precepting me in a new position. After 20 years I finally let my license go inactive. Oddly, I still mourn that action, despite the fact that I was more burnt out than a piece of bacon.
22
I can’t understand why these abusive doctors don’t have problems in the parking lot, they can crawl to the ER, it will be nearby.
In aviation it was not unusual for a problem supervisor to suffer from a industrial accident by way of a tool falling on them. Oops.
7
@Paulie
Why are you threatening the lives of doctors? The article states that it's patients and their families that verbally and physically abuse nurses in addition to the trauma of patient care itself.
These days it's more likely the nurses who abuse resident doctors and especially females and not born in America. Resident physicians get exposed to the same traumas as nurses but have to work up to 80 hours a week with no overtime and few other job protections.
11
Retired RN, 38 years ICU, CCU, cath lab, etc. If the behavior directed at caregivers occurred, say, in a restaurant, they’d be calling 911 for assault.
33
39 years in bedside nursing."1 in 4" would be way too low, in my experience. And let's stop calling it "burnout". Moral distress or moral injury are more appropriate terms that do not connote some sort of failing on the nurses' part. By all means, let's have more research! In reality, the research has been done (Aiken, etc.) and we all know what nurses need to thrive in the workplace. The problem is the profit-driven healthcare system doesn't want to shell out the extra bucks it would take to make it happen.
48
I graduated from nursing school in 1975- I was barely 20. Had I to do it over again, I would not. I stopped working at the age of 60, after working in ER's, recovery rooms, corrections, and psychiatric hospitals. I was kicked against a wall so hard, it tore my rotator cuff, and I spent 4 months recovering after surgery. I was knocked on my butt several times, called numerous ugly names, spit on, coughed on, bled on, had families yell at me, threaten- even got a post card with a death threat!- but none of it compared to the treatment by arrogant doctors and administration. Yes, I did get "Nurse of the year " at my local psych hospital one year, and of course got the yearly sack lunch for "nurses day.... I am 4 years retired and daily try and block it all out. Yes, nurses get PTSD, no wonder we leave in droves!!!
48
@Twila
I spent over 20 years trying to "block out" my experience of sexual assault. Of course, I didn't understand that I was utilizing "mal-adaptive coping mechanisms" that still tend to persist years into treatment.
Please consider going to a psychologist who specializes in treatment of trauma. Our lives are too short and suffering for years robs us of too much. I look back and am saddened by all from which I disengaged, though I know I have made progress. Please, don't let the unjustified mistreatment you received continue to impact your future life. We all deserve the happiness life can offer.
3
Finally an article about the medical professionals who are exposed to a heck of a lot more trauma than many vets and cops.
And yet how many of them claim PTSD and demand a taxpayer funded and tax free lifetime annuity?
Not many I bet and they have experienced a whole lot worse.
22
Almost every comment from an RN includes disregard for the nursing profession by the big city hospitals. Writing as the spouse of an RN in a big NYC hospital I have heard many a horror story.
Interesting that NYT includes no NYT picks for this piece- Why is that? Could it be corporations stick together? Shame! Perhaps it's time to discontinue my subscription.
11
I worked in a emergency department of a New Orleans east hospital for three years. I saw lots of blood and guts, family trauma, suicides, violence, threatened with violence, watched people die, intimidated by state senators and threatened by bodyguards of whoever that guys was, testified in malpractice lawsuits, etc etc. Not once did I ever have a nightmare related to my work. I did burn out though. I gave up my career aspirations in the medical field but it wasn't the nature of the work itself. It was the administrative direction taken by decision makers that has made our current medical system the most expensive, least effective medical system in the world. Succinctly put, I did not want to be part of a medical system that harmed and killed patients in the drive to make money.
My supervisor was an old Army nurse, a graduate of New Orleans Charity Hospital school of nursing. That may not mean much today but they had a well deserved reputation of being competent and able. She had served during the war (WW2) and had cared for wounded soldiers. She was very strict, not in a mean way. She wasn't mean at all. She was strict because she cared and knew what harm come from carelessness and complacency. She was especially rigorous with young, or not young, arrogant doctors who wanted to cut corners. She deflated, harpooned many doctor's arrogant egos, but she was looking after the patient, not her own ego as crusader for women's rights.
40
I'm only human, but I have finally managed to resist the blandishments of pharmaceuticals, repression, shrinks, and stoicism. These options probably work for others, and most anything that lessens pain or gives relief is good by me.
The late Les Murray's take on stoicism is spot on: "I'm convinced that stoicism is never the answer to anything, being nothing more than a cruel, callous encouragement to people to devour each other, a powerful ally of sadists and tyrants keen to get people to endure things which should be firmly refused as unendurable."
Like that insufferable psychiatrist you mention who asserted that Dorothy Still was "a 'fake' and a 'liar'."
18
I was recently stuck in recovery after broken femur surgery for 72 hours because there was no room available. What I experienced hearing other people whom I couldn't see because my curtains were drawn, moaning crying throwing things out of frustration, was nothing compared to my own nightmare. Well-meaning staff trying to adjust my position or examine me, setting off muscle spasms of excruciating intensity. A horrible rash on my posterior because I was unable to adjust on the bed which wasn't even a bed. At a certain point I began to weep quietly from pain and isolation... my family and friends were had not been allowed to visit me for more than 5 minutes at a time, the flowers my sister-in-law brought were abruptly taken away right out of her hands...as I cried the nurse who appeared to be in charge of my care stuck her head in through the curtains and admonished me. I was going to "have to toughen up, none of this, this is going to be hard, this is what life is about"
in retrospect I feel for the staff. I understand objectively that it is difficult work, but while I was going through it I sure could have used a caring touch. As it was I just had to be my own advocate, I had to repeatedly tell staff to stop, let me move my own leg slowly or at the very least tell them exactly how to lift it and where to grasp it. I'm sorry if I got cranky but man! It was pretty horrible.
18
ER Nurse of 21 years so far... I have been kicked, spit blood on, slapped, punched, and had death threats made toward me by sober patients. Add in taking care of people who have been shot, stabbed, strangled, raped, lost limbs, are having heart attacks and strokes, and bleeding to death both internally and externally. Don't forget overdoses, now something even more common than ever. Oh, and the psych patients, often acting out beyond their control, sometimes dangerously and almost always heartbreakingly.
We take care of people on their worst days, and at the most horrible moments of their lives.
It is what we do. It is who we are.
Nursing causes caregiverss distress, it causes you to appear hard and uncaring, it causes trauma without question, and PTSD afterward.
This would all be more tolerable if it were rewarded - if we weren't given substandard wages for our responsibility, if our careers and livelihoods weren't at stake if we make one mistake, if we weren't nagged and pressured for "satisfaction scores" and "throughput" and "metrics" that all really just equal profit for those who sit in offices and take no real risks, if we weren't sent home early to "save money", or asked to work understaffed to increase profit.
The uncaring environment of hospitals toward their staff grows worse every year and the lack of support grows the risks for PTSD.
53
Social Workers as well
11
@Denise
Anyone in patient care who has to live a patient’s trauma with them
5
Ms. Lucchesi states: "Effective treatments are also often lacking." I don't know her background but there is much for her to learn. EMDR has helped (tens of ?) thousands of PTSD clients to get relief from PTSD symptoms. If one is to write about PTSD then knowing effective treatments is part of the job. Also, getting the name wrong of the title of the professional nurses association is unprofessional for a journalist. Ms. Lucchesi has done a great service by writing about this. She should however sharpen her research tools.
7
I have seen the enemy and the enemy are the hospital administrators and organizations of political scientists like Press Ganey.
26
"... Miss Still found she often cried without provocation and had trouble stopping her tears."
Captain Richard Phillips, who was held captive by Somali pirates, describes that exact phenomenon in his memoir.*
Phillips told a Navy SEAL commander, who said, "It's accepted, we all do it. ..."
The commander referred Phillips to a Navy psychiatrist who explained that the crying was due to the reduction in stress hormones after his rescue.
* "A captain's duty : Somali pirates, Navy Seals, and dangerous days at sea" by Richard Phillips with Stephan Talty.
5
I have been a nurse for almost 15 years. I started in the OR, hospice, oncology, and now case management. Things I can't forget and have flashbacks to (daily...?)
-the nice, and very jaundiced man dying of liver cancer while he casually read the paper.
-waiting for the coroner to arrive to the apartment of a pair of twin sisters, one of whom just died, the other who was catatonic with despair
-removing lines, closing eyelids, washing, positioning and covering the body of the deceased I had to do, by myself as a new nurse
-the young woman dying of stomach cancer, sitting in a pool of body fluids that could not be contained, her young husband standing mutely nearby.
-the man who fell off a building under construction and was speared metal bars, right thought him
-the children dying of leukemia, being poked with needles, having spinal taps, and receiving chemotherapy
-the elderly lady being hoisted, naked, out of her bed and hosed off like an inanimate object
-the young woman hit by a semitruck who had most of of her skill removed due to brain swelling
-the young surgeon positioning female patients so he could keep his hand on her breasts
-the nearly sexual assault style exams of unaware anesthetized female patients
-etc etc etc this list literally has no end.
No one has ever asked me if I have PTSD. Today at work I got a water bottle (with my hosptial's name on it- advertising) and baked potato for lunch, as Nurse's Week gestures. Gee, thanks for the potato.
73
I am a Registered Nurse of 40 years, and my experiences certainly echo what you have described, right down to the potato 🥔!
In Massachusetts, we recently went to the ballot with efforts to get very reasonable staffing limits enacted into law. I was initially hopeful, as the initiative had a lot of support among nurses. But large medical centers and hospital administrators far outspent us, and sowed such confusion and chaos into the election, that in the end they won. It was so discouraging. I have had some really great jobs, and some really bad ones through the years, but never have I worked for an organization where I felt that administrators and management really cared about the nurses satisfaction and well being, over their bottom line. This has contributed greatly to my own burnout and stress.
40
@Renee I wholeheartedly agree with you, Fluffy and most comments here.
Background, 24 years as a nurse, 30 in healthcare. I started as a combat medic in the Army and was fortunate enough to have the Army put my through nursing school then did trauma nursing both civilian and military.
ER, hospice, med-surg, case management and working with children and adults with special needs.
The largest obstacle is organizations who put $ above care.
IMHO, there is not one hospital that doesn't despise it's nursing staff. Quite costly on the whole and nurses don't generate "income" for said hospital.
Doctors on the other hand do bring dollars into a hospital by way of procedures. surgeries and hawking the latest in products that you need.
There isn't one hospital CEO on the US who knows all of this and perpetuates the behavior daily. On top is the huge amount of abuse, daily in healthcare by DOCTORS towards nurses. Assualt, battery, harrassment threats and the risk of immediate termination are daily happenings and it will never change.
Cash is king said to say.........
Burn out is how I feel personally and you lose all caring as it is stripped from you slow and sure.
14
Next week, I will celebrate 45 years as a master's prepared nurse. My experience has covered a wide range of specialities, geographic areas, patient populations and leadership/academic positions. After decades working in women's health as a Certified Nurse Midwife, I have spent the last chapter of my career in Home Health. It has been an intimate, highly rewarding specialty where long term relationships and patient/family education take priority.
Unfortunately changes in Medicare and Medicaid have produced a national home health crisis. US spent $103 Billion on home health in 2018. Seniors are being kept out of the hospital, assisted living and nursing homes in an effort to cut costs. The acuity received in home health is unprecedented.
The incidence of PTSD over the course of a professional career in nursing is very high, no matter the speciality. (fetal/pediatric demise, contracted labors, home safety/management issues, end of life, exposure to super bug viruses and bacteria, burnout, sexual harassment and assault, physical assault, insurance denial.)
Until nurses are compensated for the immense employment risks and exposure they incur, and nursing leader/schools better prepare students for the reality of working in a profession with a high risk of PTSD, turnover and the toll of emotional compartmentalization will prevail.
27
Nursing compensation can be fantastic. Some nurses I know get paid over $100,000 and those aren’t even nurse practitioner’s or anesthetist. The problem is is salary does not go that far when you have to pay for your own healthcare and student loans. Just like everything else. We need better social structures that support people. More vacation time for those of us doing brutal healthcare jobs.
8
@FM I would respectfully disagree with your view of "fantastic" compensation." I made close to $100,000 by working overtime, nights, holidays and up to 4 jobs at a time to support my family. But after moving out of an urban area and aging out of the physical ability to do shift work, my salary dropped to about $60,000. With an advanced degree and 35 years experience, not so "fantastic."
It is a hard job and I appreciate the article pointing out the emotional and personal challenges faced by those in the caring professions, all of us who daily see abuse, violence, birth and death. Money is definitely not why we do it.
38
Both of my mother's sisters were nurses in WWII - one served in Europe and one in the Pacific. When I read how that psychiatrist called Ms Still a "fake" and a "liar" and claimed that nurses couldn't experience the kind of shell shock from war that sailors or soldiers could, I cringed. As has been well-established, the punishments the Japanese inflicted on the Allied soldiers it captured were brutal, to say nothing of the brutality of the fighting that all Allied military experienced in the Pacific. My mother, says that her sister who served in the Pacific came home, it was like watching the identical behavior as 2 of her brothers who served in the Pacific had - identical. Within months of returning to her position as a surgical nurse at a prestigious East cost hospital, she fled to work in a rural hospital in Oregon. She was the walking wounded until the day she died. I think of how Ms Still was a prisoner of war under Japanese occupation and what she experienced and I cannot understand how any psychiatrist at that time could make the claims Ms Still's did.
24
As a RN with an almost 28 year career in Emergency and ICU I can say I still think about some the patients I couldn't save from decades ago. Even when you do everything you possibly can sometimes it's still not enough. It stays with you.
So it's totally unsurprising that many in the profession would experience PTSD.
27
I’ve been a nurse for nearly 30 years, and I definitely have PTSD. Patients I lost, patients I helped save, patients I met for minutes, patients I cared for over months, they cling through the years, their names may be forgotten, but faces and situations I will never forget. Long hours (night shift), stressful work environments (ED, ICU) contribute. It’s great being a nurse, but it’s also very rough. Satisfaction is combined with great frustration. Jonathan Larson, I still cannot forgive myself for not having done more for you, and that was more than 20 years ago. Yes, PTSD.
33
I was a neonatal nurse practitioner for 17 years and a neonatal nurse for 11 years before that. I worked at UCSF in the intensive care nursery as a neonatal nurse practitioner taking care of the sickest of the sick babies in the world. I could not have asked for a more collaborative, supportive and exciting environment in which to do my life’s work. The physicians treated us with respect and as colleagues and the nursing staff were at the top in their field. I loved working there and I loved my work. It was my career, hobby and passion. I did not experience the abuses others have written about in the comments associated with this article. But here I am in my 10th year living with PTSD from experiencing secondary trauma day after day watching sick babies struggle to live and then die. This secondary trauma is also known as Compassion Fatigue. I became acutely ill with horrendous physical symptoms that came on suddenly in the space of a month - it ended my beloved career. At the time this diagnosis was unknown to myself or those I worked with. None of us knew we were at risk. Since then much has been learned and self care techniques have been instituted. PTSD is a horrible condition to live with, but at the end of the day I was blessed with an amazing institution, staff, families and those babies who occupy so much of my heart.
35
I agree, nurses are wonderful. Even doctors are, for the most part, wonderful. But the profession as a whole is a mess. A profitable mess. When I was young there were problems sometimes, but the degree of venality in the profession now is unbelievable. You cannot run a profession of care if your main concern is your stockholders and the bottom line. The professionals who work in it are victims of this as much as the patients. Unfortunately, patients can't change much -- when are medical professionals going to rise up and take control and bring back some of the CARE that used to be central to their work?
32
@RWP I've been trying to change things for 29 years
I've been a nurse that long. No one cares.... at least not the powers that be. I wish nurses would band together for change but to be honest with you, we are all so burned out the last thing we want to do is talk about the problems in healthcare when we aren't at work.
18
I just spent a week in hospital (abdominal surgery) and the entire team was amazing. What the nurses, technicians, therapists, etc had to deal with is beyond belief and they dealt with it so well, in addition to being buzzed every five minutes to go somewhere else, running around madly trying to get everything done, managing faulty equipment. They were all unfailingly kind and polite and I can’t praise them enough. They deserve much more credit than they’ve been getting for all they do, their knowledge and skills, etc. they deserve better pay too!
27
I have been a nurse for 41 years and for the most part, loved it. I was lucky enough to take a break when my children were young to care for them. When I returned in 2003 I saw a changed landscape. MDs and nurses largely worked collaboratively. I do remember in the ICU I worked in being told my our lead Intensivist that nurses had no place in discussing end of life care with families. Later that day when we called a code for the third time on this beautiful 89 year old woman, mother, grandmother sister, friend who weighed 100# pushing on her chest-cavitated and soft from prior CPR the family was called into the room to see what “do everything” meant. She was finally able to be at peace. As I write this, I realize I did this not only for this woman and her family but for those of us that are asked to “save” everyone. Please talk with your family. We as health care providers do this everyday.
35
I have been a RN for 19 years, 17 of them in ER. If I had been able to see into the future I would have never become a nurse. It is not primarily about patient care anymore. We are expected to do more, more quickly and with exceptional "customer service" with less resources. Electronic records have further removed time caring for the patients and put it into charting, as it is too easy for people who have no business being in patient charts to monitor trends and percentages and making sure I have clicked on the appropriate hundreds of boxes that electronic charting requires.. Management somehow thinks they have a grasp on what is going on day to day by looking at patient satisfaction numbers and "productivity." How is 100 productivity possible in ER when we need to be fully staffed at all times in anticipation of a sick and injured patients flooding through the doors? Add to this the increasing numbers of medically complex , larger in size, mentally unstable, substance abusing or just plain rude and demanding patients and family, and you have a recipe for intolerable stress. The nurses who truly care for patients and love the beauty of being human are the ones suffering the most. We have been hollowed out and drained.
93
@ER RN
I was working in the ER when the change came to American medicine, after Reagan was elected and started his policy initiatives. I was able to see the future and got out. That was in 1983.
26
@ER RN Please don't speak for all of us. I have been at this for about 24 years, always caring for those who have been marginalized or underserved. It is a great profession and everyday I am grateful for the privilege of caring for patients. Find some happiness because I can assure you that it is working with folks like you that probably brings me the most distress.
5
@Joseph
I am not a Negative Nelly at work. I work hard and am cheerful to patients and staff. I dare say I am well liked and respected at work. This pain is all inside.
41
The belief that nurses cannot suffer PTSD is rooted in the misogyny of diminishing women's symptoms of pain and distress and devaluing their experiences.
It wasn't until 1992 that Dr. Judith Herman identified PTSD in women who were victims of domestic violence in their homes.
Other female-dominated jobs that are at risk of PTSD: social workers and teachers.
63
@CH
I teach in a mental health safety net school and one of my colleagues is leaving due to what she calls second-hand PTSD from hearing the stories of abuse of some of our students.
16
There's a reason they call nurses angels of mercy, and I am grateful for every nurse I have ever met.
23
Just a few days ago I read where a nurse was not deemed the fastest nurse,by Guinness Book of World Records, in a marathon because she wore scrubs and not a dress. I’ve worked in this profession for 35+ years and it’s the S....L...O...WW..E....SSSS...T to change perceptions in. I don’t think I’ve worn a dress to work in 30 years. I’ve been fondled,kicked,fought,spit on and verbally assaulted...and that’s just what the docs did. Okay the Docs didn’t kick me. But it’s insanity. I’ve enjoyed nursing. But I do have days that I lapse into a PTSD funk where I’m angry at everyone, I’m belittled because the old guard in the profession eat their young. Life is too short to be belittled this much. I’m lucky I got a better job. I’m envious that hospitals now are seeing that their most precious assets are not just nurses but the entire staff.
She should not have had just a Passing of the Flag as an honor for what she endured she should’ve been given full honors. Was she not as valorous as those she tended?
32
The correct name is the American Nurses Association, not "American Nursing Association." See https://www.nursingworld.org/ana/
6
I am a doctor. I believe the accumulation of many experiences during my career has damaged me as well. Why mention only nurses?
8
@Roy Sheinbaum It's Nurses Week. We honor nurses.
54
@Roy Sheinbaum
From the article: "PTSD and burnout are not unique to nurses; doctors, medical students and other health care professionals also suffer relatively high rates compared to many other professions."
15
Uh oh - a doctor feeling threatened because they're not the center of attention.
28
Nurses are not only yelled at by patients and the public, they are demeaned by some doctors and staff daily.
69
Including each other. The phrase, “nurses eat their young”, didn’t come out of nowhere.
16
Not true anymore, at least not the hospitals I have worked in.
2
I’m a nurse. The most disturbing part of my work is dealing with families at the time of end-of-life decision making. People just don’t get that at some point they are no longer making decisions about how their loved ones will live, but rather how they will die. We keep dying people in the painful terrifying limbo between life and death. The dying patient experiences the terror of dying many times as family members assemble to say good bye. We sedate them, reawaken them and they experience pain and fear each time. Families listen to me. When the doctor and the nurses say nothing more can be done, believe it and just STOP. Allow your love one to die a natural peaceful death. We have medications that can stop the agony and fear they are experiencing and allow a comfortable peaceful death. Grieve at the funereal. All this dramatic nonsense is about you not your loved one. Let them go in peace. Please.
163
@Carol Yazzie
Good advice. I'm listening.
7
Nurses are the unsung heroes in health care. I have always bristled at the implied disrespect that doctors are called Dr. while nurses are called by their first names. What??
I have been a hospital chaplain and hospice chaplain for 15 years. Working overnight on trauma duty has left me with indelible memories of tragedy, but also given me glimpses of the beauty of the human spirit. I work diligently with meditation and other spiritual practices to flush out the fear and anxiety that can accumulate, and restore my positivity about life. This type of work is not for the faint of heart.
54
Wow! Look at all the comments by nurses and our family and friends, just one day after publishing this article. I have one, too, but I think the point has been made well enough. It was part of the reason I got out of bedside care over 20 years ago, but I stayed in nursing as a teacher.
I will add that if we want good care from nurses, we need to care for nurses. And, nurses, if we want to continue to offer the excellent care we aspire to give and love to give, we have to take care of ourselves, not just others. This means that we have to speak out, as individuals and in groups, requiring the systems where we work to care for us, too.
39
I've been a nurse for nearly 4 years on med surg and now ICU units in busy hospitals in NYC- the stuff I see now has become routine to me, but when I think hard about it, the situations we deal with as bedside nurses (from tasks that we perform to family dynamics we deal with) are absolutely ridiculous. Because bedside nursing contains nearly endless tasks, manipulating human bodies to assess, medicate, or resuscitate separates them from the people they belong to.
The $ and vacation time for a single adult is very good, but you work HARD for it. You gladly trade a night of rest over great overtime pay.
It takes a certain type of person for sure. People who want to feel useful, people that need to be right and feel smart. People who beneath their hard shell really care about their patients, too.
35
As brand new nurse 40 years ago , on a GYN unit, I was handed a still alive fetus that was aborted but still alive, she was wrapped in a towel.
I was told to Go into the dirty utility room and hold her until she dies.I held her and prayed over her, I was numb with shock and innocence.
All varieties of traumatic experiences were an everyday part of my job,
I am still working, in Psychiatric nursing and
Addiction with the most sad and vulnerable populations,and a constant stream of abuse
hurled at nurses without the slightest acknowledgement from administration ,
And in fact shocking and crushing treatment
Of nurses.by administration.
Nurses have No advocates,
At all in these crushing Capitalist greedy
Pressured fragmented broken health care systems.
It’s a tragic thing to use patients at their most vulnerable and suffering time ,and the labor and tenderness and hard work of nurses
for greed and cold calculation.
We all pay dearly with our souls and hearts,
Creativity and serenity and self esteem.
We are all just soft little animals in the jaws
Of greed.
What a sad time.
40
I started nursing school at 17 straight out of high school and have been doing this for 43 years in a hospital setting. I started in pediatrics. I cannot ever forget one patient. It was Christmas day 1984. I was working on the hematology/oncology floor and received a 6 year old girl from the ED. She was terminal with leukemia. I asked her parents to step out while I suctioned blood from her airway. As I was doing this I realized she was taking her last breaths and went to get her parents from the hallway. She died right then as we cradled her in our arms. I think of her and her family every Christmas as I am with my own children and grand children. I definitely had many of those symptoms for months after this. I remember thinking I had no right to cry so much while I was removing the tubes and lines from her tiny body.
52
I was a nurse for decades, went back to school as an adult with three kids and husband, and finally completed what I wanted to do out of high school. I made multiple bad educational choices. I graduated with a 4.0, was the speaker at graduation, and went on to experience many opportunities, from ER, long term supervision, school nursing, public health, even camp nursing for NYC Fresh Air Fund, all the way from Wisconsin.You name it...I did it because I was not willing to stay in the same place forever - plus my husband had great healthcare insurance.
I saw a lot, but the worst in my eyes was case managing for much of my latter career, both on the insurance side and the hospital side. I don’t know if I could call it PTSD, but the worst for me was not physical but mental anguish of patients when insurance companies made denials or when patients were left without any insurance during the recession. Going into the trenches of the hospital patient rooms, day after day, hearing the stories about patients, sick as they may be, weeping about potentially losing their homes, their families, their lives because they lost their jobs and had no insurance.
Bad enough to be sick, but to be responsible for losing everything because of being sick with no insurance.
No one, I believe could understand that devastation.Yet, our GOP lawmakers think that is ok!
The ACA was a saving grace for millions. Why are there just few of us who get that?
I still weep over those poor patients.
201
Much of the trauma that we experience as nurses is inflicted by the health care system itself. It is incredibly wearing not to be able to provide the care that people need.
We know that for a newly-diagnosed cancer patient, an overwhelmed new mom, the family of a five-year-old who has just been hit by a truck, someone who is dying, a survivor of gender or sexual violence, even a person who's had routine surgery - careful monitoring, kindness, support, and teaching and re-teaching about the changes in their body and their lives are what people need in order to heal.
Yet our money- and technology-driven system has no time for these "luxuries."
The terrible suffering that we see every day also teaches us much about grace and hope and life. And that sustains us. But it's our shameful health care system and the constraints that it places on our work that magnifies other traumas and burns us out.
153
@Betsy Todd
I wholeheartedly agree! 18 years ago, I graduated from nursing school in my late twenties and started working in an ED. I was so optimistic, engaged, and full of life and pride, knowing I was making a difference in people’s lives when they were at their lowest. Sadly, the most important aspects of my nursing practice were no longer profitable. The parts of nursing I fell in love with were systematically being stripped away. Spending time, developing rapport, building trust, and empathizing with your patients and their family/caregivers had become increasingly difficult to near impossible. Teaching patients about their pathology(s) and how to perform “SELFCARE” was stolen away and replaced with the treat’m and street’m mentality. What I realized was that I was not providing “healthcare” I was giving “sickcare" and it should really be rebranded as such. If the system, with its many greed oriented facets including: managed healthcare/insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industries, for-profit healthcare networks, lobbyist, and Politian’s, continue on the path of profiting on band-aiding the epidemic of chronic disease states, the brunt of the stress, burnout, and trauma will continue to fall on us, the frontline caregivers. This why I left the bedside. The environments I was being exposed to no longer afforded the opportunity to practice my calling/profession in a manner that nurtured, my patients, my colleagues/teams, and my own ideals, values, and strengths.
74
One way to begin addressing this issue, at least the part that relates to physical and verbal abuse by patients and their families, is to support H.R. 1309, which is a House bill addressing workplace violence in this sector. If we maintain stronger standards in the workplace (coupled with better staffing, proposed in another congressional bill), we can prevent more instances of physical abuse in the workplace.
36
@Sivan R Probably would be less "abuse" if medicine weren't so obstructionist when dealing with families. It is a system-wide problem and families don't need yet another way for abuse being perpetrated against them by an emotionally immature health care provider/nurse/assistant. And I am in health care.
8
I was head nurse in the cardiothoracic ICU at a famous NYC medical center in the late '60s. Not mentioned in the article is the trauma physicians inflict on nurses, at least then. Surgeons threw instruments at me, dumped me out of my chair because they wished to sit in it, called me "stupid" and worse epithets, and sexually harassed me. I finally quit after being forced to care for an anesthetized orangutan during a failed cross-species transfusion to to use the beast to aid a patient in liver failure. The famous heart surgeon froze the animal to death by prolonged icing on cooling mattress. I am still recovering.
105
@Nancy nailed an unspoken topic. Physician abuse. Nurses don't work FOR physicians they work WITH physicians. We are not their servants. I have yet to meet an RN who has not been on the receiving end of some unfair and misdirected outburst from a doctor. There are a great many doctors in healthcare. It is a pity that they are overshadowed by the ones who lack self control and good conduct. I also blame a system that protects these same people. Hospitals view physicians as contributors to the bottom line and nurses as disposable labor. Rarely will a nurse come out unscathed when a doctor vs nurse issue arises. The culture of abuse has to stop.
70
@Nancy
I just came from a seminar, where a respected doctor spoke in no uncertain terms, about how he believes Nurses with our tenacity, and creativity are probably the only people who can save doctors(and ourselves) from dissatisfaction and disillusionment in the the death spiral of EMRs and high patient loads.
But I fear as long as there is profit involved(from feeding tube insertions procedures, to insurers making medical decision) we wont be leading anywhere.
Let's make nursing nursing again!
29
@Nancy I am an anesthesiologist. I also have had to deal with horrible surgeon behavior. Hospital administrators always believe the surgeons because they bring the patients and the money. Usually abhorrent behavior by surgeons is tolerated. I’m 62. I just got out. Traumatized by EVERYTHING
54
Proud of my brother who has worked with a team to mitigate trauma for his nursing staff and now Kaiser Permanante might roll it out to other affiliates. #HappyNursesWeek
28
My husband has been a psychiatric nurse for 20 years. I have seen the toll it has taken on him working with the criminally insane. I can't even imagine what it is like to be in that environment (as a worker or patient) so the stress is not something I can even understand. Thankfully he has a lot of hobbies and also eats healthy and exercises which has kept most of the stress at bay. Additionally, I am a sounding board for him and make sure to sit down and discuss anything on his mind just so he can work through any feelings due to an incident at work. It really does take a toll and I'm amazed by and so very thankful for those who work in healthcare.
52
I have been an Occupational Therapist for 30+ years specializing in hand therapy which included treating amputations, severe burns, complex crush injuries, gunshot wounds,explosions, etc. These are people struggling with heartbreaking complicated issues that any health care professional could not put away at the end of a work day. I have PTSD after being a victim of a violent crime as a teenager. Years of therapy taught me that I left a lucrative career working for Calvin Klein to become a therapist to heal myself. Now I'm dealing with my husband of 25 years being deep into dementia with the cruel diagnosis of FTD which was highlighted on 60 Minutes this past Sunday. A large part of being an Occupational Therapist is teaching life skills but unfortunately we are not taught how to deal with our own trauma. I am fortunate to have access to trauma therapy now and after years of treating other peoples trauma issues I am struggling with my own (again) And the excellent book mentioned by another writer "The Body Keeps The Score" should be required reading for all health care professionals.
38
@dakota49
I worked in the VA system, and saw many people whose PTSD symptoms started to emerge in their 50’s and 60’s. Seeing this led me to the belief that as our energy levels wane with aging, old unresolved emotional content that had previously been suppressed rises to our consciousness. When a person would lead a visit with “I think I’m going crazy” I would stop looking at the computer, face them and try to get them to talk about their symptoms.
PTSD is such an important subject. I appreciate this article and found reading the comments therapeutic.
6
The book ,"W e A Band Of Angels" by E. Norman tells the story about the survivers of the camp in the Phillipines.I had the honor of meeting Col.Eunice Young a surviver ,who was the Chief Nurse at the Airforce hospital,where my husband was stationed. She eventually retired from the military.
22
@MARG and the Nurses from this camp had to fight to get proper recognition for the Head Nurse that managed it all. Hopefully the Military is better at recognizing the contributions of its' medical members.
15
Nurses often spend more time with patients and families than any other professionals during hospitalizations. They do not always have the agency to control the type or quality of care, but are responsible to administer the plan of care.
At times, nurses know very well that their treatments will not cure the patient, just extend their suffering. It is the rare team that allows this to be said out loud.
I am not sure how many nurses understand that some of the exhaustion and frustration they feel could come from these dynamics. The physical demands of nursing appear to be huge in this era of managed care. The psychological demands might be even greater.
61
This. All of this, and more, every day. What's shocking to me is that there are only 8 comments about how this is true, but then I think about it and it makes sense... nurses are busy working and caring for other people, not worrying about themselves. And I should get back to work myself!
42
Such a good article to read about the risks of being a nurse. My 15 year career has spanned med-surg, intensive care, outpatient, Geriatric medicine, and now home care. I can tell you that in every single aspect of nursing we see other humans in situations that few others do (police, soldiers, social workers.) For me it is about the intrusive nature of what we experience, as the author states:
" intrusive symptoms such as unwanted memories, nightmares, flashbacks and overwhelming feelings of stress when exposed to reminders of the event."
How was your day at the office? Did you answer emails, go to a meeting? Deal with some interoffice politics?
Ask a nurse the same question and listen to what she tells you. We deal with life, death, dying and trauma every single day, in addition to being beaten, kicked, screamed at, or doused with one bodily fluid or another.
Of course we suffer from PTSD. I'm happy research is finally being done to examine this.
112
Of course nurses get PTSD. Look what they are exposed to. So do social workers and policemen. Tetris idea valuable.
23
Add firefighters and paramedics to the list.
12
@Jane K
And corrections officers.
I'm a former oncology beside nurse, now advanced practice nurse in hematology/oncology. The brutal treatments these patients are put through in the name of false hope is immoral. After 13 years I am certainly developing signs of PTSD.
Yesterday, an older individual told me, beaming, about his daughter, an oncology RN for 40+ years who recently retired: "She took so much of her job home with her, cried every night, her patients really affected her- I'm so proud of her." Nothing will change until the Nurse-As-Saint myth is knocked on its head.
166
@Jamie
Nurses are saints because of the service that you folks do and we thank you for that.
22
My husband just finished Block 3 today and one of the most surprising aspects of the program so far has been the near-hazing by long-time nurses, particularly in med/surg. They seem to believe that nursing should stay abusive because they’ve had to endure abuse, both from patients and coworkers. I hadn’t expected the nurses to be such a vulnerable population: beyond even the problem of aggressive patients, compassion fatigue appears contagious.
47
@Steph T.the saying is “nurses eat their young” it has gotten better but is still true. 20 years nursing has taught me lots of things about human nature in situations high in stress. You quickly find out that there isn’t enough money that makes the job worth it. Like teaching it’s a certain personality that does it. Male nurses have one set of rules and females have theirs, don’t mix them up or confuse them. Make no mistake, it is a stressful job for many many reasons. Sad to read about the treatment she received after what she went through, most of which remains untold I’m sure. Have to go now,it’s my turn to shuffle and deal the cards.
36
Thank you for this article. I have severe Complex PTSD from developmental trauma. It’s sad that it’s taken so long for people to realize that it is absolutely possible to suffer from traumatic stress due to witnessing other people’s traumas. Being told that one is faking trauma symptoms is traumatic in and of itself. Being a first responder or caregiver of people experiencing trauma or who have PTSD makes acquiring PTSD even more likely. I recommend the book, “The Body Keeps the Score,” by Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk.
32
Yes
The Book
The Body Keeps Score
Is the most phenomenal and completely informative book about secondary
Trauma for caregivers!!
I often ask nursing instructors,
Why there isn’t a whole module addressing
How to take care of yourself in these charnel
Grounds of suffering,
The whole issue is ignored completely,
These baby nurses are lambs to the slaughter,
Codependent shrinking violets imbued with
The cultural mandate of self sacrifice taught in nursing schools all over the country ,
Read the Book!!!
12
I'm a nurse. It's true in so many ways and on so many levels. When I was an emergency department nurse it was the physical and emotional exhaustion of severe illness, trauma, and the devastation of patients and their families. As a nurse practitioner, some of the same stressors are present along with "emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and feelings of low sense of accomplishment" that for me and for others has arisen from "overwork and lack of regard" and being downgraded to nothing more than an advanced task-oriented secretary. Oddly enough I happen to be good enough to run interference when attending and residents are all in the operating room.
37
A federal agent told me that the way she and her colleagues routinely avoided PTSD after scanning hours of child pornography prior to submitting a wiretap application for a pedofile with a federal judge was to play Tetris for 20 minutes. This technique apparently prevents memory consolidation so the central file connecting trauma with the other components of memory never develops to provide long-term access. The staff responsible for making the wiretap recommendation to the federal judge after viewing the child pornography apparently also uses Tetris to avoid PTSD.
If such deliberate interruption of memory consolidation is impossible for practical reasons, then the multiple rerunning of the memory of the PTSD event after changing one element of the memory forces a new central file to be made in order to access all the latest memory components. In my experience of a number of traumas that leads to the old memory with trauma attached falling into oblivion as the old central file used for accessing it is discarded forever. Understandably difficult to believe until experiencing that simple healing magic multiple times and then living with the relief for some years!
59
This should be shared with 911 dispatchers. Contrary to popular belief, you can get PTSD from Hearing trauma and stress, as well as seeing it.
People do not understand the stress experienced by those constant-on, high-performance professions.
38
I worked as a newly graduated registered nurse in the burn unit of a hospital. I was 21. We regularly saw and treated severe burns from car accidents, cooking fires, etc. Treatments in those days were excruciating. I have the trauma induced by that kind of experience in common with millions of nurses around the world. Never was it ever brought up or discussed by the nursing profession or the hospitals in which I worked. No wonder nurses leave the profession so soon after entering. I had moved on by the time I was 32, but the traumas stay with me to this day...
109
My mother just retired after decades as a VA night shift nurse. During her time there she has been beaten, thrown to the ground, had furniture thrown at her, been sexually harassed and touched by patients, had a patient shoot at the hospital, had a patient break down the door with a chainsaw, had patients commit suicide nearby the hospital, just to name a few incidents. She has neither offered nor received counseling for any of that, let alone the daily trauma of dealing with death and family issues. I cannot overstate how important it is to help nurses struggling with trauma.
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I am a retired RN. After working a few years in a hospital, I moved out to the community. I decided that hospitals are unhealthy environments and do little to assist nurses. I always thought they should provide free workout rooms with time off to use them; offer occasional free meals or send up food when nurses can't leave the unit due to short staffing; increase compensation and provide stress relief counseling or modalities such as massages and meditation. Instead, if such services are available nurses are charged for them. Many things are wrong with the health care system but the way nurses are treated is one of them.
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@Caroline
I hope that your mother has a good retirement, she definitely deserves it. I can not imagine how hard it must have been for her to work in an environment like this.
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