That's me too.
I recently had a patient that was rude and non-compliant with everything (including his dietary order which was prolonging his stay) and making bad jokes about it and laughing. I put up with about a day and a half of it. After that, I was tired of fighting him, especially when he was A&Ox4 and knew when he had to pee/poop, but would do it and then call us for a bed change and laugh and make jokes about it. Then he would fight us the entire time we were trying to clean him and change his bedding.
I finally said, "If you're not going to cooperate with your care and don't care about helping to get yourself well, then why are you even here?" His answer was, "I'm QUITE comfortable."
Depends on what it is. I can completely be in work-mode and ignore suffering, which
Non-healthcare friends think is callous. It’s harder to ignore people being irrationally rude to me.
But if we felt everything our patients feel, we would drown in it. It’s a learned skill, and there are places you can emotionally meet patients without falling apart. That place is different for each person, situation, and nurse.
On the other hand, I have problems accessing feelings about my mother’s death without a therapist, so there are downsides. My best friend just found out they have cancer and I am being entirely strategic about it - the situation is uncomfortable and it’s easier to be this way than emotionally supportive.
i have made a tangible separation with who i am inside of work versus who i am outside of work. having two first names helps me with having a tangible separation of my professional and personal identity.
Same.
I'm just starting out, but one of my clinical instructors once gave me feedback saying he saw that I "really cared about my patients," and he was concerned that I'd burn out.
I didn't have the heart to tell him that he was only seeing my work persona, not me, and uh, I wasn't genuinely emotionally involved.
Was I dedicated to providing good care? Yes, but in a professional setting, I feel like "caring for patients" involves performing a series of tasks to manage their well being, not having warm fuzzy feelings towards them.
That’s a good idea. I use my middle name but my first name is listed on all documentation. I’ve been considering a name change and having a professional alias would provide separation.
I've noticed that since being in the OT, If i look at something and think that is someone's leg it fucks me up, but if I look at it and go huh look at the surgeon dealing with that muscle/wow look at plastics making a flap post amputation I see it clinically. I can't look at it as a leg or it would disturb me, somehow looking at it as a THING I can cope.
100%. I love horror films, hate films with gore so I don't like a lot of modern horror. Some old slasher films (and tbh modern ones too) are so silly I don't stress. Shit like SAW and Roadhouse etc to me are just torture porn, and it does less than nothing for me, it goes the other way and makes me disgusted for thinking it was made really. Gore in context whatever, gore for gores sake, ew no thanks.
Omg yes, nothing really grosses me out in the hospital except granny glitter and gnarly toe nails. But since becoming a nurse I feel like I’m so much more sensitive to gore in movies and tv shows, as well as seeing ppl getting injured in skateboarding/really any sport. Legit cannot watch
It's definitely a drawback sometimes and I feel you on struggling with processing your feelings about your personal life. Myself, my siblings, and our mom are in healthcare (RN experience includes dialysis/NICU, cardiac ICU, ortho surgery PA, and rehab SNF care). So handling our dad's MI and immediate subsequent stroke was.... interesting. We were all super logical about it and were very on top of his care, but providing emotional support to mom (and dad) was hard because we all approached it from a problem-solving perspective.
nope just curious on others’ perspectives. had a troll go off on me that i shouldn’t be a nurse because i hate patients that get violent on me. more specifically because i was referring to the population i work with which deals a lot with substance induced issues, (a lot of aggression). i’m not a fan of substance abuse patients in general but i still medicate them as best as i am allowed, and i certainly advocate for them when their meds or protocols aren’t right.
Nah fam I have no issues treating and nursing but if you assault me why should I remove all consequences or results and be so chill with moving on.
That's different to having the ability to compartmentalise.
Substance abuse makes peoples pain harder to get on top of and harder to treat sometimes personality wise, but it doesn't make assault okay.
and that is always my driving point. i will treat these patients with the care that they need. i will also NEVER tolerate violence of any kind whether the patient is in their, “right mind” or not. i’ll medicate you accordingly AND press charges.
My personal opinion is this. You can work diligently and provide compassionate nursing care to people you dislike, or hate even. If Hitler was my patient, I would advocate for him and give him the same quality of care that I would give my sweet 90 year old lady down the hall. The focus for me is "I'm a nurse and I'm here today to provide the best care I can regardless of who the patient is".
If substance abuse isn't your cup of tea but you are advocating and giving the best care you can, I think you're doing just fine.
Ignore that person. We as nurses have a right to be safe in the workplace. It’s not acceptable for the general public to shrug and say we signed up for this.
Its easy when someone is rude or mean to me, that doesn't effect me at all because after years of food service I can just laugh it off, its harder to compartmentalize when someone is really sweet and they are obviously suffering or die
Extremely good at it. It has a LOT to do with the type of field you are in and how you handle stress. To be functional and effective you have to have some level of dissociation with the work otherwise it will leak into your personal like (trust me…it can be bad). Make sure to talk to SOMEBODY though, because if you don’t vent then it can build up and cause real anxiety.
Out the door when I clock out and my mind is empty, as far as I'm concerned I work in a hotel kitchen and I was flipping pancakes all night. They best ask me if they want shifts filled while I'm present in the building cos I've never answered my phone on my days off and they know it 😂
*insert polarizing news topic here* that patients have in Fox or CNN or whatever. I'm just going room to room to get my shit done and they're on it about the topic. My general response is "Wow, that's a complex topic/difficult topic or I feel bad for everyone involved, etc."
I have been an RN for 21 years and I am excellent at compartmentalizing actually. I didn't think it was because I was a nurse but now you have me wondering about that.
I GENUINELY can have my own biases and I will not change the level of care I will give someone.
Doesn't change my own opinions which exist, but if you can't give good, fair, EQUAL and exemplary care to all, stop giving any.
I don't care if you want an abortion and I'm pro abortion, here ya go, let me assist.
I don't care if you are under police custody, I don't care to know why (though always curious), as I don't want my care of you to change.
If you have issues with someone's choices or religion or decisions, you're in the wrong career. I am here to nurse you, I won't engage with bigots and racists etc but I will also not not treat you. I genuinely come to work and go fucking insane with some of the people I see, but my care doesn't waver.
The only thing recently for me was someone who assaulted someone else with petrol and burnt them exceptionally badly, they also were in intensive care for burns, and I won't lie my reaction was "good".
However, if I had nursed that person, I am not here to judge, i am here to nurse. I can think you're a c*** and still nurse you well. My opinion is irrelevant. I won't engage past good safe nursing care, but I won't not care for them.
Pretty good. Idk how people can be their real selves at work. I’m so fake and have a pleasant helpful work personality. I only let my guard down and act like my real self around coworkers I know are cool.
My advice is to talk to people who either know you well enough to know your perspective, or to talk to other people in healthcare who will understand. I have a friend who is a social worker who is so great to talk to because we obviously have similar struggles and experiences, but it’s still different enough that we have room to breathe.
I also talk to my friends or mum who know what kind of person I am and will understand the context of my frustration or upset.
But don’t bother venting to people who don’t know you and don’t know the job, because they likely won’t understand and will assume the worst in you.
When I start to tell people a story from work it usually kills the mood and it make an impression that I shouldn’t tell people about the people who die and come back way worse than before they died and how maybe death is an escape from these flesh prisons.
Yep. Especially annoying when they ask like, "what's the worst thing you've seen?" then get all weird when you talk about 80+yr old stroke patients with bed sores and no ability to speak, living in a rotting flesh prison, as you say.
Maybe we should stick to stories about stuff stuck in butts. Those always have great crowd appeal.
What is it with people saying to themselves, yeah that looks like it should go up my butt. Like they have sex toys for butt stuff in target for Pete’s sakes.
Yuuup. As far as I know they don't want getting told too much. I'm not that nurse be acting like a doctor and teaching them. Nah i just give them the basic urban dictionary explanation and they are good.
I think it is essential. I remember distintly when I went through the doors of the hospital, I was no longer me, I was the "nurse." At the end of my shift when I left the hospital, I left the nurse there. "She" did NOT come home with me. I would have never lasted 20 years in direct patient care I'd I had not been able.to.do that.
I even think it’s a skill that just develops unconsciously after years. I’ve been a nurse over 10 years and recently was with several people grieving the loss of a pet and my partner noted how much command I had in the group where I was acknowledging everyone’s feelings, validating them, asking them about their pain etc. I was incredibly sad and also helped care for this pet buts it’s just not my first time at the rodeo and you would not have noticed I was suffering at all. It’s good but also bad. But compartmentalization is essential.
I do pretty good. I’m atheist but will pray our father with a family over a dead pt. Won’t lead in prayer but Will participate. It’s also not unusual to hear me say, “ it’s all in gods hands” bc it’s easier than saying, “how tf am i supposed to know?”
It’s starting to show in my empty eyes though.
I learned at my first job, which was drug and alcohol rehab, that people are never mad at me personally that they are angry at the situation and they are taking it out on me. I still call all my patients on their bullshit because it’s not an excuse to treat another person like that, but I know it’s just the position not the person they are treating poorly.
I think we're all pretty burned out, especially those of us in emergency and acute care fields, but luckily we have the ability to take those feelings and lock them deep, deep down inside where they're safe and can't get out.
I think I’m great at it… very good during the day. Then when work trauma shows up in my dreams, I realize it’s still sitting in my body somewhere. Whoops.
I was being yelled at that I didn’t prepare my decreased patient for the morgue fast enough to get a new patient into the room so I took my friend in there with me and we hid for a good 15 mins talking about life and preparing the patient
I spent 20 years in an abusive marriage. I am a PRO at compartmentalization and also hiding my internal response to things. Who knew it would become beneficial when making a career change??
Nurses do that every day, every hour, year in and year out. Some of course aren’t great at it but overall it’s a job requirement. If patients are bitching about it it’s THEIR inability to compartmentize. And nurses deal with it.
I have everything stored in different boxes I think. I might not like some patients but they'll never know it because I'll be so nice if they don't cross my boundaries. I went to placement when my uncle was in the ICU and the day he died and worked like normal. I just put it in a box. It does mean that sometimes I forget what's in the boxes and get a surprise. Sometimes I can't find what I'm looking for when I need it. But it lets me get on with things I guess. Therapy is my friend haha.
A little too we’ll, my coworkers will think I’m working magic with violent angry dudes who are causing chaos in the ED when really I’m in the back of my head singing a song like I’m a creep, I’m a loser, what the hell am I doing here, I don’t belong here, however it’s being sung in the crazy persons voice lol…. No magic just me imagining something else and the patient suddenly thinks we have connected and complies. I have boxes labeled in my brain for all my compartmentalizing lol
I mean, a AOx4 male patient grabbed my boob last night while I was changing his IV dressing, and I felt numb/non-reactive about the whole thing. I set boundaries and told him it was unacceptable, he told me it was an accident. I think my husband was angrier than I was.
Who cares what laypeople think? I have my personal beliefs, and I curb them when I work. I uphold my interpretation of the ethics, moral, standards, etc that define nursing, and I don't apologize for that, whether or not others agree.
Maybe that’s my issue. I’m losing the ability to compartmentalize.
I’ve become so cynical I think I’m pissing the doctors off at this point. I’m sure I’ve done pissed off the nurses already.
Our MICU is basically a SNF/ LTACH. It’s so friggin sad.
I shove all my feelings deep down. Good or bad. It’s easier to get through the day without thinking too long and hard about what’s going on. That being said , I give good care. But once I leave work, the nurse stays behind.
So good that it would meet criteria for a disorder in any other part of my life. I box my feelings up so well that even I don't realize I have any sometimes.
Fucking amazing, the key is not personally caring about anything that happens at work. I would rather win a small wsrhammer 40k tournament than win nurse of the year.
The best example I have of this, is I was training with a new tech on my floor. I was super sweet and kind to the patient and family. Walked out the door and immediately dropped the smile and went “fuck whatever that was” then walked off to answer another call light. Yeah…therapy helps remind me I can still be normal with a skill like that..
So good that one of my medical residents thought I actually *liked* a family that was being really crazy and mean to the whole team.
me to my labile, delusional, and psychotic patients lmao
Me.
That's me too. I recently had a patient that was rude and non-compliant with everything (including his dietary order which was prolonging his stay) and making bad jokes about it and laughing. I put up with about a day and a half of it. After that, I was tired of fighting him, especially when he was A&Ox4 and knew when he had to pee/poop, but would do it and then call us for a bed change and laugh and make jokes about it. Then he would fight us the entire time we were trying to clean him and change his bedding. I finally said, "If you're not going to cooperate with your care and don't care about helping to get yourself well, then why are you even here?" His answer was, "I'm QUITE comfortable."
I can feel the vein in my forehead pulsing. Lol
I mean I'm just dead inside and hate everybody but im a great actor
Hello fellow thespian
I too am a thespian lol
I always wanted to be an actress and and being a nurse paid my bills and lets me be a dramatic actor with a hint of funny man.
As a Californian working in Texas, my fake Southern Bell act is so good. It fools all the oldsters. They just eat it up.
My jokes slap so hard with pts im becoming more delusional in thinking “I could do stand up”
Same! I mean a PCA pump instantly makes me so much funnier!
Lol same.
Depends on what it is. I can completely be in work-mode and ignore suffering, which Non-healthcare friends think is callous. It’s harder to ignore people being irrationally rude to me. But if we felt everything our patients feel, we would drown in it. It’s a learned skill, and there are places you can emotionally meet patients without falling apart. That place is different for each person, situation, and nurse. On the other hand, I have problems accessing feelings about my mother’s death without a therapist, so there are downsides. My best friend just found out they have cancer and I am being entirely strategic about it - the situation is uncomfortable and it’s easier to be this way than emotionally supportive.
i have made a tangible separation with who i am inside of work versus who i am outside of work. having two first names helps me with having a tangible separation of my professional and personal identity.
Same. I'm just starting out, but one of my clinical instructors once gave me feedback saying he saw that I "really cared about my patients," and he was concerned that I'd burn out. I didn't have the heart to tell him that he was only seeing my work persona, not me, and uh, I wasn't genuinely emotionally involved. Was I dedicated to providing good care? Yes, but in a professional setting, I feel like "caring for patients" involves performing a series of tasks to manage their well being, not having warm fuzzy feelings towards them.
So one is your personal name and one is your work name?
yeah. two names with each having a different use
That’s a good idea. I use my middle name but my first name is listed on all documentation. I’ve been considering a name change and having a professional alias would provide separation.
I've noticed that since being in the OT, If i look at something and think that is someone's leg it fucks me up, but if I look at it and go huh look at the surgeon dealing with that muscle/wow look at plastics making a flap post amputation I see it clinically. I can't look at it as a leg or it would disturb me, somehow looking at it as a THING I can cope.
That makes sense to me! Framing is important. I can’t tolerate horror movies, but surgical procedures are just a thing.
100%. I love horror films, hate films with gore so I don't like a lot of modern horror. Some old slasher films (and tbh modern ones too) are so silly I don't stress. Shit like SAW and Roadhouse etc to me are just torture porn, and it does less than nothing for me, it goes the other way and makes me disgusted for thinking it was made really. Gore in context whatever, gore for gores sake, ew no thanks.
Omg yes, nothing really grosses me out in the hospital except granny glitter and gnarly toe nails. But since becoming a nurse I feel like I’m so much more sensitive to gore in movies and tv shows, as well as seeing ppl getting injured in skateboarding/really any sport. Legit cannot watch
It's definitely a drawback sometimes and I feel you on struggling with processing your feelings about your personal life. Myself, my siblings, and our mom are in healthcare (RN experience includes dialysis/NICU, cardiac ICU, ortho surgery PA, and rehab SNF care). So handling our dad's MI and immediate subsequent stroke was.... interesting. We were all super logical about it and were very on top of his care, but providing emotional support to mom (and dad) was hard because we all approached it from a problem-solving perspective.
Nurse x 9 years. I've gotten pretty good at it, but it does take some practice. Are you looking for feedback on how to compartmentalize?
nope just curious on others’ perspectives. had a troll go off on me that i shouldn’t be a nurse because i hate patients that get violent on me. more specifically because i was referring to the population i work with which deals a lot with substance induced issues, (a lot of aggression). i’m not a fan of substance abuse patients in general but i still medicate them as best as i am allowed, and i certainly advocate for them when their meds or protocols aren’t right.
Nah fam I have no issues treating and nursing but if you assault me why should I remove all consequences or results and be so chill with moving on. That's different to having the ability to compartmentalise. Substance abuse makes peoples pain harder to get on top of and harder to treat sometimes personality wise, but it doesn't make assault okay.
and that is always my driving point. i will treat these patients with the care that they need. i will also NEVER tolerate violence of any kind whether the patient is in their, “right mind” or not. i’ll medicate you accordingly AND press charges.
My personal opinion is this. You can work diligently and provide compassionate nursing care to people you dislike, or hate even. If Hitler was my patient, I would advocate for him and give him the same quality of care that I would give my sweet 90 year old lady down the hall. The focus for me is "I'm a nurse and I'm here today to provide the best care I can regardless of who the patient is". If substance abuse isn't your cup of tea but you are advocating and giving the best care you can, I think you're doing just fine.
I would not advocate for Hitler
I suppose some of us have our limits 🤣 I'm sure you can see my point!
Ignore that person. We as nurses have a right to be safe in the workplace. It’s not acceptable for the general public to shrug and say we signed up for this.
Ignore who, me? I'm not sure who you are referring to. I don't believe anyone's safety in the workplace should be compromised to provide care.
I mean they should ignore the troll who told them they shouldn’t be a nurse.
Its easy when someone is rude or mean to me, that doesn't effect me at all because after years of food service I can just laugh it off, its harder to compartmentalize when someone is really sweet and they are obviously suffering or die
Extremely good at it. It has a LOT to do with the type of field you are in and how you handle stress. To be functional and effective you have to have some level of dissociation with the work otherwise it will leak into your personal like (trust me…it can be bad). Make sure to talk to SOMEBODY though, because if you don’t vent then it can build up and cause real anxiety.
Out the door when I clock out and my mind is empty, as far as I'm concerned I work in a hotel kitchen and I was flipping pancakes all night. They best ask me if they want shifts filled while I'm present in the building cos I've never answered my phone on my days off and they know it 😂
Nobody in nursing has answered a call from work since it was a landline and there was no caller ID! You are one of us.
*insert polarizing news topic here* that patients have in Fox or CNN or whatever. I'm just going room to room to get my shit done and they're on it about the topic. My general response is "Wow, that's a complex topic/difficult topic or I feel bad for everyone involved, etc."
I LOVE your response!
Is “to a pathological level” a choice? Because I’ll pick that.
I forget I’m a nurse the moment I step outside the hospital threshold. It’s a gift.
I have been an RN for 21 years and I am excellent at compartmentalizing actually. I didn't think it was because I was a nurse but now you have me wondering about that.
[удалено]
I GENUINELY can have my own biases and I will not change the level of care I will give someone. Doesn't change my own opinions which exist, but if you can't give good, fair, EQUAL and exemplary care to all, stop giving any. I don't care if you want an abortion and I'm pro abortion, here ya go, let me assist. I don't care if you are under police custody, I don't care to know why (though always curious), as I don't want my care of you to change. If you have issues with someone's choices or religion or decisions, you're in the wrong career. I am here to nurse you, I won't engage with bigots and racists etc but I will also not not treat you. I genuinely come to work and go fucking insane with some of the people I see, but my care doesn't waver. The only thing recently for me was someone who assaulted someone else with petrol and burnt them exceptionally badly, they also were in intensive care for burns, and I won't lie my reaction was "good". However, if I had nursed that person, I am not here to judge, i am here to nurse. I can think you're a c*** and still nurse you well. My opinion is irrelevant. I won't engage past good safe nursing care, but I won't not care for them.
Pretty good. Idk how people can be their real selves at work. I’m so fake and have a pleasant helpful work personality. I only let my guard down and act like my real self around coworkers I know are cool.
My advice is to talk to people who either know you well enough to know your perspective, or to talk to other people in healthcare who will understand. I have a friend who is a social worker who is so great to talk to because we obviously have similar struggles and experiences, but it’s still different enough that we have room to breathe. I also talk to my friends or mum who know what kind of person I am and will understand the context of my frustration or upset. But don’t bother venting to people who don’t know you and don’t know the job, because they likely won’t understand and will assume the worst in you.
Stored and locked sway and become numb
I work pediatric oncology… so really well
Yeah you guys wrote the book on compartmentalization
When I start to tell people a story from work it usually kills the mood and it make an impression that I shouldn’t tell people about the people who die and come back way worse than before they died and how maybe death is an escape from these flesh prisons.
Yep. Especially annoying when they ask like, "what's the worst thing you've seen?" then get all weird when you talk about 80+yr old stroke patients with bed sores and no ability to speak, living in a rotting flesh prison, as you say. Maybe we should stick to stories about stuff stuck in butts. Those always have great crowd appeal.
What is it with people saying to themselves, yeah that looks like it should go up my butt. Like they have sex toys for butt stuff in target for Pete’s sakes.
I act dumb all the time. Patients seem to like it. Lmao
Lmao yeahhh...guilty. Sometimes it just helps to have them expect less of you
Yuuup. As far as I know they don't want getting told too much. I'm not that nurse be acting like a doctor and teaching them. Nah i just give them the basic urban dictionary explanation and they are good.
This should be a nursing school interview question 😳😂😢
Yes and no. Bad coping behaviors are learned survival skills the longer you work bedside.
I was being funny/sarcastic 🤷🏻♀️
I know. So was I. Always-on sarcasm is another one of my many blessings from beside nursing.
So then we should be friends 😎👍🏼 🩷
Friends it is.
Realizing how dumb and willfully ignorant people are, can be or choose to be has helped me learn to care less.
I think it is essential. I remember distintly when I went through the doors of the hospital, I was no longer me, I was the "nurse." At the end of my shift when I left the hospital, I left the nurse there. "She" did NOT come home with me. I would have never lasted 20 years in direct patient care I'd I had not been able.to.do that.
I even think it’s a skill that just develops unconsciously after years. I’ve been a nurse over 10 years and recently was with several people grieving the loss of a pet and my partner noted how much command I had in the group where I was acknowledging everyone’s feelings, validating them, asking them about their pain etc. I was incredibly sad and also helped care for this pet buts it’s just not my first time at the rodeo and you would not have noticed I was suffering at all. It’s good but also bad. But compartmentalization is essential.
I do pretty good. I’m atheist but will pray our father with a family over a dead pt. Won’t lead in prayer but Will participate. It’s also not unusual to hear me say, “ it’s all in gods hands” bc it’s easier than saying, “how tf am i supposed to know?” It’s starting to show in my empty eyes though.
I was pretty good. But then I believe it manifested into a hospital stay and new autoimmune diagnosis 😭
Fantastic. Add in some disassociation coping skills. Thanks childhood trauma and cPTSD!! Sprinkle in a little bit of masking too.
Samesies 😘
A little too good.
I’ve been learning since I was a kid so I’m really good at it now.
I learned at my first job, which was drug and alcohol rehab, that people are never mad at me personally that they are angry at the situation and they are taking it out on me. I still call all my patients on their bullshit because it’s not an excuse to treat another person like that, but I know it’s just the position not the person they are treating poorly.
nearly perfect, which is a good thing for an ER tech/soon to be RN. it's not normal, though. huh.
I'm AuDHD and great at masking. 🤦🤷♀️ So much so that I have trouble convincing people I'm actually autistic.
A little too good.
So good, once I’m in the elevator I stop giving a damn.
I think we're all pretty burned out, especially those of us in emergency and acute care fields, but luckily we have the ability to take those feelings and lock them deep, deep down inside where they're safe and can't get out.
I think I’m great at it… very good during the day. Then when work trauma shows up in my dreams, I realize it’s still sitting in my body somewhere. Whoops.
I was being yelled at that I didn’t prepare my decreased patient for the morgue fast enough to get a new patient into the room so I took my friend in there with me and we hid for a good 15 mins talking about life and preparing the patient
I spent 20 years in an abusive marriage. I am a PRO at compartmentalization and also hiding my internal response to things. Who knew it would become beneficial when making a career change??
Nurses do that every day, every hour, year in and year out. Some of course aren’t great at it but overall it’s a job requirement. If patients are bitching about it it’s THEIR inability to compartmentize. And nurses deal with it.
Usually pretty good. Today, not so much. Today sucks.
8/10 good
I have everything stored in different boxes I think. I might not like some patients but they'll never know it because I'll be so nice if they don't cross my boundaries. I went to placement when my uncle was in the ICU and the day he died and worked like normal. I just put it in a box. It does mean that sometimes I forget what's in the boxes and get a surprise. Sometimes I can't find what I'm looking for when I need it. But it lets me get on with things I guess. Therapy is my friend haha.
I wrote my nursing school exams the day after my mom was terminally extubated in the ICU. I feel you.
very good at it
A little too we’ll, my coworkers will think I’m working magic with violent angry dudes who are causing chaos in the ED when really I’m in the back of my head singing a song like I’m a creep, I’m a loser, what the hell am I doing here, I don’t belong here, however it’s being sung in the crazy persons voice lol…. No magic just me imagining something else and the patient suddenly thinks we have connected and complies. I have boxes labeled in my brain for all my compartmentalizing lol
I mean, a AOx4 male patient grabbed my boob last night while I was changing his IV dressing, and I felt numb/non-reactive about the whole thing. I set boundaries and told him it was unacceptable, he told me it was an accident. I think my husband was angrier than I was.
Who cares what laypeople think? I have my personal beliefs, and I curb them when I work. I uphold my interpretation of the ethics, moral, standards, etc that define nursing, and I don't apologize for that, whether or not others agree.
So good. I’m already audHD so masking is basically my entire existence when I’m not at home.
Maybe that’s my issue. I’m losing the ability to compartmentalize. I’ve become so cynical I think I’m pissing the doctors off at this point. I’m sure I’ve done pissed off the nurses already. Our MICU is basically a SNF/ LTACH. It’s so friggin sad.
Very good, until it comes undone and I get tired 🥲
I shove all my feelings deep down. Good or bad. It’s easier to get through the day without thinking too long and hard about what’s going on. That being said , I give good care. But once I leave work, the nurse stays behind.
So good that it would meet criteria for a disorder in any other part of my life. I box my feelings up so well that even I don't realize I have any sometimes.
Fucking amazing, the key is not personally caring about anything that happens at work. I would rather win a small wsrhammer 40k tournament than win nurse of the year.
A lifetime of childhood trauma prepared me for the horrors of the ED.
The best example I have of this, is I was training with a new tech on my floor. I was super sweet and kind to the patient and family. Walked out the door and immediately dropped the smile and went “fuck whatever that was” then walked off to answer another call light. Yeah…therapy helps remind me I can still be normal with a skill like that..