 Hi guys, welcome back to my latest video today. I want to talk about PTSD and nursing I've had this idea written down for months now on my video ideas list and for some reason I never felt like I could get around to talk about it until today and I recorded another video today on organ donation and I shared a very like personal story about one of my shifts where I took care of a patient that was an organ donor and it kind of like sparked my I don't say sparked my interest but motivated me to do this video as well PTSD and nursing I feel like when you hear the word PTSD you oftentimes think of it in the sense of like the military or law enforcement or something where Someone is seeing people constantly get injured or die or traumatic things But if you think about it nurses also see a lot of traumatic things a lot of severe injuries a lot of very sad Emotional cases where people died where they shouldn't have died people bleeding out people super sick Just very gruesome or traumatic things whether it's like physically gruesome like where there's blood and guts and gore or it's like more emotionally I Don't use the word gruesome emotionally gruesome. That's not the right thing, but it's a very emotional thing I'm not saying that I Have PTSD But I know that there's many nurses out there that who are going to be struggling with some of the things that I talk about in this video and I hope it just brings to light like the beauty but also the Horror side of being a nurse But nursing is a very very emotional Stressful job and I have had several I've seen a lot of terrible things being an ICU nurse I've seen people who have bled out. I've seen people That died that shouldn't have died I've seen you know families just be torn to shreds by a diagnosis of their loved one And that's very hard and I would be lying if I said there are certain People that I have taken care of in my nursing career that I still think of to this day or certain Situations that I still think of to this day Because I just wonder like I wonder what happened or wonder what the outcome was or I wonder how the family's doing And in my organ donation video, which I'll have linked down below I actually talk about kind of more about a situation that I still think about till this to this day And I'm not say I'm not saying I don't you know, I could go home. I still can go to bed It's not like I'm waking up with nightmares or tears or there's some more of those PTSD Signs, but there are situations where maybe I've you know Had a little bit difficulty going to sleep because I've just replaying the events of the day in my head or you know weeks later I wonder like I wonder how this person is doing and it's still like very emotional and I think that's a very normal Thing when you're a nurse no matter what type of nurse you are Especially when you're a new nurse you go home and you replay your day over and over and over in your head You cannot forget You know, you cannot just let go of the things that you did or saw through the day or you're like, oh crap I think I forgot to chart this or I forgot you this or what if I said this better or what if I did this better or this Doctor yelled at me or this doctor hung up on me And it's just you replay constantly the events of the day And it kind of just really gets to my first six months of nursing were like that it just went home every day and I just thought thought thought thought thought thought thought and I don't really know what I did to make that get better over time But eventually you kind of just get more used to and comfortable in your job And you go home and you can kind of leave work at work and enjoy your personal life at home Because you really need to have a good healthy separation between the two I'm not saying you can't come home and talk about your day That's one of really important things to do is talk about your day when you come home Talk about these things with your co-workers the things that you've seen the things that you've done Talk it about it to your co-workers because I love my husband and I tell him lots of stories when I come home But at the end of the day, he just doesn't quite Fully know what my job is like because he doesn't do it the same thing with his job I don't fully know what his job is like because I don't do it And even though he's happy to listen to me and I like to vent to him at the end of the day He doesn't quite a hundred percent get the things that I do or see at work And so that's why it's great to talk to your co-workers about these things talk to your manager talk to someone who you can trust Because if you kind of just bottle it all up It really will start to get to you and then there's been you know several cases of nurses who have you know tried to commit suicide or committed suicide because of things that have developed in their career or things that they've seen in their past that have just kind of Manifested in a negative way. So you really have to take these emotional situations and process them and Have a healthy outlet whether it's exercising or taking naps or like hanging out with friends Whatever you do have a healthy outlet. So that way these things don't build up over time and start to cause you more You know mental health illness related issues. So I hope this kind of touches on PTSD and nursing a little bit again I'm not saying I have PTSD, but I can see how it's really easy for nurses to slip into that Mind frame and PTSD and with all of her traumatic things that we see so take care of yourself Take care of your co-workers Have a healthy outlet talk with people and nursing such a beautiful thing and I hope this video doesn't deter you away But it's important to know what you're getting into before you're into nursing or if you're already there I'm sure that you've already are discovering this But nursing's a beautiful field and I hope you guys Enjoy this video. Let me know if you have any questions or comments in the comments below and I'll see you my next video. Bye