Last night I worked with a nurse who has worked at my hospital for 3 months. She moved to our state for her husband to complete an educational program. She has 3 kids. I have not worked with her very much, but once before she opened up about her marriage to me. I figured that she needed to vent, being in a new area, and I'm used to it because people always open up to me easily for some reason.
Last night we were working with another nurse with whom I've worked many times. They got on the subject of husbands, and this new nurse literally could not stop talking about this dreadful subject of what a lousy husband she has, listing over and over again his many faults. She also reminices about her last hospital where she was very happy frequently. She talked about her best friend there, who was such a good support for her, they would get together and vent about their lousy husbands together, they had so much in common, and she misses this best friend so much!
Meanwhile, we had previously decided to attend a three session continueing ed thing in Feb and March together. I was thinking it would be great but now I'm dreading it because it's obvious that her very favorite subject in the world is how miserable her marriage is. She talked about this nonstop last night. My husband has been dead for 9 years, and he was very lovable and was the best. In no way do I want to hear about her terrible husband. It's obvious to me that this is her very favorite subject in the world, I kid you not.
Any advise? I tried gentle humor to steer her off the subject, but you should have heard her, her stamina in talking about her husband was amazing!
