I need some info on emotional aspects of PICU.

Specialties PICU

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I am a senior in high school and i am doing a project on the emotional aspects of being a nurse in the nursery or intensive care unit. I would like to know if anyone has had to go to group therapy because of the stress, or any other information you can tell me about it. If anyone knows of some websites that would be good to go to for this kind of info that would be great.

Thank you,

Tabatha C.

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I am a PICU nurse and I saw your thread a couple of days back and didn't respond b/c I haven't really had any bad emotional breakdowns until last night and yes I really am torn up about it and think I am going to see a therapist about it! Write me if you are interested:o

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

You can pick my brain too if you want. PM me and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Lots of heavy stuff happens in our unit all the time.

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I am a PICU nurse and I saw your thread a couple of days back and didn't respond b/c I haven't really had any bad emotional breakdowns until last night and yes I really am torn up about it and think I am going to see a therapist about it! Write me if you are interested:o

I would love to hear about your story. That could help me out a lot. I'm sorry to hear that it was so emotional. Thanks for writing back. :)

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I would love to hear about your story. That could help me out a lot. I'm sorry to hear that it was so emotional. Thanks for writing back. :)

I had a 11 y/o boy who was sick (typical N/V), he came in for elevated liver enzymes, rapidly progressed to acute liver failure.

I took care of him 3 days in a row ...

Day 1...he was sitting up playing video games giving me high fives, being goofy, didn't really seem sick, couldn't wait to get discharged to go home and play sports

Day 2... Jaundice was worse, pt had less of a playful attitude, and started to be depressed he wasn't going home soon enough, but still AOx3, watching movies, and sports on t.v.

Day 3...started out same as day 2....had a long night with him, very irritable couldn't get comfortable, etc...when I woke him up for morning blood draw and assessment at 4am he was completely confused didn't know who he was or me, or anything...now he had progressed into encephalopathy...

I just started crying right in his room, the family thought I was crazy. I just can't get the mental pic. out of my head how over 3 days its like his body was just dying and I could not do anything but watch.

I am choosing to get therapy (speak with someone), b/c I intend to stay in the PICU but need someone to talk to who can sort of put this into perspective for me. I just can't explain it, it was like I just knew too much to handle the situation, and didn't really know what to say to the family everything happened so fast.:o

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