My stutter--my biggest challenge

[whit9448]

Hello, everyone. I graduated almost 2 years ago with my LVN. I immediately started working at a LTC facility and have been there ever since. I usually enjoy my job and love my residents, however, I have one thing that holds me back from so many things--I stutter. I have had a speech problem ever since I could speak. Having trouble communicating with people seriously feels like I am imprisoned in my own body. I feel like I have no voice, and that I am worthless and incompetent. I truly believe that only people who stutter know this dreadful feeling that I am talking about. I have my most trouble when speaking on the telephone or in a very stressful situation (ex: sending someone to the ER, calling EMS, having a patient fall and injure themselves). There is nothing more discouraging than to have a doctor laugh at you when attempting to call in some lab results, or to hear a receptionist at the doctors office lean over to her friend and say "oh god, it's her again." I have actually considered quitting my job due to so much stress and anxiety that my speech brings on, but I have been taking speech therapy for 6 months now and it has somewhat helped me to cope with it better. One of the most helpful things that my therapist has told me is that my stutter does NOT define me, it may be something that I have to deal with, but it is not who I am. I am also going to ask my doctor for an anti-anxiety medication, to hopefully help me to relax and be more fluent. So, my question is this--are there any fellow nurse stutterers out there? I feel so alone and like I am the only one who has this issue. I know that obviously isn't realistic, so please, anyone who has a stutter or knows someone who does, let me know what you think about this subject. How does it affect your JOB and life in general? How do you cope with it? Any advice?

[succinate]

I don't have a stutter but I do have a form of speech impediment that results from having a profound hearing loss. I can completely understand your feelings and the hardships that come with it when you work as a nurse. I know how it feels when the people you work with make remarks about you because of your speech.

I'm only a nursing student and so I haven't really had a chance to face the reality in the workplace. BUT before entering nursing school, I had a job at a local hospital for my high school placement. I can say this experience has been invaluable because it gave me a reality check of the workplace. A lot of people I've worked with have made rude remarks about me and my speech. To be honest, I don't give a **** about it and I just walk away. One time, I was working in a lab with an employee and when she was introducing me to another staff member, she blurted out, "she has funny speech/she talks funny" but not until after she realized what she just said. Ummm...excuse me? I do not have a "funny speech"; it is because I have a hearing disability from which my speech impediment originated. She walked away and I could clearly see humiliation painted in her facial expression.

Now that I'm in nursing school, I keep thinking about "what ifs". What if my patient cannot understand me? What if my doctor mistakes me when I ask for a medication? What if my family thinks that the biopsy is positive when it's actually negative? But in my life (I'm 18 now), I've overcame many, many hardships from my disability and will do when I face the reality of the workplace. I will work on my speech every day (just not now; later on) and will ensure that my speech is polished for the sake of my patient's safety. If that's not possible (sometimes not everything is possible in life), I will work around my goals.

If you ever come across a situation in which your patient cannot understand you, write it down. There's nothing wrong with that. You, as a nurse, are your patient's role model. For them to see that you work around your way to achieve your goals, you are teaching them that nothing is impossible. We sometimes have to change the pathway in order to reach our goals. And if a doctor ever laughs at you, I would go see him or her in private and cuss them out. I've done that before (not to a doctor, but to someone else). I've had a doctor (again I'm not a nurse yet) who was so ****** to me just because he cannot comprehend what I was saying.

Really, I believe that some people cannot just do anything about their speech impediments and THAT'S OKAY. It's nothing to be ashamed of (even though I feel down/depressed when someone keeps asking me, 'what?" "What?"). Remember, you are not the only nurse with this predicament. I even know nurses with one arm. I even know nurses who are blind. Yet they still make a difference in their patient's lives every day. I encourage you to keep going with the speech therapy. Even though you may not hear it right now, I believe your speech will be so much better than it is now in the future. YOU CAN DO IT.

[llw1066]

I stutter. It's mild, and I can hide it much of the time. It gets worse when I'm anxious, which happens a lot because as we all know nursing can be a very stressful profession. The way I deal with it is to constantly work on my speech: by slowing down my rate in general, plus I do valsalva maneuver exercises (google this, it's one form of treatment stuttering). Also, I meditate, exercise and generally stay away from caffeine, which tends to make me more anxious.

Don't give up! In my previous career as a writer, I once interviewed a lawyer who had a pretty severe stutter, but he managed to have a pretty great career despite the challenges.

[ttownsend]

Hello! I am new to this forum and came across this thread a few months late. I actually signed up for an account because of the same problem and I hoped to get some advice from any nurses that do stutter. I have a stutter which can be pretty bad at times, especially when I get nervous and anxious. I am currently in my second semester of nursing school and I am so completely discouraged by my speech that it makes me wonder if I will be successful in nursing. I don't really know of anyone else who stutters and was hoping to hear some other people's thoughts and experiences on nursing and stuttering.