To trauma or not to trauma-learning

[alwayslearnin]

Greetings my fellows-

I am processing as I write and as I ask for your experience.

I work in small, rural hospital-don't see a lot of major trauma often, but it does come.

Anyway-today it came and it was my first experience with it. I won't go into detail, but the young lady was a mangled mess and bled out before she even got to us, yet we did the full meal deal on her for an hour.

So here I am, my first major trauma and I am spinning. I was told it went well-but I wonder if I am doing well. What I mean is-I am going to a level 2 trauma ER soon and I am sitting here wondering, do I want to subject myself to these sights, these realities? I feel somewhat nauseated. Do I really want to do this? And yet, I know myself, once I get a taste, I can't go back to the more "mundane" (as if anything in nursing is mundane-lol!)

Anyway, I'm pretty sure this is just part of the experience of trauma nursing and I will become somewhat "use to it" but I am a little scared. Normal??

Any words of wisdom? I don't ever want a trauma to become routine, and yet I don't want to feel like I am going to barf and question all things everytime there is one (oh my god, how will the family cope, the patient was only __ years old, or this was such a tragic death-whatever)

Anyway, most of this is just "venting" and "processing" (hey maybe that is how you become able to be a good trauma nurse and keep your heart intact. I guess it is a step. How do you know if you shouldn't be a trauma nurse?

Anyway, thanks just for letting me post. God bless all of you for all of your hard work!!!

alwayslearnin

[ERNurse752, RN]

Not everything you see will be that bad. And you do get somewhat desensitized to it. I don't mean that you get used to it and don't feel any emotion, but seeing/smelling things will not be so much of a shock once you've seen more trauma.

It's normal to be scared and anxious. Especially if you've only had one run-in with trauma, and it was a biggie!

Also, traumas will be run totally different in a Level I trauma center than they are in a rural facility that doesn't see much trauma. People around you will have more experience, you will have more resources. All that equals less fear as well.

Just...go with it... Good luck!

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

Taking care of trauma patients (especially the initial resuscitation period) can be physically and emotionally draining. You do separate yourself from the pt in order to deal with the injuries. Some things that you might do to make yourself more comfortable with it are:

1. Talk to some experienced co-workers. Trauma for a patient is also trauma for you.

2. Ensure that you have taken all the trauma education you can. I especially like PHTLS (pre-hospital trauma life support), ENPC (Emergency Nurses Pediatric Course), PEPP (Pediatric education for pre-hospital providers), TNCC (Trauma Nurse Core Curriculum) and what in IL is called TNS - Trauma Nurse Specialist - it is a license from the state after taking a 3 week masters-level trauma course.

3. Get all the experience that you can. It is through experience that you will feel more comfortable.

4. Take care of yourself. Sometimes seeing man's inhumanity against man wears on you - I know it does me.

[mmutk, BSN, RN, EMT-I]

Take the ENA's TNCC class and gain some confidence too

:)

[busyernurse, BSN, RN]

Message to alwayslearning : you sound just like I did about 5 or 6 years ago when I took a job in the ER in a small hospital about 30 miles from our home. It had 3 ER rooms and usually got clinic stuff, you know, "my knee has been hurting for 6 months, and there wasn't anything on tv, so I thought I'd come in, but it won't take long, will it?" Then came my first trauma code. This guy was smoking crack while driving(apparently never a good combination), and hit a tree. When the EMT Ps extricated him, they both just grabbed an arm of his goose-down jacket he was wearing, and pulled "really hard". When I met the ambulance at the bay and opened the doors, it looked like a herd of geese had flown into the engine of an airplane! Bloody feathers everywhere!!! We had to clean up after the helicopter picked him up, and goose feathers covered in blood were in all 3 ER rooms, the hall down to the nsg station, in the surgery suites, and on and on. It took all of us most of the night to get it done.

Anyway, try not to get TOO nervous, and just remember your ABC's. also, the only stupid question is the one you did't ask. Holler if you need to vent, or if you have questions. Good luck!!

[alwayslearnin]

Greetings to all who posted,

Just wanted to say thank you for replying to my post. It was good just to "process" and know there were those of you out there who's been there. It's been a few weeks now, and I'm finally not thinking about the incident all the time now. Whew, it's amazing how some of this stuff stays with you for awhile and permiates your thinking. (Every young person I would see, I would think about the young girl who died a horrible death).

Anyway-I start my new job in the Level II ER on Monday. I am excited, still somewhat apprehensive, but I think I'll do fine.

Just wanted to thank you again for taking the time to post and sharing your experience.

Bless you in all that you do-keep up the good fight!

alwayslearnin:redbeathe

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

You are so welcome. Good luck with your new job!

[azzurra29]

I somewhat relate to alwayslearn because even though I'm a nursing student still I have been thinking about a possible future direction into trauma and I ask the same questions about how I can handle it, etc. I'm glad there was sharing and insight provided here and I suppose the only way I'll know about is once I get there and experience it. As stressful as nursing can be, I just hope that I find a good middle ground where I don't have to have constantly elevated cortisol levels and have premature wrinkles and frequent cryings sessions although that may be the case for the first couple years...

Lots to think about but happy to know that there are these forums...