There is perhaps no career more important or rewarding than that of the trauma nurse. And yet this laudable career is also among the most stressful, the most physically, mentally, and emotionally demanding of all in the field of health care—and beyond.
That means that if you want your career to be a long, happy, and successful one, then you have to be proactive both in safeguarding your well-being and in preventing burnout. This is why community and self-care are imperative for trauma nurses.
Protecting Mental Health
Trauma nurses deal with crises, tending to patients and families who are experiencing the worst day of their lives. Day in and day out, trauma nurses fight to save the sickest patients, and though there are many victories, there are also many losses.
Those battles can take a profound toll. In fact, studies show that trauma nurses have a significantly higher prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than the general population.
This reality underscores the preeminent importance of mental health care for trauma nurses. In addition to individualized, one-on-one counseling, for example, therapy groups dedicated to health care providers, particularly those working in trauma units, can help nurses develop the networks of support they need to withstand the emotional and psychological rigors of the job.
After all, no one can understand or empathize with the experience of trauma nursing quite like those who have been through it for themselves. Such peer communities can provide both perspective and comfort in a way that perhaps no other community can.
Trauma Nursing in Paradise
Working in a trauma unit is deeply challenging in the best of circumstances, but when you are a trauma nurse in a vacation city, the difficulties are often amplified.
For instance, you’re likely to experience unusually high patient volumes during holidays and peak travel season, and the cases you encounter will likely be especially taxing both for your mind and spirit. You’ll probably see, for example, a disproportionate number of injuries relating to alcohol use or simple recklessness, and a significant proportion of these patients may be young, even children and teens.
If you’re not physically, mentally, and emotionally prepared in times like these, then you can easily become overwhelmed and even ill. Preparing for the demands of the job and taking the time to recover mentally and physically after each shift can not only help keep you well, but it can also make you a more effective and empathetic nurse.
That means, at the very least, you should create a self-care regime that allows you to center yourself, find your calm and your focus at the start of the workday, and enables you to decompress and re-energize at the end of it.
A few minutes of meditation before your shift, for instance, followed by a nourishing meal, warm bath, and a solid night’s sleep after it will help you withstand and heal from all that your workday has thrown at you.
Trauma Nursing in Pandemic Times
If the COVID-19 outbreak has taught us anything, it’s that our nurses are our modern-day superheroes. And yet it seems that the demands placed on nurses during COVID times have been unending.
For instance, at the peak of the pandemic, public health officials and government leaders took the drastic but necessary step of transitioning as much of the health care system as possible to digital platforms.
While this assuredly helped to protect vulnerable patients from viral exposure while also reducing the burden on hospitals and clinics, it has also increased the burden of responsibility that health care providers were asked to carry. More specifically, the rapid, crisis-driven shift to telemedicine tasked doctors and nurses not only with learning a whole new set of technologies but also with dramatically altering their patient care practices and to do it within a matter of mere days or weeks.
In the wake of the pandemic, however, it appears that the move to remote care will continue. This, though, can be a challenge for the trauma nurse because some may find these virtual clinics at once limiting and lonely. To be sure, severely sick or injured patients will not and cannot be treated remotely, which means that trauma nurses working in telemedicine may find themselves unable to deploy their skill set to the fullest.
Even more significant, however, is that remote care platforms may deprive trauma nurses of the sense of community and care that they need, especially in these difficult times. This, once again, illuminates the necessity of self-care, even if you have to baby-step your self-nurturing habits.
One night a week spent on the town with friends and colleagues, two weekends a month spent in nature, or even an afternoon at the spa—any of these when done on a regular basis can help keep you physically, mentally, and emotionally well. And that’s a gift you give not only to yourself but to your family, your coworkers, and, above all, to your patients.
The Takeaway
Self-care and community are not optional indulgences for trauma nurses. They are real and present needs for anyone who expects to endure, survive, and thrive under the conditions that trauma nurses encounter each workday.
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