When nobody listens to nurses
The current healthcare system is in disarray, with staff exhaustion, unsafe practices and low human resources. Clinicians are weary, anxious, live on edge, showing signs of emotional trauma and sometimes early burnout.
Dear fellow clinicians, we encourage you to take a pause & reflect right now. How long can we tolerate the stress levels? Let's explore what must change at the root of the healthcare system to ensure workers are safe, well, and can do their work with care and compassion for a lot longer.
What must change in the Healthcare System
First, let's call out the unspeakable. We must prioritize patient safety. Nurses working in risky situations can develop higher stress levels, anxiety and a compounding trauma effect, linked to distressing and acute events. This concept is known as Caregiving trauma.
Nobody should go to work with fear in their bellies, waiting for incidents to occur.
Today, in our departments, nurses should no longer accept:
- Unsafe circumstances and staffing.
- No doctor on duty.
- Illegal patient ratios.
- Being told that’s just how it is.
- Being told to finish a shift when we know the team or patient safety is compromised.
Moreover, we refuse unsafe circumstances for ourselves, in the name of duty:
- Bullying.
- Workplace violence.
- Being told to deal with it.
- No support offered after an incident.
- No regular debriefing.
- No safe space or avenue to express our concerns.
- Getting in trouble when we speak up.
- Being labelled trouble makers.
This is actually called institutional betrayal.
(A concept described by Debriefing the Front Lines, identified during the Covid-19 pandemic, within American healthcare environments).
www.debriefingthefrontlinesinc.co
We work in a system so flawed that it continues to ignore the safety concerns raised by its own leaders. So broken, it demands its workers to present to work despite unsafe circumstances; like a toxic relationship, with clinicians knowing fully they will return the next shift, accepting that they may get injured emotionally or physically.
No More. Nurses are not machines.
Nurses are Human beings
Nurses and other clinicians are humans with hearts so big, filled with compassion, ready to serve.
We are voices to the vulnerable.
Forces to be reckoned with.
Islands of safety.
Keepers of hope.
Healers of bodies and souls.
Nurses are Powerful Humans.
When nobody listens to the nurses, we can choose to grow and heal together. There are humans working here! We are great patient advocates and we can do the same for ourselves.
Holistic Nursing
Remember that concept from nursing school, holistic nursing? It meant encompassing the physical wellness, emotional, spiritual and psychological health of a whole person.
Nurses are allowed to be nurtured; this can be done by accessing holistic practices, which supports the individual as a whole person. We invite clinicians to explore holistic, somatic, gentle tools and strategies for healing trauma and managing their stress. This can be done in a trauma-sensitive, non-judgemental, safe place, such as here at Wild Healthcare. Holistic practices acknowledge all facets of being a human, as healing and post-traumatic growth is complex and mostly, not linear.
Let’s speak up for our own wellbeing, because nurses deserve the same care and compassion we promote for our own patients. Nurses are worthy of this.
Continue to explore this blog, or send us a DM/ email for emotional support, debriefing and start your post traumatic growth & healing path.
You are not alone.
This blog is managed by individuals to open conversations about the wellbeing of healthcare workers, and is not monitored 24/7. We are not a psychology service nor urgent care for mental health emergencies. The information is only suggestive, it does not constitute formal expert advice. Please contact your general physician or your emergency department if you require immediate assistance. If you experience feelings or emotional distress you cannot manage alone, please seek help immediately, either call 000 or LifeLine 13 11 14 (in Australia).
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