PTSD

Nurses see tragic stuff.  The kind of tragedy that makes MacBeth look like Little Red Riding Hood.  Hospitals are the ultimate theater for human drama.

Sometimes I have a patient who tells me that they were in Vietnam, so they have PTSD.

I want to tell them, “Hey, I’m a nurse.  ALL nurses have PTSD!  Our PTSD is worse than your PTSD!”

Ethics, patient confidentiality and HIPPA keep nurses in a perpetual “vow of silence”.  This exacerbates our PTSD. Venting helps, but we aren't supposed to do it. 

HIPPA exacerbates my PTSD.

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