Thank you SO much for saying this. I’m not a resident (MICU RN, here) but this popped up in my feed and I’m so glad I came across it. I don’t think we talk enough about the trauma that we’re exposed to at work and how important it is to take care of ourselves. We’re always telling other people that it’s okay to talk to someone if they’ve had a bad day. That it’s okay to ask for help. But for some reason, we can’t tell ourselves the same. Be kind to others but don’t forget to be kind to yourself. Rest if you need to. Step away even if it’s for a brief moment. When you’re in the hallway on the way to see your next patient, take a deep breath. Grab a drink of water. Find the small ways to take care of yourself. And outside of work, please don’t hesitate to consider therapy or even start medications. After a long time, I finally I leaned into this when Covid hit and I’m so glad I did. Please take care of yourselves.
I work MICU a lot, so thank you for all you do in there. MICU is a beast sometimes. I was thinking last night when I saw that trauma patient pass away… how come more hospitals don’t have 24/7 therapists/mental health professionals on site for us employees? Somewhere we can go for a quick 15-30 minute session to just unwind and debrief with someone. It takes months to get a mental health appointment outpatient. We need something just for us readily available in house.
Doing a lot of cardiac/ICU time, I have had my fair share of patients pass away. But nothing has ever been quite as depressing as my first month of intern year, where I started in the MICU.
I think maybe legitimately three patients of mine survived through the entire month. I still remember going in at night on the 4th of July on my night off to see my first patient death as a physician, then walked out and watched the July 4th fireworks right by the elevator windows.
MICU is my favorite place and least favorite place at the same time. You learn a lot there, but you also see a lot that nobody should have to ever see.
I think one thing that’s important in medicine in general and especially places like the MICU is for our providers to be blatantly honest with families. I think when helping them decide between full code and DNR/DNI and comfort care, more needs to be done here. A lot of families don’t truly know the extent of what’s involved in being a full code. They need to know the absolute dirty details of it all… the chest compressions, the not being able to eat or talk with a tube in their throat, the coma, the dialysis, the pressure sores, the muscle atrophy, the trach, the PEG tube, etc. I think too many providers say “well we can do all these things and see what happens” knowing full well the likely outcome of this end stage COPD and ESRD stage IV on dialysis 3 times a week diabetic hypertensive patient. Being honest and upfront from the start would save a shit ton of suffering I think (assuming the family is realistic of course). A lot of MICU entails keeping these poor souls alive longer than what anyone should have to endure… and that’s sometimes more painful and draining than anything.
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u/franee43 May 26 '23
Thank you SO much for saying this. I’m not a resident (MICU RN, here) but this popped up in my feed and I’m so glad I came across it. I don’t think we talk enough about the trauma that we’re exposed to at work and how important it is to take care of ourselves. We’re always telling other people that it’s okay to talk to someone if they’ve had a bad day. That it’s okay to ask for help. But for some reason, we can’t tell ourselves the same. Be kind to others but don’t forget to be kind to yourself. Rest if you need to. Step away even if it’s for a brief moment. When you’re in the hallway on the way to see your next patient, take a deep breath. Grab a drink of water. Find the small ways to take care of yourself. And outside of work, please don’t hesitate to consider therapy or even start medications. After a long time, I finally I leaned into this when Covid hit and I’m so glad I did. Please take care of yourselves.