Contagious Energy in Healthcare: How to Shed Negativity to Provide Compassionate Nursing

In this season of Nursing Student Coach, I, Lauren Chapnick, am ready to share heartfelt stories and insights from my journey as a registered nurse. Through my transition into this second career and immersion into the emergency department's intensity, I've gleaned lessons that are pivotal not just for those entering the nursing field, but for any professional striving to provide compassionate care.

This episode is a heartfelt call to action, urging us to recognize the profound impact we can make in our patients' lives. I recount the story of one individual who only needed a nurse's acknowledgment to feel seen during a terrifying ordeal. Furthermore, I reflect on a personal experience with a young patient that challenged my emotional resilience, underscoring the imperative to manage our own emotions to offer the best care possible. Join me for a candid discussion on the importance of our energy and presence, and how we, as healthcare professionals, can ensure every patient receives the compassion and attention they rightly deserve.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everybody and welcome to season two of Nursing
Student Coach.
My name is Lauren Chapnick.
I'm your host.
I'm a registered nurse.
Nursing is a second career forme and I found ways to thrive in
nursing school and now as a newnurse in an emergency
department.
I want to take this season toshare my stories, experiences

(00:22):
and lessons with you so that youcan become the best nursing
student and the best nurse, andreally just the best version of
yourself that you could possiblybe.
All episodes are 10 minutes orless, so you can grab it and go.
And a couple more things beforewe get into today's show.
If you could kindly take acouple seconds to pull out your

(00:43):
phone, give us a quick five starrating and review.
It helps so much more than youeven know to put the show in
front of more future nurses,because it is my personal
mission to help put more greatnurses into the world and I need
your help to do that.
So thank you so much.
And lastly, the views andopinions expressed on Nursing

(01:04):
Student Coach are those ofLauren Chapnick and hers alone.
They are not intended asmedical advice and should not
replace your institution'spolicies or procedures.
So guys on to today's podcast.
It's the Nursing Student Coachgiving you the strategies you
need the most.

(01:27):
Hey everybody, today I want totalk about something.
I heard a line on a podcast theother day and it just struck me
so hard because I agree with itso much, and it was a person
talking about an experience theyhad had in the hospital.
They had something very serious.

(01:48):
They had had a hemorrhagicstroke and they felt like the
medical team was talking aboutthem, talking over them, and
nobody was talking to them andshe was scared out of her mind.
Here's something that she saidthat really struck me.

(02:10):
She said as a healthcareprofessional, you are
responsible for the energy thatyou bring into the room.
She felt that everybody, or themajority of the healthcare team
in the room, were just frantic,panicked, stressed out and just
talking over her.
And she had one nurse who justlooked at her and said, cathy,

(02:35):
or whatever her name was Hi,cathy, I'm so, and so I know
you're scared right now, butit's okay, we're going to take
care of you.
And just that somebody speakingto her was everything.
And I just started thinkingabout all the times that I may
have been holding on tosomething personal or an

(02:56):
interaction with another patientor something that had made me
upset and I brought it intoanother patient's room.
That patient, who you are goingin to see, deserves your full
attention, and I know that'seasier said than done.
We're all human beings.

(03:17):
Whatever is going on personally, whatever happened in the room
before, we have to find ways tolet it go so that we can give as
much as we can and we don'tcarry that energy into that room
with us, and to look at thosepatients and treat them as human

(03:37):
beings that are scared and aregoing through something they've
never been through before.
So I've said this before thatenergy is contagious.
So we've all been around highlytoxic people that have nothing
to give you but negative energy,and we've all been around those
people who are just radiatingpositive energy and you just

(04:02):
want to be around them.
And I'm not saying that youhave to be positive all the time
, but I'm saying you don't needto bring it into a patient's
room and you don't need topoison the other people who are
around you with your own baggage.
And that's what I am workingthrough, because I will say,

(04:22):
working in an emergency room,there are days where stuff gets
heavy and it really gets to you.
I'll give you an example.
I had a patient who was a 26year old woman.
We'll call her Emily.
Emily came in.
She had a two year old daughterwith her and I believe her

(04:45):
mother was with her and she wasthere for dizziness.
She was there for dizziness andlightheadedness.
That was her chief complaintand after going into the room
and speaking to her it came tolight that she had been hit in
the head by her boyfriend, whowas also the father of this
child, and she had been punchedin the head by this man.

(05:09):
She did not call the police,she said we were fighting and
he's never done that before andit was an emotional case for me.
We did a CAT scan of her headand everything was fine.
She was cleared, but we didinvolve social work to come down

(05:34):
and do a consult to see if shewas safe at home.
I guess the redeeming thing wasthat she didn't live with this
boyfriend.
It struck me so hard becausethis beautiful, innocent two
year old girl that was there,not only did I feel that she was

(05:56):
in danger with this person, butshe was witnessing this with
her mom and she was seeing thisexample of how her mother was
being treated.
As a nurse, it's not my place tojudge.
I'm there to treat her and tooffer her resources and that's

(06:22):
what we did.
We offered her resources, wetold her about safe places that
she could go and that's whatsocial work could offer her.
And that's all we could do ifshe declined it.
That's all we could do.
And when I tell you, this stuckwith me, it just really.

(06:45):
I walked into a room and justgot hit with this and then five
seconds later I have to go intoa different room and that person
, whatever they're going through, I can't take that in with me.
That's not their pain and it'sreally not even my pain.
That's the patient's pain andit's not.

(07:06):
It's up to me to find a way tocompartmentalize it and to put
it in its own box, put it awaysomewhere.
I'm not saying don't deal withit, but I cannot bring that in
to everything else.
I can't bring it home.
I can't bring it into that nextpatient's room, because that

(07:28):
next patient is going throughtheir own crisis and that's hard
.
And I'm not saying every singleroom is that emotionally taxing
, but those things they're hard.
And not only is it myresponsibility as the nurse to
not bring it into the next roomand to not suffocate my

(07:51):
coworkers with my feelings andto fall into a heap and cry.
It is also my responsibility tofind my own ways to deal with
it and to process it somehow onmy own.
Now I do things like I journal,I do yoga, I meditate and I do
my very best to let it go, butsometimes it just comes to you.

(08:17):
You think of these patients andyou wonder where?
Where are they?
Is she okay?
Is her daughter okay?
And it's hard, but that's thejob and I hope that maybe we had
some sort of impact with theresource that we offered her and

(08:40):
I hope that she's okay.
But it's not my job to solveeverything and it is my job to
provide the best empathetic,compassionate, high quality care
that I can, to not bring it into the next room.
Thanks for listening, everybody.
I hope you have an amazing day.

(09:02):
Bye-bye.