Psychologists Are Needed For Nurses

Psychologists’ Are Needed To Keep Nurses Mentally Healthy

Psychologist must step up and seek out nurses who have treated Covid patients over the last 2 years. Many nurse are suffering from sever trauma because of seeing so many deaths. I watched a nurse from Mississippi explain excruciatingly on MSNBC why she was resigning because she was tired of seeing people die needlessly from Covid-19. She represents a dangerous trend in a profession that has perennially experienced shortages dating back to when I dated a nurse attending Cook County’s School of Nursing in the mid-70s’. Back then, as was pre-pandemic, it was the demand, unable to be met on a worldwide basis, for nurses that caused the shortages that exist until this day. Now nurses are suffering from psychological exhaustion, mental stress, combat fatigue, and, PTSD. All of these symptoms combined have produced a leading cause why many nurses are opting for early retirement. The main reason, as expressed by nurse Nichole Atherton, from Spring River Hospital in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, is they cannot take the sheer number of deaths occurring anymore. This overload of death at such a high rate, even for people who have been trained in and around death as an adjunct to their profession, is more than their brains can psychologically take. These caregivers are experiencing sensory overloads. As I said in my blog on April 27, 2021, at https://jobcareeercritic.com/pages/32827-nurses-are-in-need-of-healthcare there would be long-term psychological healthcare needed by all workers who have been frontline workers against this dreaded virus.

R&R for Nurses and their Families

Unfortunately, some of my predictions have come true with new revelations from current nurses and, especially older nurses, who fear if they stay much longer their luck will run out and they too will contract and die from this virus, like so many of their colleagues and patients have done. The overwhelming majority of humans will never see a dead body in their lives in person. Consequently, our brains are not designed to withstand such a barrage of death as healthcare workers have been exposed to daily, year-end, and year-out. In the history of war, psychologists have found the health of soldiers is better served when they rotate soldiers out of combat zones to relieve the psychological stress associated with extreme exposure to death and human suffering. Psychologists and officers agree R&R and a get-away from the insanity of war is the best way to help maintain their sanity. How do nurses, who depend on their salaries to survive, get away from the trauma associated with the stress? Who’s going to support their R&R and families depending on them?

Sign of the times

Because of weather damage, many say is caused by our planet warming up, in this country for the last 7/8 years a company called Servpro increased their ads on broadcast TV because business increased due to the unprecedented disastrous weather across the U.S. Now there is another company advertising because violent weather has increased and business is picking. Last night I noticed a commercial, paid for by psychologists and psychiatrists, I have seen many times before but never connected it to what is happening to, unfortunately, a lot of people. Now I connect these commercials to what we as a nation are going through and in many ways similar to what nurses are experiencing in many ways. The use of psychologists and psychiatrists is easy and convenient and offers anonymity because of historic shaming associated with anyone using their services. I heard a report this morning that said because of this pandemic we are the most traumatized people in many generations. We live our lives as if what we do is a free choice and we can opt out when we want. We consciously make these decisions and it gives us a false sense of being in control of our lives and well-being. We accumulate confidence because we successfully carry out hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly tasks which assure us our lives are in order and we proceed accordingly. This list of tasks we are used to doing, some religiously, has now been uprooted and it is having a horrendous psychological impact on people’s sanity in ways we never imagined and that includes kids of all ages.

Someone to talk to for help

Many of these online psychologists and psychiatrists use keywords like “just someone to talk to” and “we can listen and help”. People are stressed about not being able to continue their everyday routine which brought sanity to their lives. Socialization is a big factor in the lives of more people than I thought. When the possibility of death or severe illness is not enough to sway one’s decision to attend social events repeatedly then you know it’s psychological. People are victims of Madison Avenue commercials telling them they got to have this and go there. Hallmark Cards tell you to gather and celebrate events in your life. Hollywood makes you want to forget it all because they create alternative lives where Covid-19 doesn’t exist. These 3 entities have made traditions a must for some people because their entire lives are dictated by adhering to traditions created by them to generate money on an annual basis. We have become so enamored with trying to keep these traditions up we risk our lives and those of our loved ones to carry them out. But because we are not willing to sit out this pandemic, because of traditions with the family; fraternal organizations; birthdays; family gatherings, etc., It has caused all kinds of psychological problems along with major depression in others.

We must all start going in one direction very soon with the scientist!

I wish I could tell you where this is going but we need to stop going in 50 different directions to solve a problem. These conspiracy theories must be squashed and discredited for what they are. With Corvid cases going up and the Delta Variant spreading like wildfire this is not the time for cuddling this conspiracy-oriented crowd. They must be pushed aside and let known Scientists and Doctors go to the front in choosing the direction we need to be going to win this fight. Nursing schools need to up their ante for advertising for nurses because their ranks will be depleted even more because of this Pandemic. There will continue to be a need for nurses for the foreseeable future so much needs to be done to attract young people to the profession.