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Have you ever encountered a medical emergency outside of work? How did it influence/shape your perspective as a nurse?


August 6th, 2024

I’ve experienced two emergencies. One time while I was driving, I saw a man that was driving a moped, slump over and his moped went down. I pulled over and called 911. When I arrived to see how he was, a woman was with him already but she was holding him in her arms and rocking back and forth. He was breathing but not alert/conscious. I felt for his pulse and it was good. I said out loud that his pulse was good. The woman was holding him responded somewhat curtly “of course it’s good.” I was taken back and I felt like I did something wrong. The paramedics arrived and took over. Later, I walked through the whole incident with a friend who is a nurse, and we think maybe the woman was having a PTSD episode or something. I don’t know where she came from or if she even had a relationship with this man. I guess one way this has influenced my nursing life, is to keep in mind that we are all complex beings; full of emotions with varying level of healthy processing/healing of past experiences. It’s important to keep a level, emotional head in such situations and don't take things personally.