Dealing with emotional situations

One of the nurses discusses a comment in her student’s coursework book:

Staff nurses often have to deal with highly emotional situations, but rarely have any formal training about how to deal with them…

“You know, I’m a really emotional person, me. Give me a film or a sad story on telly and I’ll cry my eyes out, but at work it’s different isn’t it? It’s weird, because obviously we see loads of really sad things on here [the ward] but no matter how bad the situation, or how upset the patient or relatives are, you won’t see me crying at work. I won’t even go home and cry about it.

“If you think about it - it’s strange because obviously here it’s all real and you’d think I’d get more upset than I do about anything on telly. I think what it is, is that when it happens in front of you, it’s not fair if I, as their nurse starts getting upset about it is it? It’s their grief, it’s their lives, not mine. If I start sobbing, it’s like it’s putting the focus onto me, and really it shouldn’t be about me should it? It should be about the patient and their family.”