In my talks with nursing and healthcare groups, I emphasize the importance of recognizing both personal and professional trauma exposures. Addressing these experiences is crucial to maintaining mental and physical health, as well as achieving career success. It’s essential for healthcare providers to seek support for themselves and their peers, especially in leadership roles.
PTSD stands for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. This diagnosis only occurs after someone has been exposed to a traumatic experience, such as threatened death, serious injury, or sexual assault. Witnessing someone’s else’s actual or threatened death can also result in PTSD, as can repeated exposure to trauma details (such as a journalist reporting on war or a social worker hearing details of child abuse). Some examples of traumatic events include combat, natural disasters like tornadoes or hurricanes, man-made disasters like bombings, childhood abuse, intimate partner violence, and serious accidents. Estimates indicate that about 70% of American adults have experienced some type of traumatic event at least once in their lives.