Trauma Can Come With Our Job

We see people die. We work on resuscitating patients. We try to control bleeding. We have end-of-life discussions. And sometimes we are verbally or physically abused by patients or visiting family members. Mental health experts now recognize that PTSD can indeed affect us, both military and civilian nurses. As many as 28 percent of us experience PTSD at some point in our careers, said Meredith Mealer, an associate professor at the Anschutz Medical Campus at the University of Colorado, Denver, though health care providers still often struggle to treat it.