Thanks to a hospital chaplain who is also a veteran, nurses at a Chicago hospital are dealing with their trauma using strategies borrowed from the military, The Wall Street Journal reported Jan. 19.
Mark Schimmelpfennig, hospital chaplain at Rush University Medical Center, told the Journal the phrases nurses used reminded him of his fellow veterans who served in combat zones.
When Mr. Schimmelpfennig pointed out this connection to nurses, it helped them feel seen and understood, with one nurse saying she was glad there were others with whom she could share experiences and lean on for support.
Mr. Schimmelpfennig made his rounds and pointed out the connection to Sarah Saladino, RN, a nurse and an assistant unit director.
"It actually brought me to tears that day, to also know that there’s another group of people that feel like this, that can almost lead us out of this or show us the way," Ms. Saladino told the Journal, "because we haven’t experienced this."
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, some Rush nurses have visualized arming themselves for battle as they don personal protective equipment, and they often feel physically sore and exhausted after a day's work, drawing parallels to troops. Now, against the omicron variant, the same nurses say they feel they are on a new front, according to the Journal.
Mr. Schimmelpfennig brought his skills from his military background and its parallels to healthcare to a hospital group therapy program called Growing Forward. The six-unit group sessions help nurses deal with their trauma by learning to focus on themselves.