Anticipation

an-tic-i-pa-tion

NOUN -the action of anticipating something; expectation or prediction.

Emergency Nursing causes one to be in a constant state of anticipation. It can be both a positive and negative feeling and evokes a variety of physical and mental characteristics in each individual nurse.

In the early years of my career an adrenaline-rushed excitement would overtake the fear and uncertainty of what was to come. As I continued on in the ER, my experiences built a wall of resilience to the anxiety, nervousness and sometimes dread, of each passing moment.

COVID19 is dredging up some of this early uncertainty I felt way back when. The unpredictability, lack of initial treatment to eradicate, and the seemingly unstoppable spread has the usual positive anticipation turning to the negative.

There is also a whole shift in the focus of our most basic practices and procedures. For example: chest pain. It is usually thought of as cardiac in nature, you can be diaphoretic(sweaty), nauseated (feel like barfing) and have shortness of breath due to pain, fluid collection in the lungs, or a mechanical problem with the pump.

Enter COVID19 screening. Do you have any new onset of shortness of breath, cough, fever and/or nausea? Immediately, with any of these symptoms, regardless of what you would do “before COVID”, the patient is given a mask and brought into isolation. The focus and anticipation of what’s to come shifts from a somewhat predictable cardiac workup to include total isolation precautions, additional testing and high anxiety for your patient.

We can use anticipation to our advantage in the ER. We already know to expect the unexpected. We are masters of rising to the challenge of come what may. If we use the tools we already possess of preparing for the absolute worst that can occur, then we will be able to overcome the anticipated predictions we’ve been told are going to eventually happen.

Our patients will arrive anticipating the worst and they will get our best.

Keep up the great work, keep safe and remember, even though we are in the business of caring for others, care for yourself.