Trauma can affect people in many different ways. Trauma is unfortunately a common experience that most people endure throughout their lifetime. The type of trauma can vary depending on the person and it affects every person differently. Trauma is a common thing that people who use substances and mental health issues. Most of the time trauma can affect the psychological and social aspects of a person’s life. Psychologically, it can cause conditions such as PTSD, depression, and anxiety. It can also cause dissociation, blunted affect, exhaustion and agitation. Socially, it can cause, like stated above, anxiety. This can affect how a person interacts with others, such as doctors or with people in public and may make them not want to go to their appointments or into public because they are scared that something will happen to them again.
Adverse childhood experiences are traumatic experiences that people experience when they are young. Children’s brains are still developing and traumatic experiences can stick with them for the rest of their lives if they are bad enough. This is unfortunately more common than it should be. Many children are involved in traumatic experiences whether it be from violence, abuse or having a parent that is a drug/alcohol user. The long-term effects of these experiences follow these children into adulthood. They can develop several mental health disorders and even some health conditions can develop. They can develop certain conditions as a coping strategy to try to get over what they have experienced, or they can develop conditions such as diabetes, heart disease or even suidice if it gets bad enough. It is so important to get these children the support that they need in order to properly cope with what has happened to them so they do not develop any of these conditions in their future
I will use the trauma-informed principles that we have learned throughout my career in many ways. I learned a lot about how to properly care for patients that have experienced trauma and what to do. It is important that you make the patient feel as safe and comfortable as possible. The hospital or a doctors office could be a scary place for them, so making them as comfortable as possible is important to get accurate information from the patient. It is also important that you explain exactly what it is that you’re going to be doing so the patient is prepared. When asking about the patient’s history, you are going to want to ask open-ended questions and try not to ask too specific questions, as it may not give you enough information. Learned how to care for patients who have a past of trauma is extremely important as a nurse.
