He has ended it this morning - please help me this morning. Something just happened in the supermarket....

[CakesRus3]

He has ended things. I had a bit of a cry. Pulled myself together as I needed to go to work. Knew today was going to be hard as I felt a knot of anxiety in my tummy. I knew I had to push through though, no matter how sad I felt.
I had to go and get a few bits from the supermarket before work (I'm a mental health nurse). A man had collapsed and as I was passing a lady saw my nhs badge and asked if I could take a look at this man. I'm newly qualified and tried not to panic. He was in recovery position and responsive. Apparently he has a heart condition. His temp seemed ok by touch and he had colour in his cheeks. I said hello and asked what happened. There were about 8 people looking at me. I started to feel panicky. They asked me what a certain medication was and I didn't know. I sat there for about 5 mins whilst a lady who worked there comforted him. I asked if they had called the ambulance, they had. Everyone was looking at me and I did nothing. I didn't know what to do. I had to leave, I felt I couldn't breathe. I said I had to go to work. I told the man to take care. I left. I was useless, absolutely useless. They called me over to help and I did nothing. I'm supposed to be a nurse.
I am now at home, I can't even drive. I just feel awful. I can't stop crying.

You've had a really rubbish morning. Please don't beat yourself up, you did everything you could, he was in recovery, responsive and an ambulance was on the way. There was nothing more you could of done.

Can you give yourself a little bit of a treat tonight? Bubble bath? Takeaway?

Don't give yourself a hard time about it. You did everything you could have done, and I'm sure everyone was very grateful. It's bad enough having everyone stare at you when you're feeling 100%, but when you are already dealing with something else, it's horrible. I bet they were all impressed at how you dealt with it, and thankful you were there. Have a good cry, and then know you did good.

What could you have done that wasn't done already? You established he was conscious, breathing and 999 was called. You could not have done anymore bar waiting for the ambulance to get there but he had enough support for that anyway.
My advice to you would be to not have your badge on show publicly unless working.

You couldn't have done more. You checked his position and that he was responsive, which was the most important thing. It's really shit when people see you're a nurse, but don't understand that you don't know everything about every area of health (my Mum used to get this when she was a district nurse).

Take a deep breath and remember that everyone is a bit over anxious at the moment.

You did the right things.

Sorry you're having such a shitty day. You can do this.

You did as well as you could for the poor man, don't beat yourself up about it. If your badge hadn't been on display you would not have been put in that position (don't let it show in future). I expect he was reassured by you. Well done.

I'm sorry your relationship ended.

You did well, so don't worry about letting anyone down. You provided comfort to the gentleman and support to those attending to him. You didn't walk away.

In my NHS Trust though, we are not allowed to wear uniforms outside of the workplace (infection control) so if someone collapsed in front of me, although I would do what I could to help, no-one would immediately identify me as a nurse and expect me to do more.

This happens in many areas of work - occupations are more and more specialist which is great but it does mean that people in very related areas do not know much more than the average person in the street.

Don't beat yourself up over it - sounds like he should be ok.

Just echoing what everyone else has said. You did well, you’re certainly not useless.

I hope your day improves.

Try not to worry, you did everything that was sensible and there wasn't anything else for you to do. Even doctors don't know what all medicines are, they look them up when they need to so don't feel bad that you didn't know the name of some random drug. If this had happened on any other day I am sure you would have coped much better but on top of your own personal life issues it was just too much.

If a patient or a nurse friend told you this story, what would you say to them?
Be as kind to yourself as you would be to every single other person on this planet.

You are a MH nurse, not a paramedic. All you could reasonably do is basic first aid, which is exactly what you did. Be kind to yourself.

Dont worry love. Your newly qualified I'd have been same however now I'm great in an emergency. Comes with practice. Put it towards your revalidation by writing a reflection x

I bet you everyone who stopped has gone home, felt upset, and thought they could have done more. They won't have been thinking about you, but about how helpless they felt. It is just so upsetting in that situation.

I'm a MN nurse too and don't know all physical health meds, that would have put any of us on the spot !
Be kind to yourself, sounds like you did all the right things.
Take Care.

Poor you. Your a mental health nurse, and had your job to go to, where you are a valued member of society who no doubt does an excellent job.
You are entitled to feel overwhelmed too.
Get through the day knowing that you do a job many, many people couldn't. I should know, I trained for two years and left because I couldn't hack it!
Make a plan to give yourself some TLC later after your day getting off to a tough start. Bubble bath, Chocolate, wine, a film. Anything that makes you feel better and gives you something to look forward to. Because you deserve care too.

Bloody hell, you've had quite the day, either of those incidents would've been stressful on its own, let alone during the same morning.

Mental health nurse here too 😊 I agree with other posters, you couldn't have done anything more, plus we must always remember working within our NMC restrictions. We work in a specialist field and I'm sure there are adult nurses who may not know all of the pyschiatric medications we work with. Please don't stress about this, you did all you could.