Publish Date: December 9, 2020
Some of our colleagues are smiling on the outside and crying on the inside. Others become short-tempered, or the person you know as friendly and outgoing will become unusually quiet.
Here are some ideas to guide you in supporting your peer:
- Reach out and spend time with the person in crisis.
- Be present as a colleague and a friend. Don’t show up as a nurse.
- Make time to talk, encourage the person to express his/her feelings, and listen.
- Your colleagues are not broken and it is not your role to fix them. Most simply need a safe place to be heard.
- You don’t even need to speak or search for the right answer to a rhetorical question. Listen with your heart and not your head. Don’t judge.
- Respect the person's need to spend time alone.
- While self-isolation is never a long-term solution to stress, we each process our thoughts and feelings differently. If your friend asks for time alone, respect that personal need.