How do you deal with not being treated well?

I got 7 years of experience treating dementia patients before all this, it's definitely helped me.

The biggest piece of advice I have is to not let things sink in and get stuck in your head. If you do that then they will weigh you down mentally and physically.. If you're interactions with individuals are unsustainable, then you should posture however you need to allow more of it to bounce off.

With dementia patients it's pretty easy to justify why they are acting differently, it can certainly be more difficult with otherwise healthy individuals, but the principle is the same.. there's a certain level of battling that takes place, but you only have so much energy, so you have to find some way to justify their words and actions as acceptable so it doesn't hurt as much.

You also have to accept the fact that things take time. You mentioned that you are shaking when things like this happen, you have to remember it's a process. I can remember being bitten, punched, even stabbed, and all of that pales in comparison to the emotional toll of losing hundreds of people you have cared for over years.

Lastly, and this is the part that can often come off as insensitive but it's clearly the most important aspect.. you have to find out what's worth hurting over for you. When you establish that, you need to care less about what you have decided isn't worth hurting over, and you have to increase your toughness in areas that you have decided are worth hurting over.. none of that is easy, but it's certainly a core aspect of being a well-adjusted healthcare worker.

/r/medicalschool Thread