In the past six months, I have been working in Critical Care and I have come across a phenomenon called Sensory Overload.
Sensory overload happens when your brain is overwhelmed by exposure to several sensory stimuli at once. This may be things like flashing lights, listening to mutiple conversations at the same time or even that strong cologne that leaves you wanting to temporarily dislodge your nose.
In Critical Care beeping machines are the main culprits. Its gotten to the point that sometimes I hear the buzzers when I am relaxing at home. Imagine the impact of this on patients who spend weeks and weeks in ICU, topic for another day.
As I reflect about where I have been for the past few months, I can't help but feel that I have had a Sensory Overload but not of my senses. Of my pysche and limbic system. It been months and months since my last blog post or social media appearance and even though I have tried to reset in the past and failed, I refuse to give up.
A lot as happened in my personal life but lets keep it formal for now.
First. I started working in Critical Care. You'd think that this would be easy for me given my experience in the ward. It wasn't. Not once, did I find myself crying uncontrably. Thankfully, we have a very good and supportive education team in the department who have probably seen the same amount of tears as kindergaten teachers.
My supernumerary period took me back to when I was new to the UK. I found myself so frustrated in several shifts. I have to admit that my pride also played a role in my frustrations. I was coming from a point of being in charge of shifts to a point where I was often mistaken for a student. Once I got over these frustrations, I have made gradual and steady progress at work. I can't wait to see where this road leads.
Second, we are back to the Blog. After several full moons of debates in my head, I have finally let go of the World Class Nurse website/ business. This was not an easy decision given the time and money spent on making that dream. Vusi Themebkwayo in his first podcast of the year titled, "Peace of Mind " talks about letting go of things that rob us of peace. It took listening to that episode a hundred times and holding countless meeting in my mind to make this change.
Nobody wants to fail or even feel like a failure. However sometimes "failing" allows you to have a clearer vision of what you want for yourself.
My dream has always been and still is to create a plaform for mentorship in nursing. World Class Nurse (the budding business) was a good run because I had one cohort of three rookie nurses who I still see thriving across different platforms. I also had a chance to create tools and material and learnt how to use different apps and online programs.
All in all, you can't pour from an empty cup. My cup has been feeling empty for the larger part of the year and its only fair to refill before I start pouring again.
To cut the long story, welcome you back to our blog.
This truly feels like home.