Jennifer Green, RN BSN BA SANE-A from St Luke's Health System spoke to the class about the Neurobiology of Trauma. Her expertise in dealing with victims of sexual assault helps us understand why people behave as they do after traumatic experiences and how to best help our friends and loved ones should they ever experience trauma.
I learned a lot about our guest speaker. I knew that trauma was really emotional process but I didn’t know they had different stages. I honestly thought you just shut down or started crying. It was kind of a surprise to learn that there are responses to these kinds of situations. I also didn't know that 61% of men experience traumatic situations. I thought women would have the higher percentage. You hear more about women than men. I knew it happened to both genders but I didn't know men would be the highest one. I also learned that you can easily re traumatize a person. I didn’t know that people could be triggered by smells or colors. The neurobiology surprised me too. I thought that you could only fight or flight during a traumatic experience. I didn’t know that there was a third response which is freeze. I also learned that there are a ton of factors that can lead to emotional trauma. You can feel unprepared for the situation and get emotional trauma from it. It can also happen multiple times for it to become a traumatic experience. I thought you could only experience it once for it to become a traumatic experience. I learned a lot about how people deal with trauma and the neurobiology behind it.
ReplyDeleteI learned a lot from our guest speaker. Trauma is a really emotion occupation, and that is the field that I hope to specialize in due to the high amounts of adrenalin and the fast pace that it takes to complete the job. Something that really stood out to me by the guest speaker was the three stages of response to a traumatic event such as: freeze, fight, or flight. I have always just heard and talked about two not the third one. Which I feel like I would be a freezer, but not until a traumatic experience happens you never really know what your body will do. Another thing that I thought was unique about our quest speaker was that she is good at what she does. How her bedside manner always must be the best it can be or it might trigger something and make the patient feel unsafe again, or bring back memories that happened during the horrific event, also how any sort of smells or any specific color might affect the patient and caused them to be re-traumatized. It is really cool to learn about a career that I hope to be in first hand from someone that is a specialist of it, and an alumnus from Avila University.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed listening to Jennifer about what she experiences on a daily bases and facts about different reactions to trauma. I was surprised that there was a higher percentage of men that has experienced a traumatic event in their life compared to women. A whole 10% difference! I would’ve assumed more women would have reported a traumatic event then men because they are stereotypically more sensitive and emotional to different situations.
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting to see that the freeze, flight, and fight mechanisms for trauma victims didn’t depend on the person itself and that a person can think they are one and not the others. I learned that they were more based off the different hormones that are released during an event.
Jennifer showed us different techniques she uses to get her patients to open up without retraumatizing them. One of the techniques I distinctly remember was the “respect the no”. This is extremely important to trauma victims, but it is also important in our everyday lives!
The forensic exams really impressed me in the fact that cells can last a very long time on someone else’s body. They can also perform their own exams so they don’t feel violated or get retraumatized, and they don’t have to use that evidence right away to press charges. If they decided to press charges a year later they can still do so!
Madi C
I really enjoyed Jennifer's presentation on the neurobiology of trauma and learning what she does, how she does it, and how it works. I learned a lot about what really happens to the body and mind in response to trauma. Prior to her presentation, I had a rudimentary knowledge of trauma, and had no idea the extent trauma had on the brain and body, and all the processes that take place in the body in response to trauma. I thought the responses some people have to trauma was really interesting, as well as learning the reasons why people respond the way they do. I also thought it was really interesting and beneficial to learn about what things worsen trauma, such as repetition of the event, and the proper way to interact with trauma victims and avoid triggering stimuli.
ReplyDeleteI also was really interested in listening her talk about her job and what it includes and how she does it. It was interesting to learn that hospitals have nurses like Jennifer and offer services for trauma victims. I also really liked learning about the evidence kits and forensic exams and the Kansas City Crime Lab, and I am interested in touring it, like Jennifer mentioned.
As someone who is interested in this career field, I was really happy and grateful to learn about everything that goes into trauma and the best way, as a professional, to handle and respond to these kinds of situations.
Addy Y
I learned a lot from our guest speaker and it was quite interesting for me to hear about her job. I am a social work major so it was really cool for me to see how the situations are handled in a hospital setting as opposed to in the person’s home or counseling office. It was cool to see the steps social workers go through, when handling trauma, in a smaller and faster scale. I also never thought about how traumatizing events are relived through the five senses. I have never thought about how just the sight of a certain color could trigger someone. It makes you think about how hard it could be to live after something traumatizing occurs. It’s also weird to think about how planning for traumatizing events is almost worthless because when they occur you go back to being “primal” and not logical. She also got me to wonder how I would react in a traumatizing event, whether I would freeze, flee, or fight. Overall I thought the presentation was really interesting and she had my attention the entire time. It even made me wonder if I should look into careers in or similar to her field.
ReplyDeleteI thought Jennifer's presentation was very interesting. She presented a lot of facts and experiences that she has had. The first thing that really surprised was the topic about freeze, flight, and flight. I had no idea that we are only one of these and we can't control which one we are in a certain stressful situation. It was also scary to hear some of the statistics that she brought up pertaining to her hospital; there were 1,000 cases of sexual assault that came into her hospital just this year. Another really intriguing fact that surprised me was that they had quite a few men come into the hospital regarding sexual assault cases. I am a nursing major and really didn’t know a whole lot about this aspect of nursing and this is something that interests me. I would like to visit the Kansas City Crime Lab and see how they investigate the evidence from crimes. I got to learn about the crime lab kits and I thought it was interesting how there is a different one for Jackson County, Missouri, and Kansas. I didn’t know that the public was able to see this happen. I am really glad that I got to listen to this presentation, learn about this aspect of nursing, and learning how to treat someone properly after they’ve been through a trauma.
ReplyDeletePaige James
ReplyDeleteI found the information given out in class by Jennifer Green both useful and interesting. The background information on the flight or fight response and how that is actually part of our biological makeup was something I was unaware of. How our bodies react to trauma was something else I felt I was unfamiliar with, but learned a lot about during this presentation. Our plans we have in our minds for when tragedy occurs in life don’t always play out like we envision, and being aware of that is something I felt was important to take away from this lecture.
As victims of trauma, or when traumatic things in our lives occur that change us as individuals, I like what Mrs. Green spoke of regarding not being judgmental. Our society a lot of times is quick to make a judgement without all the information, and even then if you are the victim, it is my opinion, that many times the focus becomes on what the victim did to cause the trauma. In reality, healing could begin a lot quicker if the focus shifted away from this. Overall I liked how she showed how both as a victim, and as a supporter the resources available to us all. As women, and as human beings we have to build one another up not tear each other down, and I felt Mrs. Green gave so many good examples of that in her lecture. From relating her own personal experiences of tragedy and how she coped, to explaining how she convinced her patients to trust her, a complete stranger, when facing a tragedy.
By: Angie Zyniewicz
I found Jennifer's presentation very interesting and informative to her line of work. The thing that intrigued me the most was all her stories of her interactions with patients and the things that they had to go through. I liked how she presented us with a ton of facts so we could really learn and comprehend what she was talking to us about. The very first thing that grabbed my attention was the freeze fight or flight portion of her presentation. When she said we didn't have a choice as to which one we would do, I was very surprised because I always was so sure that in a dire situation I would be the type to flee or fight because I'm a pretty all-around calm and level-headed person. But hearing that we didn't have a choice and our brains chose for us astonished me. The second thing that grabbed my attention was the story she told us about the young woman who was running around naked in the inner-city part of Kansas City. Hearing the story of why she acted the way she did, really opened my eyes to why her type of work is needed. And the statistics she had on crime and rape in Missouri were a lot higher than I thought. Learning about her line of work and the people she gets to help reminded me of why I'm on the career path I'm on and why I'm a criminology major; I want to help people.
ReplyDelete-Valencia Eason
I found Jennifer's presentation very interesting. The thing that got me hooked to her presentation was all the interesting stories that she told. I loved how she gave a lot of facts and me being a nursing major it helped ,e understand things that I didn't know. I loved how she gave multiple facts and processes such as the stages of crisis and the common coping mechanism. I learned that you can not control your coping mechanism and that it just comes whenever the situation is present. I want to work with trauma patients once I become a nurse and her giving these advice and facts helps me understand the things that I need to do. She reassured my decision on contiuining my path to become a nurse. I also liked the fact that she gave examples of things she went through and witnessed in KC.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed listening to Jennifer's presentation and listening about what she does. I have only heard about fight or flight as the responses to a traumatic event, so it was interesting to learn about freeze as the other one. Also listening to her talk about all of her interactions with patients was really intriguing. It was interesting to learn how 51% of women suffer traumatic situations and 61% of men suffer traumatic situations, I would have figured that the women's percentage would be higher. I really like how Jennifer talked about and showed us the different techniques she uses when she talks to her trauma patients. This benefited me because I am a nursing major, so this showed me what to do and what not to do whenever I am working with trauma patients. I really learned a lot about how people deal with trauma and what the neurobiology is behind it.
ReplyDelete-Elizabeth Harris
I found Jennifer's presentation to be really interesting. I knew some things about trauma and the responses people have to it, but I definitely learned a lot. I was surprised that 61% of men compared to 51% of women experience trauma because I felt as if women would be higher. I really liked that she gave examples and real life experiences she has experienced at work. Another thing I found really interesting was when she showed us how she approaches her patients, and does all she can to reduce the possibility of retraumatization. I never thought a lot about how important it is for nurses and others working with patients who have experienced trauma to be careful with their actions and words to not cause retraumatization. She also talked about the best ways to achieve this which were safety, choice, trustworthiness, collaboration, and empowerment. The one thing that I distinctly remember Jennifer discussing was "respect the no" when it comes to her patients. I think this is important for all people in every situation. Jennifer also discussed the changes trauma can cause which were cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and spiritual. I want to be a nurse, so this was all very interesting to me. I really enjoyed her presentation and learning more about what she does!
ReplyDeleteJennifer's presentation was intriguing and informative. I learned so much from her. She did a wonderful job relating her work to the real world and making it clear that what she does is important to us whether that's our career path or not. I didn't know that there was different stages of trauma. It was kinda scary learning about the girl that was strangled 20-30 times!! It's hard to believe that someone could survive that. At what point would the body just give up and die. That's crazy sad.
ReplyDeleteI loved listening to how careful she is when talking to a patient. She explained all of the things she does to much sure not to re traumatize the patient. It must take a lot of patience to work with people who can be so fragile. It's really sad that certain colors or smells can re traumatize someone.
I was surprised to hear how many males are sexually assaulted each year. I feel like that number is so high cause the lack of awareness. When girls go out people look out for them more often. I know that when I see a girl walking all alone I wonder for her safety but when I see a boy or man walking alone I don't.
When Jennifer told us all the examples of why it is never the patient's fault for what was done to them it was very heart warming. It's so depressing to hear about people who are too scared to tell the police about what happened to them. Most of the time it's because they are embarrassed and it's not far that that happened to them and someone can get away with it because they made their victim feel so worthless.
Overall I very much enjoyed her presentation. Probably the most valuable thing I've learned all week! Thank you for inviting her to speak to us!
Penny Fenn
I very much enjoyed listening to Jennifer Green's experiences with trauma patients. As a nursing major, these types of subjects interest me greatly. One thing that fascinated me was when she described how you never know if you personally will be a "fight, fight, or freeze" person until you get into a real life situation, and then she went into scientific detail about how you may have a whole plan for what you will do in life threatening situations, but when it really happens the memory portion of your brain shuts down and you learn what you will really do. That is something that I will probably always remember.
ReplyDeleteI was also so intrigued by her story about the girl who was strangled 20-30 times by her friend's boyfriend, and hearing how she reacted to that trauma, as if she had taken drugs. It was very surprising when she said that a majority of male victims were assaulted by their male friends! Both of these instances just reinforce the sad reality that sometimes it is the people we believe we know the most that we can trust the least.
Listening to her describe how she always addresses a victim at a lower height than them, and how they will not do any treatment the victim is not comfortable with, and the lengths that she goes to to try to build their trust and help them feel in control was both heart breaking to think about the situations they went through to make this necessary, but also heart warming to know that she realizes these things and is then able to help comfort them, empower them, and make them feel safe.
Hearing everything this job entails makes me consider going into this field when I am a nurse. I want nothing more than to be able to help comfort a person in need, make them feel safe and well, and feel that I have really made a difference in their life. This sounds like it would be a very rewarding job, and I am glad that I had the privilege of listening to her speak.
Katie Jones
I really enjoyed listening to our speaker, Jennifer Green. There were so many fascinating factors that I didn’t know about trauma, let alone what a forensic nurse goes through when she/he tries to heal the survivors. I was really touched when Jennifer told us about the death of her sister and how she talked about her reaction right after she found out the news. I never knew that we could be analyzed on our reactions to a trauma that we have experienced. I was also surprise that form the general population, 61% of men, 51% of women reported at least one trauma event. I would of thought that women would have the higher percentage rate.
ReplyDeleteJennifer mentioned quite a few examples of different kinds of traumas, but the one that stood out to me was about the naked girl that walked up and down the street and had gotten assaulted one day back in the alley. She had lost conscious several times and was being strangled repeatedly around 20 times and went through severe trauma and fought very hard for her life. It was so severe, that she later did not want anyone to touch her or she would fight her way off aggressively. So, the result of her not wanting to be touched at all and being defensive was explains why she reacts the way she did.
Everyone needs to go through a healing process and when Jennifer mentioned one of the first things she asks the survivor right after experiencing trauma is, what happened to you and NOT what is wrong with you really sunk in reality with me. It’s important for the survivor to have faith in you and not feel threatened or the survivor will shut down. The survivor needs to know that it isn’t their fault and they aren’t the victim which totally makes sense. One last thing, I was pleased to find out that when you go to St. Luke’s Hospital and you enter as a trauma patient, there is no charge. I think that is a great thing, being that why have the patient go through more trauma?
Ana Saint
I think that what Jennifer does is awesome that she gets the opportunity to help others everyday. Yes, it is sad that she has a job that deals with crime on regular basis, but I commend her for that, because I am not sure I could personally handle that sort of thing everyday. It takes a special kind of person to become a nurse, this is where I am glad that I am going for radiology. I really did appreciate her explaining that trauma isn't just about rape and gun shot wounds. Being a mom of a preemie, is also very traumatic and pediatric radiology is what I am longing to do because of my past. Nurses were my stronghold during that time, so to know that she makes the patient's wishes top priority is huge from a patients perspective. I know there were days in the beginning that I could not even function because I felt helpless over a situation that there was no controlling. I am also pleased to hear that St Luke's does not feel like a person in that situation should be charged. This for me adds to the "they really do care" thing for the patient. I know having my daughter at a nonprofit hospital, they were very helpful in this manner too, they wrote off nearly our entire NICU bill because they believe similarly.
ReplyDelete-Stephanie McClaskey
Jennifer did an amazing job of presenting. She packed so much information into the hour and didn't even make it seem like it was so much because of how interesting and engaged she was. There were a few things that stood out to me. The first being her accident experience which really helped to explain her point about psychological effects of trauma on the brain. Next was her sister dying, I never actually knew people got those reactions to medicine and died so quickly. This is the first time I've heard of the "froze" response she talked about. Lastly, the way she explained how she approaches people was very interesting and made so much sense. Given the power back to victims and respecting the no are the two big things about that, that stuck out to me. She had so many interesting facts and stories that really helped get her point and information across. She did an amazing job and I'd love to hear her talk again.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed Jennifer's presentation and found it interesting to hear of the different situations she encounters with her patients. As someone going into the health field I was intrigued by some of the examples she gave and experiences she has shared. Even though I am going into radiologic science and not forensic nursing, she made some comments about dealing with patients that will still be applicable in my career. It was very interesting to hear how she takes notes she on her patients traumas in order to approach them without further upsetting them. For example, said if they are not compliant and willing to work with her at first, she tells them she will be back in 10 minutes and sets a timer for exactly 10 minutes, in order to prove to them that she cares and that she is trustworthy. One of the statistics she pointed out at the beginning of the class really stuck out to me.
ReplyDelete51% of women report experiencing trauma, whereas 61% of men report experiencing trauma. I was surprised by this because I assumed that it would be the other way around. Generally when I hear about traumatic experiences, I automatically think of sexual assault and domestic violence in which cases I assume that females are the most common victims.
I was happy to hear that these exams are free of charge at St. Luke's hospitals. I agree that someone should not have to pay for help out of a situation they did not ask to be in to begin with. Overall, I feel as though I learned quite a bit of information from Jennifer's presentation in regards to the neurobiology that goes into forensic nursing, and I appreciate the opportunity to hear about her career.
Jessi Bradley
Personally, I struggled with this presentation because it hits a little too close to home for me. I have experienced a few traumatic events in my life. I still struggle with mild PTSD and paranoia because of walking in on someone burglarizing. Hearing so much that rang true in my case left me a little unsettled and made it a little harder to focus on the rest of the presentation because I got so caught up in my own thoughts about my personal situation. I wish that I could have forced myself to pay more attention because I know how much valuable information SANE nurses can provide from a previous group presentation of mine.
ReplyDeleteWhat I really seemed to focus on was the segment about the coping mechanisms: “freeze”, “fight”, or “flight”. Jennifer Green did share with us her freezing and shutting down in response to her sister’s death, but this does not mean that people have stick to a single reaction. I have discovered through experience and observation that reactions have a tendency to be a mixture of the three depending on the situation. I personally tend to freeze for a few seconds before I either “fight” or take “flight” and sometimes I will take the last remaining response afterwards.
Another thing that stuck with me was the surprising lack of information on relation to biological sex and gender. I just expected the representation to have more prevalent information that connected to these categories. It was nice that Jennifer Green never really showed in separation in regard for her treatment of male patients versus females patients. However, there were notably not many anecdotes that involved male patients. It just seems like a blank space in a guest lector for a gender studies class. This is not to say that I did not appreciate her speaking to us or that her presentation was not substantial. I merely wish that the presentation had a bit more focus towards the subject of this class because that content seemed severely limited to me.
I really enjoyed Jennifer's presentation and learned quite a bit of information that I was unaware of. In the beginning of her presentation I was surprised when she mentioned that 51% of women experience trauma and 61% of men experience it at least once in their lifetime. I assumed that women were assaulted more than men and I was also surprised that men reported it. I would have thought that would have been a hard thing for men to do because men tend to be more macho than women so I thought they wouldn't report the trauma. Also, the stages of crisis surprised me. When you have little experience with something you tend not to have much knowledge about it and this happened in my case. I was unaware that there are processes to everything such as the pre-crisis, impact and crisis. The three coping mechanisms were also surprising to me: Freeze, Flight, and Fight.
ReplyDeleteJennifer did a wonderful job presenting and it is so nice to see someone who is so passionate about her job and not just going through the motions. It makes me excited to get out into the field and start helping people whether it be a child at the doctors office or a trauma patient in the ER.
Jennifer's ability to make you feel close to the situations she was talking about made the whole experience better. Tears actually came to my eyes when she was telling us about her sister. It must be so hard to lose someone so young like that when it could have been avoided. I have always heard about not mixing medications but had never heard of anyone actually dying from it. Overall, Jennifer did an awesome job presenting and am looking forward to our next speaker who I hope is an interesting as Jennifer!
Jennifer Fahey-Winkelbauer
I enjoyed getting the chance to listen to our guest speaker, Jennifer. The subject of neurobiology has never been presented to me until she spoke about it. I learned that there are “fast” ways to make her patients regain trust. Some examples are, before she walks into the room she knocks on the door, states who she is and ask if they will talk to her. If they reply with no, she says okay and that she will come back in ten minutes to check on them again. When they allow her to come into the room she makes sure she is talking to them at eye level. I was also able to compare the neurobiology of trauma to the physical trauma. In my high school CNA class we had a guest speaker come in and talk about physical abuse or sexual. The physical aspect was hard because the situations she informed us on were with children. The nurse that talked to my high school class said it was hard because a lot of children want the comfort of someone, but it is hard for them to find it. Jennifer helped me put both situations together to understand all sides. Neurobiology is very interesting and important to the healing of patients. I enjoyed this guest speaker and everything she informed us about. - Kelsei Davis
ReplyDeleteI felt as though the presentation was very beneficial and interesting. Our guest speaker was very intelligent and presented the information well. This opened my eyes more to what goes on and what people will go through on a daily basis due to a traumatic event. Although I have never been involved in an event causing neurological damage and PTSD, I cant empathize with someone and understand some of their feelings. She mentioned a few times that in these cases, it is important to give her patients plenty of time and space if they need it. As a nursing major, this is something that I might have to be involved with in the future. Jennifer had experienced some traumatic events in her life and for her to be able to express some of her emotions and thoughts with us was very courageous. Many people who have been in her position would not be able to do so. I was surprised by some of the stories she told us involving other people who were victims in these situations. I did not know that certain tests can be done even a month from the event occurring. Overall, the presentation helped me to understand these events more and to be aware that this happens more than most people know. I will definitely be more aware and cautious about these situations and how I might have to deal with them in the future.
ReplyDeleteI had very little knowledge on what a traumatic event actually was to a individual, I assumed it had to be something that was off the rails but in the first 10 minutes the speaker proved how events are taken in differently. Something else that was interesting was to learn about the many ways a patient can gain trust and feel in control. After a dramatic event has occurred one should feel in charge of the environment they are in, that will help them feel more comfortable and will let the professional know about their current situation. It was also comforting to know that if a individual has been caused harm in anyway and they shared a home with him/her that they offer hotel vouchers or a "group home" where they feel safe. In the state of Kansas if one chooses to have a kit done that it is only a number put on the shelf not a name for anyone to see. Whereas Missouri also does this but now there will be a tracking number for the patient to feel in even more control of where things are at. Overall I really enjoyed listening to the speaker, her insight on how the hard things get done and how helping others feel safe after a traumatic event.
ReplyDelete-Danielle Fisher