23| Clare's Meningococcal Meningitis experience, sepsis recognition, ICU, 10% survival rate, PTSD, vaccinations, nursing burnout
This week Clare talks about her scary experience of contracting Meningococcal Meningitis, and how as a healthy 23 year old working out at the gym, then found herself 24hrs later in ICU fighting for her life- her family being told she only had a 10% survival rate. Clare's care slipped through the cracks; we discuss just how hard it is to recognise sepsis and how far we have come since Clare was sick. Clare is a passionate medical educator, and used this experience to further spread knowledge toward recognition, resus and treatment of sepsis. Clare opens up about her PTSD and survivors guilt she experienced at work, as well as the overwhelming responsibility she felt to make sure every one of her sepais patients received evidenced based care. This episode ddiscusses the trauma many health care professionals live with day to day, with Chloe and Clare both opening up on how that can affect your mental health. It's often very hard to see just how much you normalise trauma, until you have time away from the field. We hope that in sharing this story, you feel educated to say "something is not right" when you are worried in the healthcare setting. It can be so difficult to advocate, especially when you are not medically trained, but this is about empowering parents with sick kids, new grad nurses on their first night shift, or for yourself when you are not happy with the answers. Trusting your gut, will get you far in life. We love you Patty's x
Sepsis Recognition Infographic: https://www.childrens.health.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0034/169477/Paediatric-Sepsis-Signs-Checklist.pdf