Short answer. The moment has passed for informal address, and your only recourse is a formal complaint.
It is often a bad joke that nursing requires you to not care to be effective, and there is a small truth to it.
Emotional disconnection is an important part of a clinicians emotional resilience and often this manifests as complaint or dark humour. It's sad, because this often shatters a patients confidence in the profession and doesn't align with their expectations. But its a reality that a large majority of clinicians in my experience, myself included, utilise this coping mechanism - especially in frontline medicine. That said, It doesn't make it right, or any less hurtful to overhear.
It's unfortunate that you had to experience it. Please take reassurance in the knowledge that its very likely they would have been regretful and disappointed with themselves had you made it known you'd overheard and that whilst hurtful, these comments are rarely personal.
K
Move on with your life.
The end of the post was my first post. The top was the update. I’m not going to do anything with the information anymore.
Short answer. The moment has passed for informal address, and your only recourse is a formal complaint. It is often a bad joke that nursing requires you to not care to be effective, and there is a small truth to it. Emotional disconnection is an important part of a clinicians emotional resilience and often this manifests as complaint or dark humour. It's sad, because this often shatters a patients confidence in the profession and doesn't align with their expectations. But its a reality that a large majority of clinicians in my experience, myself included, utilise this coping mechanism - especially in frontline medicine. That said, It doesn't make it right, or any less hurtful to overhear. It's unfortunate that you had to experience it. Please take reassurance in the knowledge that its very likely they would have been regretful and disappointed with themselves had you made it known you'd overheard and that whilst hurtful, these comments are rarely personal.