Trauma Perception: Shaping Our Nursing Journey

Juan believes that individuals define their own trauma through the meaning they assign to experiences.

### Trauma Does Not Exist: A Nursing Student's Perspective on Overcoming Challenges
* 📚 Juan discusses the book "The Courage to Be Disliked" and shares **three impactful quotes** that changed his perspective on **trauma and self-improvement**.
* 💭 The first quote emphasizes that "**no experience is in itself a cause of our success or failure**," highlighting the importance of **how we interpret and respond to events**.
* 🧠 Juan reflects on how this quote applies to nursing school, encouraging students to view feedback constructively rather than letting it negatively impact their **self-image**.
* 💬 The second quote states that "we determine our own lives according to the **meaning we give to those past experiences**," emphasizing personal agency in shaping one's narrative.
* 🏥 Juan relates this quote to nursing education, highlighting the importance of **choosing a positive interpretation of challenges** to foster **growth and resilience**.
* ⏳ The final quote asserts that "**people can change at any time, regardless of environments they are in**," challenging the notion of fixed personality traits.
* 🎓 Juan encourages nursing students to **embrace change and seek out resources for improvement**, emphasizing the **adaptability required in healthcare education**.
* 🌟 By reframing trauma as a self-imposed construct and highlighting the **potential for growth and change**, Juan offers a positive perspective on **overcoming challenges in nursing school**.
* 👩 This video serves as a motivational resource for nursing students, promoting a mindset of **continuous improvement and resilience** in the face of academic difficulties.

Hello guys and welcome back to my channel. If you're new here, my name is Juan. I'm now a third-semester nursing student at Imperial Valley College, and for today's video, it's gonna be Trauma Does Not Exist. Now, I know this can be a very controversial topic because, like, you know, I do have trauma because, you know, I've been diagnosed with this. We're excluding all that, okay? That's gonna be like my the first thing I'm saying, um, because there's a lot of controversial things that can be said about trauma. But what I'm talking about this type of trauma is like the trauma that we have decided to put on ourselves, like the undiagnosed stuff, um, events that have occurred to us, the mentality that we have. And there's a book here, one of the best books I read last semester, called The Courage to Be Disliked. And this one is pretty much kind of like a play between a philosopher and a student, and the student has questions that we would normally have, and the philosopher is

this type of like wise man that has the answers towards everything and pretty much telling us like we make our life so complicated when in reality life is pretty simple um but and he has his own chapter called trauma does not exist so that's why this is going to be the title of this video and there's three quotes that he says that pretty much when I read them it changed my life completely and it changed also my perspective towards nursing school and it actually made my nursing school experience a little bit better so I'm going to be sharing the quotes here as I'm reading them out loud you guys can pause the video and read them on your own or you can read them with me as I'm saying them and I'm also gonna say how it fits into my nursing career journey in order for you guys to correlate with it and get some value out of it right so let's begin now the first quote it says no experience is in itself a cause of our success or failure we do

not suffer from the shock of our experiences, the so-called trauma, but instead we make it out of them whatever suits our purposes. We are not determined by our experiences, but the meaning we give them is self-determined. So when I read this, I was like, Oh my god, like that is so true. Whether it's success or failure, you know, in reality, I'm the one who decides if it's going to be something positive or something negative. If it's a failure, more than likely, um, that's the thing that's going to traumatize us more, right? Like an exam grade, maybe a credit, our professor had some comments they had on simulations, you know, you name it, right? But you know, we make out of it whatever it suits our purposes. Even though it can be like a negative comment, you can take it more of a self-criticism, like, you know, I should work on this, like that she's right, I should be working on this, but I shouldn't take it personally because at the end of the day, it's gonna help me.

become a better nurse. It's gonna make me, I don't know, like take care of the patients better, more effectively. Try and see like the bright side out of it. Don't try and just see like the negative. Be like, Oh my god, I'm gonna be a terrible nurse. I suck so bad. I shouldn't even be in nursing school. Like, Yeah, like I'm so terrible. Like, do not feed into that type of thought because you're the one feeding into it. Like, the professor told you one thing, and however you take it, that's a whole different thing. So do not try and take it the negative way and don't let it traumatize you, right? Try it and see it in a positive way if you can, and if you can't, just be like, Oh well, like that's fair, and just discard it, you know? But don't let it stick to you. Don't let it traumatize you and make you then have a lot of self-doubt because then from them on, it's just going to go

downhill. So, that's how I saw that quote. The second quote: We determine our own lives according to the meaning we give to those past experiences. Your life is not something that someone gives you, but something you choose yourself, and you're the one who decides how you live. So, yeah, pretty much like we are the ones who determine like what, what are we gonna, how are we gonna set like the past experiences that we had. Like I said previously, you know, something can happen to you and to me the same time, same event, and you can see us like as something very negative, very discouraging, and I could see that something positive for personal growth or something like that. It's like, yeah, like something bad happened, but in reality, I prefer for it to happen here than maybe in the real world. Let's just say with the patient, you know, like, um, I sucked at a scene. We both sucked in the simulation. Let's just say you and I are in a simulation. We both suck really bad, and the professor's like, honestly, you

guys suck. Um, that was like the worst critical thinking I ever saw, worse type of priorities checks, and I don't know, worst assessment, you know, you name it. You put all the worst that we failed on everything. Um, so you can take it like, Oh my god, like I'm so terrible. Like honestly, I don't know why I'm in here. Like I'm a terrible critical thinker. I shouldn't even be a nurse. I'm gonna kill people. And I could be like, you know, Yeah, like it wasn't the best thing ever, but I'd rather for her to correct me right now with the mannequin than me being on the floor and then like face like a bail, I mean like a prison thing, or go to court and things like that. So honestly, I'm so glad I did it right now because then I don't, I do not need to do it in the hospital. So yeah, so honestly, I'll be like, Yeah, like that's why I'm a student. We're here to make mistakes, right? Like you know, you cannot

expect for students to be like that on school, so it is what it is like. Even though the professors want us to be like that, the truth is when they were students, they probably sucked too. So, it's like, you know, that's why they're professors, because they're trying to change something, um, and that's their job, you know, to correct us and be like, Hey, don't do that ever again, and that's it. Okay, so you see how we both live the same thing, but we both give it like different meanings. So, that's what it's trying to say, like we give the meaning towards our past experiences. Like, it could be positive, could be negative, it doesn't matter, like we're the ones who decide. So, try and always go for the positive thing, because if you let it go to the negative thing, it's gonna traumatize, it's gonna give you a lot of self-doubt, and you're gonna be discouraged throughout your whole nursing journey. And the last quote, People can change at any time, regardless.

of environments they are in. You're unable to change only because you are making the decision not to. This is exactly true. I have met so many people, and if I can have a dollar for every time a person said, like, Well, I'm not going to change. Like, this is who I am, I'd probably be rich, and I wouldn't have to be in nursing school or do anything at all. Um, because, like, there's a lot of people that have, like, a very close mindset, and maybe some people don't have a close mindset when it comes to learning stuff, but when it comes to their personality, they're so close-minded that they're like, I can't change. Like, this is who I am, and it is what it is. And in reality, like, those people please try to avoid him. And if you're that type of person, this is the perfect time for you to change. And like the quote says, you know, you don't change because you don't want to. Now how this applies to nursing school: you can suck at exams, you can do very

terrible at taking exams. Um, you can be really bad at making priorities, decisions, simulations, and check-ups, whatever, but it doesn't mean you're... you cannot change. It doesn't mean that that's who you are and you know that's your curse. No, you can change if you really want to. If you're really bad at exams, try doing quiz lists, try, I don't know, search like test banks for, I don't know, fundamentals, met search and put your chapter and have like a lot of practice questions so you can practice your rationales, your critical thinking. If your problem is like the simulation, things like that, you know, to try and if you see another group go in, try and see how they prioritize, how they think, analyze them, ask them like, you know, like how do you know when if you should do this from that, ask your professor. You have a lot of resources on YouTube, you know, there's a lot of things you can do like you're not set as default for how you are, you are able to change however you want, whenever you want, and yeah, you

know honestly if you are not that good of a student itself. It doesn't mean that that's your default. It doesn't mean that that's who you are. It doesn't mean that nursing is not for you. It means that there's room for you to change. You know if there's some things that they didn't work out now and then they did before. Well there's some things you need to tweet. You know that we that's one of the best things I like about us. Like the human rights that we're able to adapt. So if you were put into an environment like the prerequisites when you were taking nursing school. You know you didn't really have to do a lot or maybe you did like here and there but not all the time. But then you got to nursing school and it's like oh damn like there's a lot of things I have to do and like the time limit. It's like it's so close and everything's like oh my god like I can't do it. But you eventually do it right.

like you find the way, you get the tutors, you get your classmates to help you, you get your professors to help you. The whole point is that you were able to adapt from being like a man student that got an A on the prerequisites to now a nursing student that gets B, C's, A's, whatever, but you know you're pretty efficient on doing it. So, you're able to adapt, you're able to change. If people were not able to change them, like we wouldn't have progressed so much throughout these years, um, like technologically and like industrially. Like, no, it's very good. Like, we are able to adapt and change, and especially with the COVID thing, you know, like a lot of businesses had to adapt to for it to be online classrooms, nursing schools. Well, with me, not really anymore. We're going now to school, but you know, back then, first, second semester, it was like through here, class was here, doing exams in person, and that's it, you know, clinicals, not really, um.

more like hospitals here and there, and then b simulations, convalescent homes maybe, but you know, not like the full experience that we would like to have or the professor would like to give us. But hey, you know, it is what it is, you know, but we were able to adapt or like how they say in nursing school, being flexible, okay? So yeah, those were all the things that I wanted to share with you guys and why like trauma does not exist. I hope this video tried it and changed you a bit and or at least made you think about some of these quotes and for you to try out something new, all right? You know, for you to be a better student and a better human being overall. So if you guys stood here until the end of this video, thank you so much guys for watching, and I'll see you guys on the next video. Bye.

Trauma Doesn't Exist (How It Has Played Out in My Nursing School)

Joel Aldasoro

Juan, a third-semester nursing student, discusses the concept of self-imposed trauma and its impact on our lives.

He shares insights from the book "The Courage to Be Disliked," which challenges the notion of trauma and emphasizes that we determine the meaning of our experiences.

Juan highlights a quote from the book that changed his perspective on success and failure, encouraging a positive self-determination in response to life's challenges.

The Importance of a Positive Mindset in Nursing

A positive mindset is crucial for becoming a better nurse and effectively caring for patients.

It's important to reframe negative feedback and past experiences as opportunities for growth and learning.

Ultimately, we have the power to determine the meaning of our experiences and shape our own lives.

Students and professors share similar struggles, but they give different meanings to their experiences.

It's important to focus on the positive aspects of past experiences to avoid self-doubt and discouragement.

Change is possible for everyone, and it's the decision to change that makes the difference.

Being bad at exams doesn't define you; change is possible with effort.

Utilize quiz lists, test banks, and practice questions to improve critical thinking and decision-making.

Observe and ask peers for their strategies, and take advantage of resources like YouTube and professors for guidance.

The Importance of Adaptability in Nursing School

Adapting to change is crucial for success, as demonstrated by the transition from a student with A's to a nursing student managing B's and C's.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses and schools to shift to online classes, highlighting the need for flexibility.

Despite the challenges, the ability to adapt and change has been key to personal and professional growth.