August 2023
Michael
Schauz
,
RN, ADN, TNCC, CEN, EMT-P
Emergency Department
Aurora Medical Center Summit
Summit
,
WI
United States
Michael was 100% professional. He did not judge. He listened.
When I came into the ED I had been battling a depression that just kept getting worse over the past 6 months. I was terrified. I was there alone and not sure what to expect. When I met Michael, I wasn't sure how things were going to go as I had worked with him in the ED before. I thought things would be weird and I would end up feeling worse than when I came in and I would end up leaving AMA with more SI thoughts than what I came with. This is not how it was.
Michael was 100% professional. He did not judge. He listened. In the short time he was in the room he made me feel safe. He actually listened to me. He did not push his beliefs about self-harm or suicide on me but rather told me of his life experiences. It is from his narrative of his life experiences that helped me get through the psychiatric hospital when I eventually went... He told me, "Everyone is put on this earth for a reason. We may be all alone but once we realize that we are alone we will be able to depend on ourselves, give ourselves to a higher power, and help those in need." I did not understand it when he first said it to me but as I went to group therapy it helped me get through everything and made everything click. If he hadn't helped me get into that mindset early on, I am not sure I would have been as successful in the program.
Not only did Michael do these things I said before, but he also made you feel safe and loved. As I said earlier, I felt so scared being in the Emergency department alone but having Michael as a nurse truly made me feel safe. I felt protected; protected not only from anything that could potentially physically harm me but from any of the demons swarming inside of my head. It was like he was a demon repellant.
Mike has done me a courtesy of something that I cannot even describe and definitely and not doing justice attempting to describe. In a very short time, somehow and in some way he helped me:
*feel friendship
*platonic love
*safety
*hope
*the want to live
*support
*respect
*many other things
I truly owe him more than he will ever know.
Michael was 100% professional. He did not judge. He listened. In the short time he was in the room he made me feel safe. He actually listened to me. He did not push his beliefs about self-harm or suicide on me but rather told me of his life experiences. It is from his narrative of his life experiences that helped me get through the psychiatric hospital when I eventually went... He told me, "Everyone is put on this earth for a reason. We may be all alone but once we realize that we are alone we will be able to depend on ourselves, give ourselves to a higher power, and help those in need." I did not understand it when he first said it to me but as I went to group therapy it helped me get through everything and made everything click. If he hadn't helped me get into that mindset early on, I am not sure I would have been as successful in the program.
Not only did Michael do these things I said before, but he also made you feel safe and loved. As I said earlier, I felt so scared being in the Emergency department alone but having Michael as a nurse truly made me feel safe. I felt protected; protected not only from anything that could potentially physically harm me but from any of the demons swarming inside of my head. It was like he was a demon repellant.
Mike has done me a courtesy of something that I cannot even describe and definitely and not doing justice attempting to describe. In a very short time, somehow and in some way he helped me:
*feel friendship
*platonic love
*safety
*hope
*the want to live
*support
*respect
*many other things
I truly owe him more than he will ever know.