ANA Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation® Spotlight: Terri Bogue, PCNS-BC, APRN
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Nurse helps others work through trauma and burnout
As a clinical nurse specialist and parent of 7, putting others first is a part of life for #healthynurse Terri Bogue, PCNS-BC, APRN.
But those aren’t the only 2 hats Terri wears. She has also dedicated herself to improving the mental health of others — a passion that bloomed from her own personal and professional experience with mental health.
“Part of being a clinical nurse specialist is working to improve nursing care for both patients and nurses to make better outcomes for both,” Terri says. “It involves helping nurses be successful — something they can’t do well if they are not tending to their own mental health.”
Terri’s mental health work initially focused on nurses and the needs she saw within the nursing community. However, over time and guided by personal experiences, Terri’s focus and reach have expanded. Along the way, she also learned to navigate her own mental health challenges.
It Began With Burnout
Like most nurses, Terri had witnessed burnout happening around her. But when she experienced burnout herself, it was eye-opening. Terri’s burnout didn’t stem from her work, but it did affect how well she functioned, because it affected her mental health.
“The World Health Organization says burnout is an occupational hazard,” Terri says. “But it took hold of me because I had a child who was not doing what I thought was the right thing, and I felt helpless to be able to correct him. I felt like I lacked efficacy in being a parent, and it led to burnout.”
Instead of letting burnout get the best of her, Terri allowed it to fuel her. In 2019, she and her husband, Robert, a consultant who helps people and corporations improve and change, wrote Extinguish Burnout: A Practical Guide to Prevention and Recovery for the Society for Human Resource Management. They developed a related course and corporate programs, offering speaking engagements and trainings to help others prevent and recover from burnout.
“The way we look at burnout is different than most people,” Terri says. “It’s not about what other people can do to help you. It’s about identifying the things you can do to prevent burnout and to help yourself recover if you find yourself in it.”
“There’s a component the organization needs to own — but, ultimately, we must be responsible for our own mental health,” Terri added.
Learning From Loss
Two years later, Terri’s mental health focus and personal journey took a sharp turn when she and her husband lost their son, Alex, to suicide.
“We knew that we didn’t want another family to feel this pain,” Terri says. “But we also realized that we need to address suicide prevention in a way that reaches people before they get to that point in their lives. So, we now do a lot of work to improve how people process trauma.”Terri shares that she initially thought of trauma as something that only frontline people, such as EMTs, firefighters, police officers, and healthcare providers experience. Like many people, she assumed trauma had to be something big that you personally experience. But in her research, she’s learned that when you care for somebody who is going through a trauma, you experience it with them as secondary trauma. The care for others isn’t limited to your professional role — any care for another human can leave the mark of trauma on you as well.
“The more you talk to people, you realize that everybody has experienced trauma,” Terri says. “But no one teaches us what to do with that trauma.”
Turning Trauma Into Teachable Moments
Terri, who continues to work as a clinical nurse specialist, has added trauma processing workshops and speaking to her growing resume. She recently completed an 8-month-long trauma certification course to round out what she already knew.
“We teach people that experiencing trauma when caring for others is normal,” Terri says. “We teach what it may feel like in the moment — and after the moment has passed. Once people understand the impact of trauma, we teach ways to process it. The goal is for it to become a part of your story without being overwhelming.”
Terri and Robert also teach organizations about the behavioral and relational results of trauma so they can help their workers — especially nurses — to be more trauma-informed.
“When nurses, police officers, or social workers become more trauma-informed, they begin to look at people differently,” Terri says. “They can consider the drivers of a person’s behavior that might result from trauma. The difference for patients and providers is palpable as a conflict once assigned to a curmudgeon is converted to compassion.”
Terri and her husband work with many groups, including health care institutions, police departments, social services non-profit organizations, and governmental divisions.
Recognizing Her Own Journey
Terri helps others with everything from infection prevention to suicide prevention. But she’s also been able to work through her own trauma.
As she dealt with Alex’s passing and continues her work with trauma, Terri says all kinds of her own unprocessed trauma has resurfaced. A lot of it happened during her prior work in the pediatric ICU. Slowly and surely, she’s learning to process the trauma she herself has experienced.
“I had put it all in the backpack and tried to forget about it,” Terri says. “But that backpack had gotten heavy. I didn’t even realize how much it was holding me down. It’s been incredible to process the trauma I’ve been carrying.”
That isn’t to say that Terri doesn’t still get overcome some days. There are still times when she feels ineffective or overwhelmed by the suffering she sees, but now she has the tools she needs to recover more quickly.
“I catch these things earlier now and talk myself through them,” Terri says. “I’ve realized that the best way to avoid burnout and deal with overwhelm is to recognize and remember that I’m amazing because I am the person I am. We are all amazing. No one posts that very often. My hope is that everyone can see themselves for the people they are and celebrate themselves.”
Terri Bogue, PCNS-BC, APRN, is a clinical nurse specialist and consultant at Thor Projects. Terri is also an author, consultant, and speaker specializing in the topics of infection prevention, burnout, and trauma processing.
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Blog #healthynurse Spotlight
01/08/2025 1:57pm CST
The #healthynurse Spotlight is a shout out to nurses who are making changes in their lives to improve their health and wellness. You can too! Read their stories for inspiration here.
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