Nurses with ADHD are everywhere in the healthcare system. You can see them in the ICU unit laser-focused on their critically-ill patient or at a medical clinic accessing patients one at a time.
However, although these nurses have strategies to manage their ADHD in the workplace, their managers or employers often aren’t aware that they’re struggling in the first place.
This might lead to more communication about what these nurses need and how much their manager expects them to do.
Luckily, there are ways that supervisors can help nurses grow in a fast-paced environment so that nurses don’t have to figure out all of their mental health needs themselves.
Jami Fregeau, RN, is a podcaster, Instagram influencer, and mental health advocate who has ADHD herself. For nurses who are hesitant to go to their supervisor about their ADHD, Fregeau recommends that they list ADHD symptoms that interfere with their job before reaching out for help.
“We may get nervous, or we may get on a tangent, and it causes our minds to go blank, and we don’t have great short-term memories,” says Fregeau. “So it’s crucial to have that list to refer to and to be able to expound on something that we can take in there that is tangible to us.”
She also mentions that employers often don’t have enough education on how ADHD can present in adult women. Fregeau remembers how her ADHD was an obstacle to receiving her CCRN certification because of how much test-taking she had to do, so she told her manager about her struggle. In response, her manager told her she “didn’t look like she had ADHD.”
Nursing is a female-dominated industry, but many managers still have the idea that ADHD looks like an eight-year-old boy that can’t stay still, according to Fregeau.
“So I think that when we advocate for ourselves, it will also have to take the fabric of education. What it means, what it looks like, where the difficulties lie, to be able to talk and figure out the areas I’m struggling in that the hospital can help me in.
When nurses explain what ADHD accommodations can look like, managers can recognize and work with nurses’ neurodivergent brains.
“We are great assets to patient care and the world of nursing with the way that we think outside of the box and the way that we come up with creative things that others may not be able to,” says Fregeau.
Michelle Raz, M.Ed., BCC, CSS, is an ADHD career coach and co-founder of the academic coaching company Thrivister. She mentions that ADHD accommodations in nursing can look like customized breaks in a 10-hour shift, quiet places to relax for emotional regulation, and clear expectations and assignments.
If a workplace is big enough, then joining a DEIB group or support group can help other nurses with ADHD find community and learn strategies from a coach (like Raz) to cope with their ADHD better.
Hospitals and large healthcare spaces can often be chaotic, but bringing a coach in to help ADHD nurses can allow nurses to separate themselves from their work. These coping skills include meditation, breathing exercises, and organization skills.
However, Raz thinks workplaces are making strides in understanding what ADHD looks like in everyone.
“I’ve been in this industry for 15 years, and I’ve seen the shift, and it is fantastic that people are coming out and recognizing that ADHD can be a struggle, but it can also be a gift,” says Raz.
Hyperfocus is one way nurses with ADHD perform better in their work. Fregeau says her experience working with critical care conditions allows her to focus more closely on the minor details other nurses miss, like a newborn’s change in grip or the onset of dysarthria.
“It’s like a cascade that opens in my mind whenever I go to a code, a code stroke, or whatever type of emergency. So I can see all the things,” she says. “The brain works quickly and helps me stay calm under pressure because I can anticipate things a lot more negatively.”
For hospital or medical management to provide support for a nurse’s ADHD, it’s up to the nurse to assess their workplace culture and what they need to be successful, according to Raz. Sometimes nurses decide to speak up, but other times they see that they don’t need additional support.
“So it’s a personal choice to say that because it’s the invisible [condition]. It’s not a physical disability,” says Raz.
If a nurse does decide to talk to a supervisor, they need to know what that particular nurse’s strengths and weaknesses are, according to Fregeau. That way, their supervisor can suggest hospital committees they can be involved in or areas of expertise they can give to new nurses.
When nurses do speak up, not only do they help themselves, but they also help their patients recover faster by providing the best quality care they can receive.
“But it is important to remember that you can control the type of care somebody gets from you,” says Fregeau. “And if there’s help and resources that you need to take to give that to other people, it’s worth it.”
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