It should come as no surprise to people that nursing can be a stressful profession. Whereas many people employed with large companies or in schools get to enjoy peak times and slow times and manage that time accordingly, the nursing profession is not so lucky. Hospitals are a constantly revolving door of the sick and the injured, and because of the mandate of hospitals and doctors and nurses, those people must be provided care whenever it is required. A nurse might find themselves in a long ten-hour shift for weeks on end with no respite in sight. Luckily, for those considering the nursing profession and those in nursing itself, there are some stress management techniques that work quite well to help with the burden of a nurse’s workload.
Nurses provide and record patient care in conjunction with doctors and physicians. They are the staff who monitors and record patient vital signs and medical history, and they are responsible for educating both patients and the public about various healthcare conditions, and they also are required to be on hand to offer advice and support to patients and their families. In hospital settings, nurses are often understaffed and may find themselves working with many more patients than necessary. This is largely because there has been a shortage of qualified nurses in the medical workplace, and this factor more than anything else is a prime contributor to the stress that nurses typically experience in their profession.
For the nurse experiencing stress in the medical workplace, they need to turn their attention to their inner dialogue. Often the first signs of stress manifest themselves in deprecating self-talk. Since the stress response is the body’s way of dealing with the demands placed on it, the workplace can be a very bad place to deal with stress. One has to go about one’s duties regardless of how one feels, and negative talk directed at the self is a way to combat some of the negative energy that stress creates. It is important to pay attention to this kind of self-talking because negativity breeds negativity and a switch to positive affirmations can dispel some of that negative mental energy.
Breathing is a key part of any meditational exercise, and it is a great tool for dealing with stress. For the busy nurse, taking a moment to focus on deep breathing exercises can remove feelings of anxiety and lower the stress response. This exercise involves simply focusing on the sensation of breathing as it enters the nasal cavity and deeply fills the diaphragm. This will lower the heart rate and reduce body temperatures, all part of the stress response.
Getting outdoors into a natural environment is a great tool for reducing stress. If done with a friend, it has the added benefit of adding companionship and removing the individual from the source of stress. The stress will be there when the nurse returns, but they will be in a better frame of mind to adequately handle their response to it.
The techniques for reducing stress are often quite simple. The difficulty that the nurse, and anyone, has in a stressful situation is having the wherewithal to take the time to recognize the symptoms of stress and remove themselves from the stressful situation. By knowing the symptoms, the nurse can reduce the likelihood of burnout.
