Beat Stress Now! Three Tips To Use Today

Stress at work is a given. And with changes in healthcare worldwide and diminishing resources for those who care for others, the amount of stress experienced by nurses is on the rise. This article discusses why it’s important to know how to deal with stress, even while you’re trying to make changes in your workplace. Nurses Announcements Archive Article

  1. Which of the following are your top THREE stressors as an RN?

    • 86
      Unrealistic Job Expections
    • 122
      Staffing
    • 30
      Money
    • 54
      Patient Safety
    • 86
      Nurse/Patient Ratio
    • 105
      Workload
    • 39
      Stress
    • 45
      Bullying
    • 55
      Burnout
    • 47
      Management Interactions

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Beat Stress Now! Three Tips To Use Today

Stress In Nursing

Let's face it, the level of stress in nursing seems to be getting worse each day. And the worst part about it all is that so many of the things that are stressing us out aren't things that we can change overnight...if at all! Things like staffing, nurse-to-patient ratios and job expectations are pushing bedside nurses to their max...and beyond! And it doesn't seem like it's going to get any better. So, what can you do?

Know Thine Enemy

In a previous article, I shared the difference between stressors and stress. Briefly, stress is the physiology that you experience due to circumstances, or stressors, within your environment. While you aren't always going to be able to eliminate or even change the stressors in your life, learning how to deal with the stress that you experience is crucial.

If you spend your time only trying to change your work circumstances, then the impact that they have on your will continue to beat you down and decrease the amount of positive impact that you can have. Therefore, you've got to know that the "enemy" isn't outside of you, it's within you, it's how you deal with the effects of stress in your daily life.

Take a Step Back...and Observe

Since you realize that you can't immediately change your work circumstances (which doesn't mean, by the way, that you shouldn't continue to advocate for change) you've got to figure out a way to decrease the impact of stress on your physical and mental well-being.

The best way that you can do this is to recognize the effects of stress on your body and mind, and change them. And the first way to change them is to stop feeling like the effects and become familiar with just observing them.

As nurses, we're trained to attune a critical eye to observing signs and symptoms. Since you already have this keen ability, why not train your attention and focus on yourself; you deserve caring attention every bit as much as your patients do!

When you're feeling stressed, what's the first thing that comes to mind? For most people, it goes something like this; "I'm so stressed! I wish I could get away from this situation. This is never going to change! What can I do?"

Here's something to consider, does this pattern of reactive thinking decrease your experience of stress, or does it actually make it worse? It makes it worse. The physiological cycle of stress reactivity only worsens when you perpetuate the feeling of "I'm stressed" instead of cutting the cycle. And how do you cut the cycle?

Three Tips - Start Using Them

What you need are ways to decrease the impact that stress has on you. And you need them now. So, let's go!

Number One: Feel the Juice.

This may sound obvious, but the very first thing that you need to do is to recognize that you're experiencing stress physiology. Your body tells you when you're stressed and most of the time, you go straight to interpreting it as, "I'm stressed. This is bad. There's no way out." How about just noticing what's going on; "my heart rate is up...my breathing is fast...I'm feeling shaky." You see, just the physiology alone won't make things worse; it's when you begin interpreting (feeling) your physiology (emotions) and then get into negative thinking that you perpetuate the stress. So, notice it. That's all. Begin to let go of the habit of labeling it as "good" or "bad."

Number Two: Stinking Thinking...Don't Go There!

Once the stress physiology gets going, it's only a matter of seconds before we begin creating thoughts about how we're feeling...and they're usually not helpful. In fact, our thoughts about what we're experiencing only perpetuate our perception of stress. When you think, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe how bad the staffing is!" do you think it helps or hurts? Right, it only makes matters worse. So, when you find yourself thinking, "I'm stressed" or whatever the thought may be, interrupt it. This also helps you to remain in the moment with what is most important, patient care.

Number Three: Breathe.

So often, when we're under stress, our breathing goes haywire. We hypoventilate, depriving our body of the very thing it needs to most, and stressing it out more. Or, we hyperventilate, perpetuating the feeling of being stressed. Drop into your breath. Feel yourself breathing. Breathe. Try a "ten-second centering exercise." Take a long slow breath in. And, relaxed, breathe out again. For more info on working with the breath, check out this allnurses article.

Start Now

I once heard that there's no day in the week called "Someday." With that in mind, begin today to decrease the effect that stress has on you; each day that you do, you'll be another day closer to being stress-free. Also, if you have questions or need any clarification about anything that I've presented here, please do contact me; I'll always respond.

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Jerome Stone RN

About Jerome Stone RN

I've been an RN for over 30 years. I am an author, blogger, and keynote speaker. My site is: www.mindingthebedside.com

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Know thy enemy lol. Sometimes this is hard to do when everything is coming at you so fast.

I remember when the facility I was working had been actively working to increase census. Courting the hospitals, increased training, more hires, and facility upgrades. Well, they did such a good job that it seemed overnight our unit was always full and with a long waiting list. The acuity level was more than any of us had ever experienced before and it began to take a toll. We were all stressed, some to nearly breaking.

One morning after getting our assignments, getting report and hearing the night shift vent, the day shift started their vent. Suddenly I looked at another nurse and we just both stopped and looked around. We watched and saw the looks of defeat on so many faces just talking about the day ahead. This other nurse and I (both good friends) stood up and said enough. One of us (I don't remember now) said "Ok, our 5 minutes of '_itching' are up! This is going to be a good day so let's get started!". The other nurses stopped, looked at us and laughed. Then everyone got up and started working.

Not sure how or why this worked. Perhaps, just acknowledging out loud that yes, it is hard work and can be overwhelming, but we still have a job to do and we would all get through it...together, seemed to break the ice.

We did get through it. All of our patients did as well. And the funny thing, by allowing the 5 minute morning vent, eliminated the entire day of ahem, venting. There was more laughter, more ready assistance for our coworkers. We even started to go out every other week for a well deserved laugh session at the local marguerita joint lol.

Was it all peaches and cream after this? No, but what we found was support. And what we shared without reservation was support. What we stopped doing was playing the blame game and all the self-pity that 'this job is too hard'. And our change in attitude showed management that we mattered as well as our patinents', and when we had suggestions for changes to make our work more manageable, they heard. And they became our help instead of our task masters.

Hang in there nurses. We all know that our job seems to come in flows of good and bad. Take care of yourselves and take care of each other. Til' we get to the other side lol!

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Specializes in Nurse's Aide.

This is an article that was needed right now. Thank you for these helpful tips. Sometimes we all need to recognize that stress is stress, it is what it is and we CAN change the cycle of feeling stress and handling it with ease. I remember to not get overwhelmed when entering into my shift. Whatever happens, happens. Some nights get busier than others, and that's the reality of it. We are dealing with people who have needs, and sometimes the needs can seem to escalate when every resident needs something. But just remember: do the best you can. You are here for the resident. You are a team. And whether you are short-staffed or deal with difficult co-workers, just remind them and yourself that we are a team in helping these residents get the best care possible.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

"Know thy enemy" is extremely valuable advice, but one that is sometimes hard to apply (at least initially before one learns to do so automatically). For me at least, I've found that writing in a journal-type fashion forces me to break things down. Explaining my day on paper forces me to organize and analyze everything that was going on. I've often found that I feel significantly less stressed afterwards because things just don't seem as big a deal anymore after having broken them down!

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Jerome,

I'm going back to the bedside to work after being away playing with computers for the last 5 yrs. This article is great! It all fits very well with the way that I experience stress and how I deal with it - which is all wrong. I really enjoyed your article and look forward to seeing more from you!

TNnursejane

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Specializes in Research, ICU, hospice, pain management.

Hey lockportRN - Awesome story!! I love it. And it's so cool that the "five-minute-'-itch" session turned out to be a great place to vent. And that you were able to reel in the venting and turn it into a way to get on with the day. Thanks for sharing that. Hmm; maybe hospitals need to implement Five Minute Vent sessions after report? Or...would they just keep going? :wideyed:

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Specializes in Research, ICU, hospice, pain management.

Hey there VicChic20 - First off; incredibly happy to hear that the article was what you needed "...right now." Glad I wrote it when I did!

I like what you wrote about all of us needing to, "...recognize that stress is stress." That is the important piece here; we can become so stressed, even more so, by not recognizing it as a physical sensation that can (and will) eventually dissipate. And how we can make ourselves so miserable by reacting to what we're feeling instead of acknowledging it.

Thanks for sharing in this (incredibly!) important discussion.

Take care,

Jerome Stone

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Specializes in Research, ICU, hospice, pain management.

Hello N. Maren - I love the idea of journaling as a way to "know thy enemy."

Do other people find that journaling helps?

Cool idea!

Thanks for sharing it.

Take care,

Jerome Stone

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Specializes in Research, ICU, hospice, pain management.

Hey TNnursejane - congrats on getting back to the bedside. Is doing so a choice that you had to make, i.e. needed the income, or one what you wanted to make to reconnect with the profession? Curious....

Take care,

Jerome Stone

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I am a new CNA. And i have just landed a great job. I totally love working there. But there is this one person I work with 85% of the time she finds something to rake me out about whereas others would just radio me to the room, tell me it was done incorrectly and help me fix whatever it was. That would be the last I would hear of it. She goes on and on so much it stresses me to the point I cannot get to sleep on these days easily, today being one of them. Situation today was that I was training someone on a 2-9 shift where we go in and toilet people until supper time as our first task. This resident was on the list we checked for a wet attend and if there was bm she was fine so we went to the next resident. An hour later she calls me into the room and I go thinking it's been an hour maybe she's wet now and my coworker needs help changing her in bed. As soon as I and my trainee get into the room she starts yelling at me about how the resident was not positioned correctly and how everything was wrong when the previous shift had repositioned her not long before we checked to see if the resident was wet or had bm. Also when we went in to check the resident she had looked comfortably positioned as what my trainee and I saw, when she called me back into the room later on the pillows were out from under her head and she just looked sprawled out and in pain the resident cannot move to do that herself. I fail to see how I did that. This woman infuriates me because she always finds some small thing to yell at me about I'm not sure if she just dislikes me or what. But it causes me to lose sleep and I'm about sick and tired of it. I've mentioned it before to my supervisor. Hoping she would move me to shifts where I don't have to work with her. It hasn't happened. I have no idea what to do but I don't want her to chase me away from my job

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Specializes in Research, ICU, hospice, pain management.

Hi Amy -

Wow, that sounds like an incredibly stressful situation and one in which you feel powerless to make a change. And you've even spoken with your Supervisor and...did she do anything?

First off, I'm curious; is this difficult peer just this unpleasant with you? Or is it with everyone?

When you've gone in to speak with your Supervisor, have you actually said (something to the effect of) "I really need you to step in here and help me and my co-worker work things out." When you speak with your Supervisor, are you asking from a place of knowing that you deserve help? Because you do. This situation really does sound unbearable.

And now, what do you feel in your body when this happens? Fear? Anger? Confusion? I get that you probably feel quite a bit of justifiably difficult emotions during these times. And do the emotions that you're feeling (the jittery feeling of being "infuriated") prevent you from engaging your peer in a way that she can hear you...and...that you can remain in control of the difficult emotional-sensations that you're experiencing?

Do these feelings prevent you from confronting your peer, saying something like, "Hey, can we discuss this as peers? It's really difficult to talk with you when I'm feeling like you're all over me."

This is tough. I get it. I'm not wanting to imply that it's easy, because it's not.

What I'm sharing is that the emotions that you're experiencing are probably partly what's preventing you from being able to engage this person in a forthright conversation.

The three tips that I offered above, 1) feeling but not reacting to your emotions, 2) bringing your mind back from the angry or fearful thoughts that may be rising, and 3) dropping in to a long relaxed breath, may help you - gradually - be able to work with what's going on.

I believe that by you sharing what's happening for you, here and now, you're taking care of yourself. It's a sign that you know yourself well enough not to passively take on this kind of bullying; you're saying, "This isn't working." You know that something is wrong and are working to change it.

Dealing with how you respond to the stress that you experience will take time, and probably won't happen over night (but great if it does!) Continue to work with the tools that I've offered here AND advocate for yourself with your Supervisor.

A final thought; imagine yourself calmly, assuredly, and assertively (not aggressively) saying something to your peer, telling her your experience of her behavior with you. What would it be? How would you feel when you said it? What would your body feel like, knowing that you were - mindfully - standing up for yourself? What kind of words would you use that wouldn't inflict harm on your peer, but would allow her to hear you? This kind of exercise can be powerful. Try to work with it. Share with this community what happens.

I wish that I had more to offer; I hope that what I did have to offer will make a positive difference in how you experience this situation.

Others? What are your thoughts on what Amy shared?

Take care,

Jerome Stone

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