COMMUNITY EDUCATION PROJECT : Stress Management for Nurses

Published Aug 28, 2020

Lakecia, BSN

5 Posts

Specializes in Emergency Department / Telehealth.

Stress Management for Nurses

How to better practice through learned techniques

Diana Baker, Madelyn Eklund, Lakecia Lewis,

Amanda Nash, Susan Raniere

Stevenson University

General Objective

To provide a community group education to nurses related to stress. Identify and share evidence-based strategies to use for managing stress.

Aim

To increase awareness of the effects of stress amongst nurses and students via a social media platform.

What is Stress?

Stress is a normal feeling.

There are two causes of stress, acute and chronic.

Acute Stress is short-term that goes away quickly.

Chronic stress lasts for a longer period. If you do not manage your stress it may lead to health problems. https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/003211.htm#:~:text=Stress is a feeling of,danger or meet a deadline.

Stress in Nursing

In today’s healthcare, the growing stresses on nursing make an already strenuous job even more difficult and in return, nursing burnout continue to be an issue. The nursing profession has been facing a nursing shortage for years and the U.S. is projected to experience a shortage of Registered Nurses (RNs) that is expected to intensify as Baby Boomers age and the need for health care grows.

The negative effect of these stressors can affect the ability of health care professionals to care for others.

“Occupational stress can be defined as a situation wherein job-related factors interact with an employee, changing his/her psychological and physiological condition in a way that the person is forced to deviate from normal functioning” (2016, p.1). Nurses are one of the top occupations that experience a high level of stress in their everyday practice. With having a very demanding and taxing job, this can lead to nursing burnout that will further contribute to the already widespread nursing shortage across the nation (Hersch, et al. 2016).

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Projections 2016-2026, Registered Nursing (RN) is listed among the top occupations in terms of job growth through 2026

https://www.BLS.gov/ooh/healthcare/registered-nurses.htm

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Stress Prevention

1. https://www.calm.com is a website designed for meditation that can also be accessed by a smartphone

2. https://www.headspace.com/health-covid-19 is a website offering free membership to nurses because of covid-19 designed for healthcare providers and stress prevention and management.

3. On the app store you can access “Pigment” which is an adult coloring book designed to assist with stress