taclobanon

Have you heard of heartmath? (heartmath.com) The hospital I worked for has offered free class sessions to its staff, on how to de-stress by quick coherence. This might be something that your hospital need to look into. It benefits not just you as the nurse, but also the patients that you care for, and of course the hospital too. When you are not stressed out, you think clearly, you are more creative, make better decisions and your productivity goes up. I worked on an oncology floor, lots of very sick people, some terminal that there's not much you can do... very emotionally draining. Heartmath has helped me a lot by refocusing my emotions away from the stress and anxiety. Also, when everything is chaotic and you seemed cornered, STOP whatever your doing. Take a moment, close your eyes for a minute of two, refocus yourself by doing some deep breathing and guided imagery. Give it a try, hopefully it will work for you. And on days you don't work, enjoy life, don't think about the stress at work. Spend time on something to love to do... unwind yourself.

I would like to throw this topic to healthcare workers particularly in hospitals. With the rise of infection cases in hospitals, particularly c-diff, are there hospitals out there that use catch phrases to remind its staff to wash their hands before and after seeing their patients? I work in a hospital and would like to see a more aggressive approach into how we wash our hands especially with patients with c-diff. We are ask to always wash our hands before and after every patients, but I would like to hear more if there are catch phrases that hospitals use to remind their staff to wash their hands. Suggestions are welcome.