Stress!!!!!!

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Hey guys!!!! I was wondering if any of you have any tips on how to deal with stress! I'm finishing my 1st year, and even though i'm more used to the workload by now I still find it extremely stressful. I constantly snap at people, i'm sleep deprived and always tired. Any advice on how to deal would be helpful!!!!

Thanks!

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

Learn to meditate. You don't have to spend the bucks to learn transcendental meditation unless you want to. You can buy a paperback book, an instructional tape or find instructions online on how to meditate. Take 20 minutes once or twice a day to do this. I did a lot of guided meditation because they were like taking short little trips and extremely relaxing. You can do crazy things in meditation like explore the inside of a rock or fly like Superman. Meditation will improve the rest and sleep deprivation you are experiencing.

Snapping is behavioral and is something you can control and make a choice not to do no matter how tired or sleep deprived you are. As a busy RN I was constantly bombarded by people from all directions wanting one thing or another. If I snapped at all of them when this happened I would not only be disliked, but people would stop bringing problems to me and that could have been dangerous since as a manager of care I needed to know what was going on. People won't interact with you if you are unpleasant to them and they don't care why you act the way you do. All they know is their feelings are hurt.

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Allow yourself to do something fun at least once a week, something you enjoy that will take your mind off of your studies. Do you exercise? That is supposed to relieve stress. Well, at least they tell us it does ;). If you are always tired you must not be eating right and taking care of yourself.

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Specializes in ED.

I had to learn how to keep everything in "balance", take in a movie, go for a LONG walk, talk to friends, if you have a significant other, have sex. I used to be very uptight untill I just took a moment to enjoy the moment. hope this helps

brandy

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Thanks so much for all your suggestions! I will definitely try these tips!!!

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Doing something physical that requires little or no brain activity is helpful for me. I used to do kickboxing, but just got a Wii Fit for Christmas and I'm using that. Make sure that you make time for yourself once in a while, do something that you WANT to do, not HAVE to do.

Good Luck!!!

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Specializes in Cardiac & Acute Medicine.

I find that a lot of nursing students, in my class any way, are very anxious and overly perfectionist (including me!). Learn to breathe, relax, and don't work past your own threshold. Not everything has to be perfect. Remember that your own health does matter too, and you should take out time every single day for a relaxing activity that you enjoy. That could be TV time, a bath, eating a nice meal in peace, whatever. As long as you aren't spending that time fretting about nursing homework, I promise it'll be helpful.

And sleep! I'm not sure if our program is the same, but I'm in the Bachelor of Nursing RN program, and I work as well and I've yet to find a situation where I needed to lose sleep EVERY night for it!

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meditation definitely helps... some people say they don't know how to meditate, but all it requires is for you to void your mind of all thoughts. start out with 10-15 min every day, you'll notice a significant difference in your nature... i'm speaking from experience! :)

i try to do it right before going to bed.

also, make sure you're eating healthy and sleeping properly.

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Specializes in LTC.

Even though I work full time, and attend nursing school... I still found time to do something I enjoyed, atleast once a week. Usually Sundays are my rest days. Mon-Sat I'm at school/clinicals/ library. Sundays I go to church, come home and cook, and watch a good lifetime movie with my boyfriend. Doing this along with exercise is extremly helpful when relieving my stress. I also try to go to bed at 10 when my schedule permits. Last semester I had class until 10:30ish, so didn't get home to 11:00 or so obviously no sleep that night. Sleep is very important to me, so when I have lots of it, I'm less stressed.

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Thank you guys! These are all wonderful tips!!!!! I'll be trying these in the next couple of weeks!!!!!!

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Meditation or yoga :)

Both are extremely relaxing!

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