First of all it is important to understand what stress is, how it affects the individual and how it impairs their work performance. Stress by definition is a strain put upon the person by internal and external factors. Internally the body tightens up the muscles the cardiovascular system the sympathetic nervous system all constrict making it more difficult for the individual to function. Externally it is outside factors such as pressure to perform pressure to accomplish and pressure to thrive in society. If any of these cannot be performed to a satisfactory level that the individual themselves impose upon themselves then the body will react adversely (see effects above . Stress is one of the biggest killers in our society and can lead to conditions such as cancer and hear disease and many neuropath logical disorders. It can affect you sleeping and eating and if overly stressed you work performance dramatically drops and your relationships with others goes into a spiraling decline. But what has this got to do with nursing. Well I can tell you now that of all the professions the one that the person is most likely to be suffering from stress is NURSING. Research as shown that more nurses suffer from stress in differing degrees than any other working profession in this country. You see nurses dont know how to look after themselves. They can sort problems in otherpeoples lives but when it comes to sorting themselves out they are pretty much useless. Unfortunately nothing in your training could prepare you for what is to come stress wise and there is nothing to teach you of a) how to handle it
And b) how to recover from it.
A lot of the stress in nursing comes from having such high expectations. This is both from the public and you. You dont want to be seen in a bad light if you make a mistake. If you do make a mistake you have feelings of guilt and failure. You may feel your standards have dropped and that would imply that you are not a very good nurse. But mistakes are human, and to put you under that enormous amount of pressure is being extremely unfair to yourself. So dont stress if you make a mistake. Resolve not to do it again by all means but remember you are a human being and you are entitled to make mistakes just as much as anybody. Dont attempt to cover the mistake up. Own up to it take responsibility for it then you will have a better control over yourself and others will respect you more for having greater integrity. A ward manager came up to me once and recalled the time that I changed her life as a nurse. She was in her final months as a student nurse and I was her mentor working on an acute psychiatric ward. She said to me Peter. How come you always look so relaxed? Nothing ever seems to bother you. All the other nurses appear so stressed. And she added that she felt the same way too. When I asked her why she felt so badly she added. There never seems enough time to do everything that is asked of you. Youre doing one job then another one overlaps and you dont know what to do next. I told her quite simply and clearly that the reason for her stress was herself. You see that whatever job you are doing at the time IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE if anyone tries to deter you from this then you should make it clear that what they are asking you to do is be removed from an extremely important undertaking, and that should be made clear. Your job that you are doing is the most important one, work backwards from that ideology and makes it like rock in your mind. People will continually through the shift put expectations upon you. This is unfair as you are not multitasking. The more you keep smiling and asking everyone if they need help the more people will use you until you are spread so thinly that you wont be helping anyone including yourself at all. Quite simply I told her to concentrate o one task at a time. Make it the most important one. Let others do the worrying, remain confident in your abilities to handle crisis, be focused on your one task. When you have finished it move on to the next one when you are ready. It worked for her and Im sure this method can work for you in preventing accumulative work stress.
One of the first things youre taught by your peers when commencing nursing is not to bring your home life problems to work with you. This is seen as a weakness in your performance and you wont be able to deliver an adequate standard of care to the patient. Well, I have worked with umpteen nurses and although this may seem okay on paper. In practice it is far from the truth. We are all human beings not machines. We are going to have crisis of differing magnitude from time to time. It could be just that you have had an argument with your partner or daughter. Or that the council has given you a count court judgment for not paying the council tax. It could be absolutely anything. Should you come to work? Of course you should. Should you tell your work colleagues? Of course you should. What you shouldnt do however is involve the patient. Dragging a patient into your personal life can later lead to all sorts of repercussions. They can manipulate you once they have knowledge of your emotional well-being. This can lead to conflict between you, the patient, the other patients who notice how much your talking to one patient in particular. It may help you at the time but in the long run you will wish that you had kept your mouth buttoned. I remember seeing a care assistant upon commencement of her night shift always make a beeline for a patient who was always keen to lend a sympathetic ear. Knowing that she had a very unsatisfactory home-life he charmed his way into these girls emotions. She didnt know she was being manipulated by him but when he started asking her for favours she found it very difficult to refuse. After all he had helped her. She resigned several months later as her work was too much strain. What she should have done was discuss her feelings with her manager and not the patient. If you dont you will pay for it in the end. The problem with emotions is that prevent you from functioning to your best ability. So as a nurse how can you handle best your emotions.
Stress can lead to the ruination of many a good nurse especially if they become dependent on alcohol and an illicit substance called marijuana. Remember that nurses are just as fallible as the rest of mankind to addictive behaviors. Especially stressed or emotionally upset nurses. The thing is that it doesnt take long to become addicted. It only has to give you temporary solace from all the madness a couple of times and then you are hooked. Its works quite simply. You come home feeling drained after a hard shift. You have one or two unpleasant thoughts floating around in your head. Perhaps someone has said something to you to make you upset. A personal jibe. A criticism. It could be anything. But youcant seem to shake it off. You stop off at the off license on the way home from work. You pick up a bottle of wine or two. You skip eating. You dont have an appetite for food. You open the wine bottle instead. Gradually due to the effects of the alcohol you start to unwind as you watch some comedy on television. A couple of glasses later you have almost forgotten about the day and have moved on to other things. Maybe things that you dont feel are right in your life. A doomed relationship. A feeling that you want to do something different with your life. You take a few more gulps of wine. By the end of the second bottle you are flat out on the floor. Oblivious to everything. Mission accomplished. A few days go by. You have another bad shift. You remember what you did last time and it worked (even though you had a dreadful hangover the next day). So you stop off once more at the off license to buy some more alcohol. The same again as the evening a few days ago. And so the cycle becomes a habit.Its that easy. Some people say they are not addicted. But if you told them that they cannot drink again when they feel down they will soon tell you where to get off. Im not saying that alcohol doesnt have some efficacy. It can work wonders in moderation. But if you are in the high risk group of professionals dealing with highly emotive issues then nurses are going to be more vulnerable than most people to becoming addicted to alcohol. So be warned. Instead of reaching for the bottle reach for something else less harmful.