Stress management is a critical issue for the Nursing community.  High, prolonged job-related stress ors have been shown to lead to Nurses leaving the profession.  Results from a global research study show that 43.2% of nurses scored in the "high burnout range according to norms", and only 69.5% of respondents to a separate survey reported being even "moderately satisfied" with their jobs.  (By contrast, 85% of workers in other industries and 90% of professional workers reported being satisfied.)  Ultimately, one in five nurses will leave his/her job due to burnout and stress.  Read more about causes and impact of RN stress on our site here.

The more actionable question is what can an RN do about it?  How do you cope with the stress on a personal, individual level?  Granted, there are many, many things employers can - and should do - to help, but it's up to each individual to take control first.  Stress is the wear and tear our bodies undergo in a continuously changing environment - basically your RESPONSE to stressors.  How you react to these stressors - like anger, violence, money difficulties or job problems - is a function of how you perceive and interpret the events occurring.  Stress isn't always bad - many times it's good.  A good stress keeps you alert and motivated, and drives you to solve problems.  On a very basic level, think about solving a difficult crossword puzzle....good stress.

Bad stress is the problem.  It's when you perceive an issue as unmanageable or dangerous that your body and mind start to go nuts.  (You can find a very boring, but very technical, description of how your body copes with stress here.)  Nobody except you tells your body how to react to bad stress.  How your handle stress depends on being able to recognize it, knowing where it's coming from, and understanding what your best stress-management options are.

Ways to Manage Stress
Everybody is different and there's no magic formula.  If a doctor yells at you about something, the way you interpret this 'criticism' of your capabilities and how you interpret this as affecting your self-conficence will dictate your unique response to the event.  You may let the comment roll off your back, or let it stress you out.

So the reaction is different for everybody.  But, for the most part, though, the following techniques have been proven to be the most effective ways to deal with bad stress throughout a lifetime.  It's up to you to determine what fits your lifestyle and how to incorporate.

• Frequent exercise.  Not only will this improve your overall health, but exercise improves blood flow throughout your body and your brain, helping transport and wash away toxic waste products.  It also causes the release of endorphins, which make you feel happy.  If you've spent any time with us here on this site, you know we'd love to yap forever on this subject (we'll spare you here, but look around, or start here for more thoughts!)
• Breathing control.  Yeah, sort of like the old 'count to 10' advice you heard growing up.  But Breathing control is a method that is best used in conjunction other techniques, like imagery or meditation (below).  For the nurse on the unit who doesn't want to creep out her co-workers, meditation isn't necessary.  Long, deep breaths sitting behind the desk, while admittedly it sounds silly and pointless, can actually have effects similar to exercise.
• Imagery.  The ability of your imagination to help you mentally take yourself out of a bad situation and go somewhere more relaxing is powerful.  What you think about is up to you.  Happy Gilmore had great success with this technique:

• Meditation.  This might not be realistic during work hours - unless you can sneak away for a break - but may be more appropriate at home.  The goal with meditation is to calm your thoughts and think exclusively about one thing - focus on your breathing or focus on a sound that is repeated (like "Om").  Again, this would be ridiculous to do on the ICU, but it might be something you try to incorporate into your life during non-work hours.  The benefits will certainly extend to when you're working.  Find lots of great articles on meditation here here or here.

What else do you do to control stress in your life?  When you feel like things are getting insane, what is your coping mechanism?

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