Confession: I’m a complainer. I realized this the other day when, after griping about my overnight shift, my husband, who always has to listen to these gripes, said to me, “Amy, every shift is different but your complaints are always the same.”
How many times have you complained about stress only to have someone make the half-hearted suggestion “Go get a massage.” Not that massages aren’t great, but who has the time?
I think a certain amount of stress is expected in our line of work. I mean, let’s get real. We’re in the business of saving – and improving the quality of – lives here.
The stress level of nursing students is higher than those in most other academic programs, and some studies have even suggested that their stress levels are higher than their counterparts in medical school, social work and pharmacology programs.
What is the one thing we nurses pride ourselves on? Or better yet, what is the one characteristic of all nurses that is virtually required to survive and succeed in this profession?
Stress isn’t always a bad thing. Studies have shown that students perform better on exams when they feel some stress, for example. But bad stress is something else.
I had a rough shift the other night—you know, the one where you start off with a BIG assignment, run behind on everything the minute you take report, and end up spending an additional 2 hours charting after 12 crazy hours.
Hours and hours on our feet at work, lifting and turning patients, moving beds, it’s all in a day’s work for us, but it takes its toll on our bodies. My solution? Yoga.
We give exercise and stress relief advice to high-stress, hypertensive patients all the time. But what about nurses? Set aside 10 minutes each day for these simple power moves…
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