Topic of Discussion Question:
As nurses, we need to find effective ways to handle our stress. Explain how stress has affected you personally. How do you manage stress in your life? Are there other activities you could incorporate into daily routine to reduce stress?
Your initial posting should be at least 400 words in length and utilize at least one scholarly source other than the textbook.
Prepping for this discussion post, I did not expect just how visceral this topic would be come. Throughout my nursing career, there have absolutely been times of stress. Working in trauma for 15 plus years, this was to be expected. I thrive on this and it will forever be my passion in nursing. Now working in organ transplant, it has been a very different stress. Similar to my time in trauma, the more I moved “up the ranks”, the greater the stress became. Now at 25 years in nursing, I recently felt the burnout and overwhelming emotional fatigue that affects over 80% of nurses today Now more than ever, caring for the caregiver is essential.
Covid has changed nursing. Not only for me, but for everyone working in critical care. Many of the strongest nurses I know are broken. There is only so much hopelessness, fear, and death that one human can absorb on a frequent basis before there is ever lasting consequences I fear for the sequelae that will come in the future. Personally, two former colleagues have passed from Covid. I was not sleeping well, had a new sense of anxiety and even fractured a tooth from apparently clenching my jaw when I sleep. Being one who lives in health denial aka “I am fine”, this made me step back and reset. Between work and school, I lost sight of work/life balance. I allowed the balance to be lost. In retrospect, this stress misaligned priorities in my personal life. I would stay up way too late working on assignments or meeting prep and then be exhausted the following day because I was in a “what if” mindset because of the chaos that surrounded me.
