Stressing positive
thinking By Susan Gandy, RN Could the cure for relieving stress really be a simple as looking on the bright side? Of course, you can’t banish stress by being unrealistically positive, but experts say learning to change your approach to stressful events may go a long way toward making them less stressful. "Think positive" may sound like something you’d see on a bumper sticker, but stress management professionals say an upbeat attitude can improve your ability to respond to stressful situations. Stress often begins with events beyond one’s control. But when it comes to reacting to stress, "How you respond is your choice," said licensed counselor Jennie Trotter, MEd, executive director and founder of the Wholistic Stress Control Institute in Atlanta, Ga., which offers training and consulting services on coping with stress and creating healthy lifestyles. *** For nurses, uncontrollable events are a dime a dozen, so there’s potential for stress at every turn, said Dan McIlwee, RN, mental health coordinator at Irving Healthcare System in Texas. In particular, "cutbacks and downsizing generate a lot of stress," said McIlwee, who works with health practitioners in groups and individually to help them cope with stress. And no one has a lock on the most stressful job in the hospital, because stress has a range of causes. Intensive care nurses have often bemoaned their high-stress job of keeping people alive, sometimes by the minute. McIlwee said healthcare providers dealing with patients’ emotions, such as in oncology, and those dealing with high patient turnover, as on telemetry units, are also at risk for job stress. "Sending patients home when you used to be just settling them in" is another stress associated with the new wave in health care, said Ken Osean, MEd, a certified employee assistance professional at Planned Performance in Dallas and an international speaker on stress prevention who works with many nurses and allied health professionals. Most people in health care are nurturing, Osean said. For healthcare professionals, "The source of their stress comes from their core belief system," Osean said. "I see if those beliefs need some tweaking and fine-tuning." *** Osean has developed a model to help people see that their thoughts are often irrational. First, "an event happens," second, "you think," third, "you feel," and fourth, "you behave," he said. A person has choice in every step except the first. Reacting irrationally can cause unnecessary stress, he cautions. Health professionals "think their license is going to be pulled," he said, despite the fact that loss of a license requires gross negligence. |
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| Janet Kivisto, RN, and
Roger T. Couture, PhD, from Laurentian University in
Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, believe well-being is a balance
of the following components: *physical *sociocultural *emotional *intellectual *spiritual *occupational |
Some situations are inherently stressful, but others only seem that way. Different people react to situations differently, and reactions can determine whether a situation is stressful, according to Janet Kivisto, RN, a clinical instructor in the School of Nursing, and Roger T. Couture, PhD, an associate professor of the School of Human Movement and the child and development studies program at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. | |
| In an article in the January-March
issue of Nursing Forum,
they use the example of two nurses assigned temporarily
to a labor and delivery unit. One felt overwhelmed and
distressed. The other, who had comparable education and
experience, felt excited and challenged in the new
surroundings. The appraisal of an event depends on the
person’s interpretation of what is happening at that
moment in time, the authors said. Experts say cultivating a more positive attitude is a first-line defense against stress, but it’s also essential to build a good foundation that can help prevent stress. For example, adequate exercise and good nutrition are essentials to overall health. Nurses know that taking good care of yourself is important; they urge their patients to do it all the time, said registered dietitian Carol Ireton-Jones, PhD, a nutrition therapy specialist with Preferred Nutrition Therapists, a national network of registered dietitians. But nurses often don’t practice what they preach. Stressed people usually eat too fast, she said. "I tell them to eat well, not skipping meals, and to try to eat in a nonstressed environment," Ireton-Jones said. Eating well means five servings of fruits and vegetables every day and plenty of water, she said. Diet, exercise, and socialization are key elements to reducing stress. But an upbeat attitude is also crucial, she said. "It makes such a difference in wellness and disease management." Kivisto and Couture support the idea of building a solid foundation to help prevent stress. Well-being is a delicate balance among the six dimensions of a person’s life: physical, sociocultural, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, and occupational. An imbalance can undermine your ability to cope with stress. So it’s a good idea to pay close attention to changes in any area, since they may affect parts of your life that seem unrelated. *** Thomas H. Rishel, MS, a licensed counselor in private practice in Irving, Texas, whose wife is an RN, suggests practical steps to reduce stress. Keep a quarter of a tank of gas in the car. Use technology, such as fax machines and cellular phones, to streamline your life. "Get away from the [stressful] situation for five to 10 minutes. Surround yourself with people you can talk to." Like other experts, Rishel urges nurses to look on the bright side. If health practitioners focus on the negative aspects of their jobs, they will become too stressed, Rishel said. Adjust your expectations. "If you can change the thought, you can change the feelings," he said. "Stay focused on the positive of helping someone." |
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