Manage Stress, Avoid Burnout

A critical Pathway to Excellence® standard

Initiatives promote nurses’ well-being during the pandemic.  Ensuring nurses’ well-being isn’t just a concept for healthcare systems and organizations that have—or want to gain—the Pathway to Excellence® designation.…

Achieving a work-life balance

Almost everyone agrees that achieving a work-life balance is a good thing. Without it, we risk long-term negative effects on our physical and mental health, our relationships, and…

An algorithm to help you manage your stress

Nurses face tremendous stress in their daily practice. Various environmental and personal factors can exacerbate or mitigate stress. High stress levels impair cognitive and psychomotor functioning, leading to…
Balancing

Balancing the wheels of life

Have you ever ridden a bicycle with a wobbly wheel? The ride isn’t smooth, and you notice every bump in the road. As you focus on your discomfort,…

Building moral resilience to neutralize moral distress

Moral distress occurs when one recognizes one’s moral responsibility in a situation; evaluates the various courses of action; and identifies, in accordance with one’s beliefs, the morally correct…

Caring under pressure

Compassion is an essential ingredient for great nursing. Without compassion, you might as well come up with another word for nurse. Recently, I visited a local emergency department…

Clinical humility: A humbled patient care

There’s a story that goes something like this: An elderly man falls down a flight of stairs at home. In the emergency department, he’s found to have four…
UofL

Compassion fatigue: Are you at risk?

For many of us, nursing isn’t just what we do; it’s who we are. Most of us became nurses because we care about people and want to make…

Dealing with difficult people

Jackie Jacobs is a charge nurse in a busy intensive care unit. She prides herself on being able to get along well with almost everyone on her team.…
Examing nurse comfort eating

Eating better to help manage chronic stress

Like many nurses, you may experience stress frequently, both on and off the job. Chronic stress can alter your equilibrium (homeostasis), activating physiologic reactive pathways that cause your…
Examing nurse comfort eating

Examining nurse comfort eating

Many years ago I found myself standing in the frozen food section flirting with the prospect of buying a mouth-watering strawberry cheesecake. I rationalized buying it by convincing…
nonadherent refuse treatment nurse challenged challenge

From our readers…Nonadherent or compassion challenged?

Over the years nurses have labeled patients who choose (knowingly or unknowingly) to disregard instructions that could potentially alter their health condition toward a “better outcome” as noncompliant,…
self nurture shake off breathe exercise

From our readers…The secrets of self-nurturing

The foremost Secret to nurturing yourself is to practice caring for yourself. This article focuses on self-nurturing techniques for the body and mind. The more you practice these…

Give yourself the gift of self-affirmation

We’ve all had days that push us toward the edge. The chaos likely starts around mid-shift and may go something like this: Radiology calls for bed 3, bed 6…
mourn-dead

How shall we mourn our dead?

Take your time and follow the path that’s right for you. Since May 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have required nursing homes to provide data…

How to succeed at floating

If you’ve ever floated,  you know the experience can be challenging at times. Wherever you work, you may sometimes feel you don’t have enough hours in the day to complete all your…

How working nights can work in your favor

Shortly after I completed my master’s degree in nursing, I spoke with my nurse mentor about my career decisions. At the time, I was working as a night-shift…

Laugh, nurse, laugh!

Victor Borge, the famous Danish comedian, pianist, and conductor once said, “Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.” Infusing laughter and humor into your work life is a…

Look for inspiration in your fellow nurses

In a perfect world, we nurses would be inspired daily by our patient experiences. They would come in such abundance that overtime, computer crashes, and 10-minute meal breaks…
mindful nurse immersion meditation

Mindful Immersion

Tip 5 of 6 Mindfulness Exercises You Can Try Today The intention of this exercise is to cultivate contentment in the moment and escape the persistent striving we…
nurse-suicide

Navigating the loss and grief of a nurse suicide

With employer support, nurses can help each other after a colleague’s death. Takeaways: The bonds created among nurses make the loss of a colleague difficult but also provide…
_NurseFatigue

Nurse fatigue: The silent epidemic

Are you getting the recommended 7 to 9 hours of sleep in a 24-hour period? According to ANA Enterprise’s new Healthy Nurse Healthy Nation® survey results, 40% of…

Nurses rising

Recognizing, elevating, and caring for RNs during a pandemic As we celebrated the inauguration of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the first woman and person of…
school nurses

Nurses struggling on the frontline of COVID-19

Innovation is important in maintaining an open-minded perspective on the frontline of healthcare, particularly in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a practicing ICU nurse, I know…

Promoting nurse mental health

An urgent call to shift from crisis intervention to long-term prevention Takeaways: Nurses are experiencing an unprecedented amount of burnout, depression, and anxiety. Stressful work environments, workplace bullying,…

Reducing holiday stress

Limiting the stress that comes with the holidays requires a bit of planning. The Cleveland Clinic offers some suggestions built around the activities that can be the most…

Resting not regretting

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.” — William Shakespeare As informal mentors, coaches, and preceptors to…

Room with a view: Clutter included?

Your “new” room is now ready—hospital room, that is. Architects are finally designing and redesigning hospital rooms that could match the suites at your local Marriott, with the…
relief emotional freedom technique tap

Tap your way to fast relief

Can symptomatic relief from fear, stress, anxiety, and a laundry list of other ailments really be at your fingertips? The many people who use Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)…
Mindfulness

The mindful nurse

Mindfulness is an increasingly common topic in both popular and professional literature. In clinical populations, evidence suggests mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) can reduce symptoms linked to various conditions, including…
wisdom renewal sign fear

The wisdom of renewal

We all know people who have become discontent with their careers. And we know people who remain energized, excited, and fully engaged in their profession. So what makes the…

Uplifting nurses

Associations respond to member needs in a pandemic. In 2020, what kept me up at night was nurses’ well-being and how they’ve been dealing with the impact of…

Who are you?

You probably have many labels—nurse, wife, mother, sister, aunt (or husband, son, father, brother, uncle), neighbor, or volunteer, for instance. But who are you—really? When the day is…
journaling your health nurses

Writing for good health

If you asked nurses how they reduce job stress, you probably wouldn’t expect them to reply, “By writing.” In fact, a recent research study of nurses’ preferences for…

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