Nursing stress is part of a nurse’s job. Managing stress is vital for every nurse’s health. It is important to find time to relax and beat stress after work. If you are having a little trouble unwinding after work, you must read these tips.
You worked all night during your nursing shift and then attended a 7 AM mandatory meeting. That first-year resident yelled at you (again) for not doing something she forgot to order. You answered a call to another nurse’s room to find the patient lying in soaked, wadded-up sheets. The guy who comes to the ER every week for “back pain” spit at you for doubting his story that his Vicodin prescription blew out his car window.
Sounds familiar? Read on! If nursing stress is already taking its toll on you, it is time to find ways how to beat it. If you feel that you don’t have time for yoga class or meditation, take five minutes to try one of these quick relaxation techniques for stressed nurses:
- Soak in the warmth: Hold a cup of hot liquid in both hands with your palms flat against the cup until they’re good and warm. Set the cup down and cup your palms over your eyes. Take a few long, deep breaths and release each one slowly. Re-warm your hands and repeat as needed.
- Visualization: Close your eyes and visualize a favorite place – someplace safe, beautiful, peaceful, and joyful. Involve as many of your senses as you can: imagine the sound of birdsong or the trickle of a brook, the smell of the ocean, the taste of fresh peaches, and so on. Another trick is to imagine wrapping up each of your stressors, putting them in a box, and locking the box in the attic or dropping it overboard.
- Muscle memory: Sit down and, starting at your toes, tense each muscle group as tightly as you can for a few seconds, then relax. After relaxing each muscle to its initial state, consciously relax it a little bit more. Visualize that part of you melting. Then move on, tensing and relaxing insteps, ankles, calves and shins, and so on. Imagine that you are actually squeezing the tension out, from your toes to your scalp, like paste from a tube. When you get to your scalp, imagine the tension washing out and down over your head and body like a fountain of relaxation.
- Focus: Concentrate on a small object that you find appealing. Train all your attention on it for one to two minutes, while inhaling and exhaling slowly and deeply.
Trying out these four quick relaxation techniques will not only help you beat nursing stress but will also improve your health. Too much stress can wreak havoc on nurses’ health so don’t let it strip you out from wellness.