By Boaz Rauchwerger
There are a number of aspects about nursing that can create stress. These include odd shifts, balancing a personal life with professional commitments, critical illnesses, difficult patients and relationships with co-workers.
Nurses face a lot of challenges on a regular basis. Notice I did not use the word problems. Problem denotes something big; something tough to overcome. The first rule of dealing with problems is to substitute the world challenges. Challenges denote something smaller, easier to deal with, something temporary.
The thoughts we have affect how we deal with our challenges. Actually, what we think about, or focus on, tends to expand. Be careful not to focus on what’s wrong. Let’s focus on what’s right. Focus on the positive aspects of your work and your personal life and you’ll find more positive things. Focus on the fact that it’s easy for you to take care of challenges that occur in your life and that’s exactly how you’ll handle them.
Success is not determined by how many challenges we can tolerate, but rather by how we react to those challenges. The next time someone tells you “we have a problem,” respond by asking, “what’s our challenge?”. Then quickly analyze the situation and ask yourself: "what is the worst that could happen?" Write it down. Then write down the steps you could take if the worst happened. Once we accept the worst that could happen, and formulate a plan to solve it, the stress is gone.
Dale Carnegie, in his book, "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living," said that we should live in “day-tight compartments.” He likened life to compartments on a ship, the rooms that have the round-edged doors that are sealed off in case of water leaks. Carnegie said that each day should be like one of those compartments, a door to yesterday shut tightly behind us and a door to tomorrow shut tightly in front of us. All we have is today. Concentrate on doing your best today and rejoice in your ability to handle challenges with a smile. From now on you only have challenges and it’s easy for you to react calmly, accept the worst and take action to improve your situation.
In nursing, stress can arise from a conflict in personalities. Some people blame others for their lack of success. We expect people to act in a certain way. We expect them to respond to our ideas. We expect them to help us. Then, when they don't come through, we're upset and sometimes use that lack of action as an excuse for our lack of success.
Your success in life, and in your work, is not determined by what happens to you. Rather, it depends on how you react to it. If someone who does not come through in a moment of need disappoints you, don't blame that person. Instead, look at your interaction with that person. If she didn't come through, maybe it's because she's not as close to you as you thought – you ranked her too high. Maybe, in reality, she was only an acquaintance and not a devoted friend. Emotionally take some significance away from her From now on, treat that person according to the rank she really deserves. You wouldn't expect an acquaintance to respond in the same way a close friend would. So, next time, call on a proven friend.
This process will dramatically cut down your moments of disappointment with other people. They're acting like their true rank. It's your job to identify that rank and expect no more or less from them. In order to build a tremendous future, you now find it easy to identify and work with all emotional levels of those you interact with.
In order to control and deal with stress in your work as a nurse, start and end each day with some positive affirmations. Affirmations are statements of things you desire, written as if they were already accomplished, with an emotion added. Most everyone is an expert at affirmations. However, some people are using them negatively, thus creating roadblocks. Examples in the nursing profession might be: It’s tough for me to work strange shifts. I wish I didn’t work with such difficult people. Those are negative affirmations. If that’s not what you really want, stop saying it. Let’s look at what can be, rather than what is. When you make declarative affirmations about how you want things to be, you’ll look at those situations from a different viewpoint, find the good and expand on that.
Here are some affirmations that could help you control stress in your work:
- I enjoy what I do and get a great sense of fulfillment from my nursing.
- It’s easy for me to balance my work and my home life.
- It’s easy for me to adjust to the various shifts I work.
- It’s rewarding for me to work with nice, supportive people.
- It’s easy for me to stay calm and peaceful.
- I easily and peacefully deal with challenges, both at work and at home.
Read your affirmations the first thing every morning and the last thing each night. Those are the two times when your subconscious mind is most open to suggestion. Even if at first you don’t believe them, continue to read them without analysis. Within 21 days you will believe every word and good things will begin happening in your life.
Take charge of your mind and your environment and you will find it easier to control stress in your life.
Boaz Rauchwerger author of several books including his latest "The Tiberias Transformation: How to Change Your Life in Less than 8 Minutes a Day." He is an internationally known expert in self-esteem, peak performance and the psychology of achievement. He can be contacted at BoazPower.com.
© 2001 Boaz Rauchwerger