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Lifestyle.

 

Often, stress can come from having too much work and not enough free time. It is important to maintain a healthy balance by ensuring that outside of work, you use your free time at leisure and unwind. 

 

Taking up a hobby or sport can help you to de-stress and "leave work at the door". Holidays or days away can also allow you to take a break and be far away from work, giving you that much needed break.

 

Remaining healthy is a major lifestyle change that can affect the amount of stress you feel. Alcohol and nicotine are stimulants and, while they may help you in the short term, actually contribute to your stress response long term. Cutting down on alcohol and smoking is essential for your health, as is healthy eating, and will contribute to you feeling healthier overall. 

 

Exercise is another effective way to manage stress. Exercise burns up excess adrenaline and releases endorphins, hormones that help to boost your mood and help you relax more. Ensuring you take part in some form of exercise each week, even just walking, can help you to manage your stress.

Counselling.

 

Counselling can be a good way to offload the burden that work can sometimes place on you. Confidentiality is a great part of the NMC Code of Conduct so nurses may feel they can't seek counselling in case they would be breaking that confidentiality from work. 

 

But counselling is a good way to relieve your mind of your worries from work. It can be anything from talking to a trusted friend to talking to a qualified counsellor. But when your mind feels overloaded with worries and information from your work then the best way to clear that is to talk it over with somebody, but maintaining confidentiality at all times. 

 

The RCN recommends counselling for effective stress management and even provide a counselling service for members. More information about this can be found on the next page.

Time Management.

 

This can be a big problem in nursing as many nurses can feel overwhelmed with the number of tasks they need to complete in a day. Often you may find it hard to prioritise your work as every patient is just as important and may all need a high level of care.

 

However, it is important to effectively manage your time to ensure that you don't become too run down with all the tasks at hand. Prioritise tasks that simply can't wait first, like medicines. Delelgate tasks to others if possible - you do not have to do everything alone! 

 

Good time management will help you make goals and stick to them. As you cross each goal off your list throughout the day you will begin to feel like you are achieving things which will help you to relax better at work.

Learning to Relax.

 

It is important that as nurses we take some "me time". Whether it is going for a long walk, listening to some music, cooking, knitting, soaking in a bath or whatever else helps you to relax. MIND released these images in "The MIND guide to relaxation" of different postures to adopt for relaxation. They recommend adopting these postures and following their breathing techniques which can all be found on this page: http://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/tips-for-everyday-living/stress-guide/how-to-relax/

Links/References.

 

 

Mind. (no date) How to relax. [Online] [Accessed on 20/5/14] http://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/tips-for-everyday-living/stress-guide/am-i-stressed/

 

Royal College of Nursing. (2010) Manaaging your stress. A guide for nurses. [Online] [Accessed on 20/5/14] http://www.rcn.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/78515/001484.pdf

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