Nurses must handle an immense amount of emotional and physical stress on a daily basis that can threaten their resilience and well-being, Cheryl Connors, RN, a patient safety specialist at Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Hospital, wrote in a blog post for the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses.
AORN launched the Resilience in Stressful Events program at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 2011 to help clinicians deal with the trauma of tragic patient events.
Ms. Connors outlined the following strategies nurses can use to build resiliency and cope with stress:
1. Debrief with a peer. Nurses need an outlet to talk about a stressful experience and receive support from a peer. The debrief should focus on the nurse's emotional and/or psychological experience associated with the event, not details of the event itself.
2. Keep yourself grounded. Nurses should practice focusing their mind in the present and learn to feel more balanced. "For example, if you are in a quiet place after experiencing a stressful event, you can practice deep breathing, remind yourself that you are no longer in that experience and calm yourself to feel grounded," Ms. Connors wrote.
3. Tap resilience-building tools. Nurses must identify a "happy place" — whether a person, place or experience — they can mentally visit to make them feel better when resilience is low. Nurses can also rely on specific activities, like going for a run, to rejuvenate.