Stress and the Working Nurse
Even at the early beginning of life, stress is being encountered. It appears to be a universal condition which everyone young or old, married or unmarried, Filipino or foreigner, poor or rich, learned or not learned — experiences or develops. In other words, it affects all kinds of people from different walks of life. There are many events in life that can cause stress. It could be generic, physical, chemical, psychological, cultural, ecological or occupational in nature.
Nurses are not far exempted from facing many stressful things. It has been recognized that the world he lives is a potent source of stress. Nursing is a profession that demands high level of responsibility because it promotes individualized, sensitive, relevant and effective nursing care to patients. Thus, levels of stress are associated with the jobs that are too varied and demanding. Nurses are very much capable of developing a great deal of stress causing either physical or psychological responses in terms of accomplishing the jobs in the hospital settings, as well as in meeting their responsibilities in their respective home because of these hectic activities they have less opportunities for social interaction. Therefore, there is a great for need for studies in order to determine the sources of stressful factors that the behavior of nurses. When a certain individual for example, experiences a stressful situation, that person may try to cope up by making an effort to change the situation into a good one and avoids intolerable situations. Almost all literature claims that work factor produces stress in different levels and that the people vary in their ability to cope with them.
In recent years, researcher had begun to investigate costly consequences of occupational stress burnout. Burnout is a state of physical and emotional exhaustion that occurs gradually over a period of time. First described in 1974 by Freudenburger, the “burned-out” are usually professionals who work in people-intensive jobs that are emotionally demanding which is primarily nurses and social workers are likely to be affected. Physical symptoms typically include chronic fatigue and frequent minor illness, such as colds, that resolve slowly. Burned out people spend an overabundance of time at work but are disorganized, easily angered and accomplish little. The most distinguishing characteristic of burnout is the way burned out distance themselves from clients in which distancing is accomplished through depersonalization manner. The burned-out are professionally committed, highly idealistic individuals who over identify in their personal life. Believing their work will make a significant social difference and be financially as well as emotionally rewarding. And these individuals are unprepared for the day to day realities of their jobs that results from suffering stress-related illnesses.
As it is commonly used, stress is referred as a “burden or load” under which a person survives or cracks. It was also been defined as any internal or external influence that interferes with satisfaction of basic needs or somewhat a thing, which disturb homeostasis. This may be a disturbance in the body homeostasis, general or severe enough to produce a coordinated body response. These responses include renal, respiratory, metabolic, sympathetic and circulatory reactions.
A well-known psychologist, Hans Selye, also a world renowned authority defined stress as the non-specific response of the body to any demand made upon it. He coined “stressor” as a factor or agent that produces stress. He further stated that the body’s response to stress is non-specific because it occurs without regard to and very much independently of, the specific stressor, thereby non-specific response to stressor is the essence of stress.
Human beings are viewed as an open system which is constantly reacting to his internal and external environment. There will always be occurrence of influential factors that could cause great response of threats to the constancy and stability of the person. During early 1980’s, psychologists had come up of listing stress and had developed certain scales to be stressed and can prepare for this occurrence. The person must be able to adapt himself and master his coping behaviors satisfactory, in a manner to maintain homeostasis. Walter Cannon pointed out that the purpose of homeostasis is freedom in which it allows the person to reach his potentials as human. Homeostasis is also associated with the person’s state of health, it is believe that when person is healthy, he is said to be in state of equilibrium. Health according to Wolff, is the absence of illness had become entrenched in many peoples’ minds and that the aspects of human whollistic view is a very vital consideration not only the physical aspects as an outcome.
In other words, stress deals with how the body could adjust to the demands of life. These demands could either be threat, challenge or change that requires the body to respond, either, on the positive or negative side. Thus when the body is able to adapt to a certain demand and serves as a motivator, it is said to be responding positively. Whereas, when the body fails to adapt, in which there is much effort is released by a stress response, it is turned inward responding negatively and disrupted homeostasis occurs.
In addition, effective coping is necessary in managing stress such that it is an integral part of the stress experience. And in order to do these successfully, an individual must deal with the situation or problem, deal with the feelings, use available support and reduce the psychologic arousal of stress by appropriate activities such as relaxation, exercise and others.
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Tags: Filipino Nurse, Nurse, Nursing, Philippines, Stress
I think, stress has nothing to see with body. It’s the state of the mind. Everybody of us can live in every condition and the body will accept it, but if your mind not accept it, you will be never happy in the best place (for your body). And your mind will create all types of illnesses at the end. Even the cancer is healing with the right state of the mind.
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[...] and danger. It is necessary to have stress before a test so that we are prepared. For instance, stress in working nurses or nursing students actually motivates them to handle rigors of work or prepare for examination but excessive stress [...]