Emotion Management: Working As An Intensive Care Nurse

During my four years as an RN I’ve had the chance to care for many interesting and wonderful people, many of them during the worst days of their lives. Many of the people you meet are sad, angry, anxious and very scared.

It is evident that many different types of knowledge influenced Allison’s decision-making process when caring for her patients. There were also contextual factors that played a role in each nurse-patient interaction. The first contextual was the intrinsic nature of the nurse and the patient as individuals. Working in an understaffed nursing environment can cause nurses to experience burnout. Allison ensures she cares for herself physically and emotionally; allowing her to come to work refreshed and prepared for the stressful environment. She also focuses on the positive aspects of her work, such as believing that a busy shift will go by faster, rather than dwelling on

The purpose of this study was to review the “literature on emotional distress among professionals in the ICU according the PRISMA method”, with an emphasis on the prevalence of burnout and compassion fatigue. “While the sometimes devastating personal and organizational consequences of compassion fatigue have been published previously, very few studies have addressed the effectiveness of preventive strategies. This review aims to provide a starting point for clinical practice guideline developers and summarizes interventions to prevent the negative consequences of emotional distress among healthcare professionals in the ICU.”. This review will be needed in the preventive section of this research paper.

CMHA recognizes that providing an emotionally safe work environment can improve workplace productivity by providing employers with strategies in recognizing mental illness in employees (CMHA, 2017). Although the CMHA does not directly refer to nurses, the workplace resources can be effective within the nursing profession. Notably, through their interactive workshops, management training and in person advisors (CMHA, 2017). Nurse managers should be encouraged to take the training courses provided to improve awareness and responding skills when dealing with mental illness. In fact, these courses should be mandatory to help provide an emotionally safe workplace for

While working in an emergency department (ED), nurses are expected to show compassion even when they are exhausted? Over tired? Over worked? Fatigued? The purpose of this evidence-based practice (EBP) project was to educate ED nurses on compassion fatigue (CF) risk factors, causes, and symptoms as well as assist them in its identification among each other and within themselves. Further, the project sought to provide nurses with skills in order to prevent CF. A two-hour workshop consisting of a PowerPoint presentation was implemented in a busy emergency department on the coast of NJ. Teaching nurses about compassion fatigue and ways in which to alleviate and prevent it were stressed. Self-regulation and self-care practices were introduced using interactive activities. Over the next four weeks, emails were sent reiterating self-care and self-regulatory techniques. A Pretest-posttest design used the Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL) measure to determine if burnout and secondary traumatic stress (both components of CF) and compassion satisfaction improved from the workshop. A comparative means analysis showed a decline in CF.

Compassion fatigue is a huge reality and according to Potter et al. (2013), long-term effects of compassion fatigue have negative impact on the health, well-being and performance of nurses involved. Jean Watson’s theory of caring said, true healing cannot be realized without caring therefore, compassion fatigue is a problem that does not only affect nurses, but goes a notch higher by also affecting the quality of care offered by compassion fatigue victims. Boyle (2011) observed that there is need for nurses to be compassionate and caring especially when providing care to patients, families or relatives. Slatten et al. (2011) noted that compassion fatigue is an occupational hazard among nurses involved (that is, professionals involved in helping others). Compassion fatigue is therefore, a significant problem affecting professional practice in nursing because Rosa (2014) stated that, being a successful caregiver requires a nurse to be in a position to find the meaning in what they do, remain committed and immersed in order to gain a sense of purpose. However, compassion fatigue stands as a barrier to realization of sense of purpose among

The nursing profession is a challenge. As a nurse, you must remember every day that you can both alleviate suffering patients by administering treatment prescribed by a doctor and by a good word and a smile. For a good nurse should not matter how hard the day was, how much trouble it encountered, but must remember the core values of the profession and why he/she chose this profession. Nurses play an important role in the healthcare system. This is why they have been correctly referred to as the heart

“The emergency nurse acts with compassion, integrity and respect for human dignity while recognizing and safeguarding the autonomy of the individual”, (ENA, 2015). While this provision appears simply stated, most nurses find it difficult to remember their patient as a human being with intricate needs and basic human rights. As an emergency nurse, I have to keep these needs and rights at the forefront of my thoughts during the care of the patient during a very vulnerable time. Patients come in under stress, sometimes involuntary and at the most desperate times in their lives. I constantly have to make a concerted effort to communicate with the patient during a chaotic time, take time to listen to the patients fears and concerns and communicate those to the team.

Self-Care. Self-care is a crucial part of holistic nursing. As holistic nurses in practice, we should protect our personal health and safety in order to have the sustenance to be able to effectively and therapeutically care for others. Coping mechanisms are an immense help when it comes to preventing burnouts. A study published in the Journal of Pediatric Nursing (2015) examined 38 Pediatric ICU nurses who participated in a 5-minute mindfulness meditation before each work-shift for one month to investigate change in nursing stress, burnout, self-compassion, mindfulness, and job satisfaction. This exploration found that brief interventions that support on-the-job self-care and stress-reduction might prove useful in critical care hospital settings. Death and dying is something that is experienced throughout the human experience, yet in a beautiful twist everyone’s experiences with the process are different. On a stroke unit death sweeps the census on a regular basis. As a leader on my unit I have to be in tune with the nurses I am working with as well as the families who maybe struggling with the decision to change a code status to DNR, to cease escalation of care, or maybe to participate in organ donation, to ensure that my nurses remain professional and empathetic and the families are accommodated appropriately. It is important for

In critical care areas, nurses are frequently faced with difficult situations in which they are asked to provide emotional support and comfort to patients and families “experiencing significant emotional pain and/or physical distress” (Lombardo & Eyre, 2011). Lombardo & Eyre (2011) go on to describe fatigue, short attention span, exhaustion, frequent headaches and/or stomachaches, low resistance to becoming ill, depression, and anger as symptoms of compassion fatigue. According to the 2015 National Healthcare Retention & RN Staffing Report, the turnover rate for bedside RN’s has increased over the last 4 years from 11.2% to 16.4%. RN vacancies continue to trend negatively with 24.2% of hospitals reporting a vacancy rate of 10% or greater. The average cost of turnover for a bedside RN ranges from $36,900 to $57,300 resulting in the average hospital losing $6.2M. Critical Care RN’s have

The ideal setting for implementing further research on the mental and behavioral health of a nurses working in a pediatric cardiac intensive care unit. The nurses working on the unit are ranged in age from 23 to 33. They have been on a long, busy shift, with many patients under the age of 7. The nurses are showing “symptoms of headache, irritability, and stomach aches” (Tito, et al., 2017). This is posing harm to their “psychological welfare” (Tito, et al., 2017). The plan will entail providing both self-reporting

Nursing is more demanding than many other professions or occupations, as a result of the combination of sicker patients, exhausting schedules and arduous physical work (Gordon 235). It can take a significant emotional toll on many, hence the higher levels of depression and stress-related illnesses (Gordon, Buchanan, and Bretherton 190). Higher workloads not only were related to burnout, but also impacted both the nurses’ and the patients’ safety (Gordon, Buchanan, and Bretherton 191).

Similar to physical exhaustion, emotional exhaustion results from depletion of emotional resources and failure to restore one’s own emotional equilibrium. (Moore, 2009, p. 1) In today’s busy society the demands of life, job and family can be excessive and overwhelming. Combine these demands with the additional stressors of caring for another person or persons, increased demands of productivity with decreased personnel and the unrealistic expectations of one’s self or others and place all of this burden on one person, this would adequately describe the 21st century nurse. Nurses are continually engaged in emotional relationships with patients and their families which call upon the nurse to be in a constant supporting role. One reaches emotional exhaustion when this burden becomes too heavy to carry

Pediatric Care Nurses have a demanding job that is often overlooked by most. People do not take into account how much a nurse will give to his or her patient, especially considering that patient is most likely a child between the ages of infancy to eighteen (“How Nurses”). The patients, being very young, can attribute to the amount of stress the nurse feels to do his or her best which can in some form bring an emotional factor into the mix, especially if the nurse has children himself/herself (Izumi 203). While being a pediatric care nurse, emotions play a large role in the way these professionals do their job. A step back is needed to see the emotional and physical stress these pediatric care nurses face when doing their job.

The nursing profession can be a physically and emotionally challenging job on a daily basis for nurses. It can have an impact on nurse’s mental health, through workplace factors that contribute to stress. Stress is a response that affects people differently and can be a physical, social, economic, or any other factor that requires a specific response to a challenging situation (Harris, Nagy & Vardaxis, 2014, pp. 1638). Within the workplace there are many factors that can cause work related stress that can influence and impact on the mental health of a nurse, however there are also many mental health promotion strategies that can be implemented to improve and build a nurses self-resilience. For the purpose of the assignment, workplace factors that can have an impact on nurses mental health include high workload and exposure to death and dying, these topics will be discussed, as well as two evidence-based strategies of mindfulness and reflective practices or thinking, which nurses can implement to build self-resilience will also be discussed. Stress is a response to challenging situations, people can encounter it in many different parts of their life, including in the workplace.