How can you recognize when stress is affecting your work performance?

Recognizing when stress is affecting your work performance is crucial for your well-being. In my experience here are some signs to watch for: -Increased Procrastination: You may start avoiding tasks or putting them off, which can result in a backlog of work and increased stress. -Emotional Changes: Increased stress may lead to mood swings, irritability, or a generally negative attitude, which can affect your interactions with colleagues and your overall work environment -Missed Deadlines: Consistently missing deadlines or failing to meet goals can be a sign that stress is hindering your ability to manage your workload. When you identify that stress is affecting your work performance, it's crucial to take proactive steps to address it.

As a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, some of the best ways to handle stress are crucial not only for personal well-being but also for maintaining your work performance. Learning to prioritize regular self-care routines, including sufficient sleep, healthy eating, and regular exercise is crucial as it will not only impact how we manage our professional but also our personal lives. In addition to this, establishing good time management and incorporating mindfulness and daily meditation, deep breathing exercises, or journaling can also help alleviate stress and promote a sense of calm and help reclaim the peace and boundaries we need to ensure burnout is mitigated as much as possible.

Nurses may not easily recognize signs of stress overload as we train to suppress reactions for patient care. As a nurse specializing in neuroscience and behavioral health, I know that it's crucial to develop daily self-awareness practices, monitor focus shifts, interpersonal dynamics, and performance (not the same as striving to meet unrealistic expectations). Watch for signs like difficulty concentrating, irritability, decreased engagement, lack of empathy, errors, and poor sleep. Evaluate coping strategies, considering that chronic stress can worsen health and increase substance use. Note physical symptoms at work and assess changes in communication. Stay attuned to these indicators to address stress before it affects other areas.

Stress overload is heightened with a lack of sleep. It's a tally one of my goals I am working on. Here's what will help: 1. No electronic ANYTHING at least 30 minutes before closing my eyes. No television, email, cell messages, etc. 2. A cool room and a pillow that is really your best friend. 3. Set an alarm to get at least 7.5 hours of sleep. I use my FitBit to monitor sleep and keep a sleep and exercise log. Some days are better than other but if sleep deprived, I am not a very nice person.

I can identify that I am stressed when I am working harder and accomplishing less. Stress causes my thoughts to go all over the place. Early identification allows me to take action. Some ways I reduce my stress: Maintain work boundaries, start and stop on time, take my breaks and lunch. I keep an essential oil diffuser near my desk and fill it with a scent that I enjoy. I have a journal that I write in. It helps to empty the thoughts from my head. Writing my thoughts down, seeing them on the paper, make them easier for me to manage.

Stress from work performance will depend a great deal on your past coping mechanisms and what has been built into your coping toolbox by parents, grandparents, pastors, Sunday school teachers, aunts & uncles, best friends, teachers, coaches, as well as life experiences that have been presented to you. The signs and symptoms that a person experiences during stress has a lot of variation. Some people won’t look for assistance until they are drowning in stress and bobbing up and down to grab a breath. Other people will go seek assistance, formal or informal, after their primary coping mechanisms fail. Each person is different. It also varies with age and culture.

Stress can come from many aspects of our job/profession, remember to ask for help. Others do not always know when you need a hand. You might ask another nurse, patient care tech, or reach out to your management. Healthcare is a team effort.

In my experience poor management is the largest source of stress, and reaching out to such individuals is completely counterproductive

Causes of stress in nursing typically involve a complex interplay of factors that challenge the physical, emotional, and psychological well-being of healthcare professionals. Some of the most common causes of stress in nursing include High Workload, Staffing Issues, Emotional Burden, Organizational Pressures, and Poor Support and if left uncheck, can cause severe mental distress and force qualified nurses to leave the profession all together. One of the best ways to help reduce stress is by understanding the environment one is in and if changes can be made to help alleviate some of the burdens that are present. By identifying potential triggers and pitfalls, nurses can then decide what they can do to improve their situation.

Nursing can be quite a stressful field and profession. There are many variables that come into play, including staffing, sick patients, high acuity, lack of resources, etc. It is important to identify areas of stress and to recognize what you can control and how you can advocate for yourself.

Laughter is the best medicine, even at work, and is incredibly helpful in reducing a nurse's stress. Humor lowers stress hormones, relieves muscle tension, and lifts moods. However, humor is rarely encouraged professionally as its benefits and implementation are often misunderstood. Try these tips: 1. Post funny images in the office to spark smiles. Lead with a humorous story or quote. 2. Reframe stressful thoughts via exaggeration or understatement. Apply hyperbole to challenges. 3. Recall amusing work memories or personal anecdotes. Just remembering can improve your body chemistry and mindset. Humor's perks often come by chance. But choosing humor, even in difficult situations, can provide a powerful antidote to workplace stress.

Some of the best coping strategies for nurses include adopting proactive measures to manage stress and promote overall well-being in the demanding healthcare environment. In addition to self care rituals, mindfulness, and effective time management, nurses can also engage in reflective practices and pursue creative outlets to assess emotional well-being and foster personal fulfillment.

Before nurses can cope with stress they need to be able to identify stress in their own lives. A good place to start would be nursing school. The impact of teaching nursing students a course on personal development and self-care on how to identify stress, find their personal triggers, set boundaries, and the importance of creating their own personal action plan. Coping strategies for stress is personal and what works for one nurse might not be helpful for another. That's why is important for nurses to identify their trigger points and have their own personal coping methods.

Self-care must be intentional. Take time to do things that help you feel well and empowered. Mindfulness, health-focused strategies, and some plain-old laughing and fun are good for the nursing soul!

Coping strategies for stress do not address root cause (systems stress) and so are temporary at best. The only way to sustainably address/reduce stress is to reduce it at its source, in other words, fix/de-stress the care delivery systems. This is doable for nurses with a little systematic stress reduction training (3DHealthcare).

As nurses, there are often times a stigma surrounding mental health that many choose to ignore their mental health issues or refuse to acknowledge that they need support. Therefore, it is important to seek help when signs of emotional distress, burnout, or overwhelming stress become apparent and one of the best ways to do this is by first acknowledging the issue and recognizing that it's okay to not be okay. In the nursing profession, where emotional resilience is paramount, recognizing the signs of distress and seeking help early is a sign of strength and responsibility. Utilizing available support services, counseling, or therapy can contribute to improved mental health, job satisfaction, and overall quality of life.

We must ask how much help in dealing with stress we really get in working on symptoms of stress rather than root cause. Imagine going to an expert and hearing, "The root cause of all these symptoms is systems stress in the systems in which you do your best to delivery good care. Let's train you to be proactive in fixing/de-stressing those systems so you can permanently heal from these stress related symptoms." Unlikely at best. Experts or not, nurses must stop chasing the ghosts of symptoms of systems stress.

We burnout when we lose hope after making ourselves do things we don't want to do. Nurses, it is easy for us to stop trusting ourselves. We do the same things over and over again because we don't feel we have a choice. Slow, chronic illness starts because we often neglect our health. When that is combined with hopelessness, Nurses can end up spiraling into full despair. The faster you realize that you will not be much help to anyone if you are dead the faster you can start putting yourself first. You may heal fully or it may never happen. But the important thing is you gave your help freely for as long as you could to others. Now it is time to take care of yourself first without guilt. Check out my profile for what I did to heal.

The Law of Dissipative Structures causes healthcare systems to fall apart the same way it causes stars and planets to die. It's at work throughout the universe and throughout our world, slowly destroying human-made systems which refuse to change such as healthcare. Humans are systematic, both body and mind, and at the effect of the Law of Dissipative Structures, too. I love nurses and all healthcare staff. I don't know how you do it all in the awful systems that healthcare has become. And, I pray you wake up to what's really going on in healthcare and the world while we still have time to train to take the lead in fixing/de-stressing the systems that are harming staff and patients alike.