Stress, resilience, coping: what does this mean to me?

It has been widely recognised that nursing is a stressful career and I feel that this has never been truer than it is now. Some of these stresses arise from:

• Management pressures
• Workload
• Work-life imbalance
• Personal stresses at home such as children, money, elderly relatives, the menopause, marriage breakdowns and bereavement

Stress is what we experience when we feel unable to deal with the demands that life places upon us, which leads to the feeling that we are not in control. The more we try to organise, work harder or for longer, the more the sense of being out of control increases, and the fight-or-flight response in our bodies takes over. This weakens our immune system; people who are chronically stressed become ill more often than people who experience a low level of stress (Rogers, 1959).

Coping with stress

There is a plethora of information on tools to assist us