Nowadays, nursing is introduced as a sphere, an art, and a science, where several important concepts are gathered to create appropriate conditions for patients and medical workers (Perry, 2016). Each concept plays an important role in the work of nurses because of the necessity to cooperate with physicians and other workers, who know what to do and how to behave, as well as with patients and their families, who are not always ready for the challenges that occur in hospitals. In this project, stress is chosen for the analysis as one of the fundamental concepts that cannot be ignored by nurses (DeWit & O’Neill, 2013).
There are several different situations when nurses have to understand the essence of stress and help patients and medical workers to decrease its level to the possible degree. Each situation has its grounds and outcomes. Therefore, a case review (the possibility to identify the potential relations between concepts) seems to be one of the easiest ways of the analysis that could be applied to stress in nursing (Macha & McDonough, 2012).
Bailey and Clarke (2013) explain stress as an explanation of the majority of negative phenomena which could be experienced by people, including nurses and their patient. It is not enough to know that stress could influence the working process of a nurse. It is important to realize what has been already known about stress and what aspects of stress people should know and investigate deeper.
In my opinion, the concept of stress has to be more explicitly defined for nursing because it has a wide range of meanings and outcomes, and nurses are not always ready to understand how to cope with stress and what actions should be taken when stress bothers a patient, a colleague, a doctor, or nurses themselves. The analysis of cases and different situations shows that nurses are aware of the possibilities of stressful situations in their job. However, it is hard to get nurses prepared for all types of human reactions.
Therefore, stress should not be defined as one of the fundamental concepts for nursing only. Stress has some explanations and has to be analyzed from different aspects. Nurses have to take care of patients who do not understand how to cope with stress from being hospitalized, dependent on doctors’ opinions, or simply weakened because of illness. Nurses should also support and help doctors to complete their duties and be ready to understand in case some urgent decisions or unexpected outcomes occur (Bailey &Clarke, 2013).
Another important issue that should be considered to prove the necessity to investigate and analyze stress in nursing deeper is the existing variety of effects of stress. People get used to reacting and adapting to stress in their ways (DeWit & O’Neill, 2013).
Nurses cannot predict the behavior of their patients and make sure that hospitalization or even simple communication with a doctor could help a person to avoid some negative outcomes. Stress is a many-sided concept, and nurses should never stop investigating it and sharing their experiences so that other people could analyze the situations with the help of case review studies. The evaluation of stress is not an easy task to be complete. Nurses should be brave and emotionally stable to provide clear explanations, support, and care for all people they have to work with.
References
Bailey, R.D. & Clarke, M. (2013). Stress and coping in nursing. New York, NY: Springer.
DeWit, S.C. & O’Neill, P.A. (2013). Fundamental concepts and skills for nursing. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Health Sciences.
Macha, K. & McDonough, J.P. (2012). Epidemiology for advanced nursing practice. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Perry, A.G. (2016). Nursing today. PA Potter, AG Perry, P Stockert, & A Hall (Eds.), Fundamentals of nursing (pp. 1-13). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Health Sciences.