Stress experienced

• A sources of stress experienced while working as a student enrolled nurse in the clinical environment, the triggers and your response.
• The strategies you used to manage the stress

You will then develop a stress management plan and implement the plan based on the below scenario and review your plan in response to the scenario.

Case Scenario 1

You are working on a busy general medical unit.  In the past week there have been four unexpected deaths and an extraordinarily busy unit resulting from larger than normal client admissions. Staffing has been a constant struggle of ensuring that there is a safe nurse-patient ratio, and a large number of shifts have been worked short-staffed. Your manager has asked you on several occasions to work extra shifts and you have agreed as your partner has just lost his job.

In the course of one shift that you worked, two clients died.  Of the clients, one was a young male, Jason Thomas, 32, who recently became a father. Jason presented to emergency for chest pain and was sent to your unit for observation.  Jason had pressed his call button for assistance and when the nursing staff arrived (yourself and Vanessa, a RN), he was found to be clutching his chest in pain, pale, diaphoretic and very short of breath.  A MET was called, and despite resuscitation, Jason died an hour later.  You were very distressed after this event as it reminded you of a personal tragedy and went to take your tea break.

Since Jason’s death, you have been sick for most of your shifts.  When you are at work you are at times abrupt and some relatives have complained about your ‘attitude’ to the Nursing Unit Manager. The staff members who have been working with you for more than 6 months and know that this is not your normal behaviour.  They have tried approaching you and asked if you are ok, but you brush their comments away or do not respond at all, and walk away from the area. 

To investigate the complaint, the Nursing Unit Manager is questioning staff members who were working alongside you on the day of the complaint as well as the patient’s family.

Q1) Describe a source of stress you experienced while working as a Student Enrolled Nurse in the clinical environment

Q2) What were the triggers for the event?  (To answer this question, the triggers are not only what occurred on the ward but also what was happening in your personal life at that time that may have impacted)

Q3) Describe your physical, psychosocial and behavioural response to the stressor.

Q4) Describe a minimum of three (3) strategies you used to effectively prevent, reduce and management the stressor.

Develop a plan

R2.1 Develop a personal management plan that responds to identified stressors and triggers using the following:

• Stressors
• Triggers
• My response

Strategies to use

Implement stress management strategies

R3.1 Explain how the strategies in your personal management plan (developed above for R2.1), could address the personal triggers and stressors in the described scenario

R3.2 What are three (3) or more adjustments that could be made to your plan if your identified strategies are not meeting the desired outcome to prevent, reduce and manage stress

Evaluate stress reduction strategies

State 4 ways you will know that your stress management strategies are effective. (These must be different from your previous answers).