Managing stress while in the nursing program

The way one handles ordinary life challenges determines not just one’s psychological but also physical well-being. As many people have discovered, stress management may be difficult, especially when new considerations such as raising a family, working, and becoming a student nurse are added to the existing stress. Like any other scenario, a person may be able to better manage the stress that he faces on his journey with the appropriate approach. Seeking social support, evaluating the circumstance, focusing on controllable events, and relaxation techniques are all effective coping strategies. When all else fails, take a deep breath for purposes of managing stress (Galbraith et al, 2011).

 According to Perciavalle et al (2017), the results obtained from the current research support the idea that deep breathing technique can induce an effective improvement in the moods and release stress in terms of both self-reported evaluations (MPS and POMS) and of objective parameters, such as heart rate and salivary cortisol levels.

Identification and Explanation of Relevant Concepts in Stress Management

Deep breathing techniques are used in stress management. According to Perciavalle et al (2017), the use of deep breathing techniques led to an effective improvement in stress management in everyday life and could have an external positive impact on the stressful conditions that a person goes through (Perciavalle et al, 2017). This investigation was made on students while analyzing the stress conditions that a student goes through in her nursing studies.

Deep breathing uses various techniques such as yoga and qigong to improve the sense of well-being. A relaxation positive effect induced by a realization technique called yoga improves on motor abilities, blood pressure, heart rate, and the composition of the body (Perciavalle et al, 2017).

Occupational stress is that type of stress a parson goes through at his workplace. It is generated because of the nature of the occupation its interventions are conducted or categories into various ways. Secondary modification of the individual response to stressors, psychological assistance to the people who are currently experiencing severe stress and removing stressor is the primary intervention category physiology (Clark et al, 2011).

Copying is one of the cognitive aspects of appraisal concept defined as the behavior and cognitive effects made to tolerate, master, reduce or mitigate the internal and external demands and solve conflicts among the environmental demands.

Stress in a human body is triggered by the hypothalamus part of the brain senses a signal to a pituitary gland that is located in the basement of the brain. The pituitary gland then senses a signal to the adrenal glands which are found above the kidney to release stress hormones. The stress hormones can change how the organs of the body and the energy body system act towards preparing the body to fight stress physiology (Clark et al, 2011).

During stress, the heartbeat, and blood pressure increases, the breathing rate of lungs also increases, the digestion decreases and the entire body muscles start to prepare the body to respond to stress by taking action (Clark et al, 2011).

Multiple Explanations and Approaches to Understanding the Topic of Stress Management

Theories of stress focus on the specific relationship between stressors and stress and they are grouped into two categories namely, approaches to psychobiological stresses and approaches to systemic stress based on psychobiology and physiology (Clark et al, 2011).

According to Systemic stress theory, a variety of stimulus events such as coldness, heat, toxic agents if intensely applied may result in common effects that are not specifically meaning to either stimulus events. This theory defines stress as a state which is manifested by a body syndrome that consists of all the nonspecifically induced changes in the body biological system physiology (Clark et al, 2011).

Psychological stress theory and sometimes is referred to as the Lazarus theory. Under this theory, there are two concepts for management of psychological stress. The two concepts are the appraisal concept and rational concepts (Reger and Rogers, 2010). Psychological stress is a relationship with the environment which a person tend to appraise as being significant to wellbeing and the demands happen to exceed the available coping resources (Reger and Rogers, 2010).

Coping theories, two independent parameters can be uses to classify the coping theories as being trait-oriented versus state oriented or macro-analytic versus microanalytic approaches. In stress management, trait-oriented approaches aim at ensuring early identification of students nurses that have coping resources that are still lacking for purposes of fulfilling the demands of the stressful moment. Identification of such individuals brings an opportunity to establish a placement procedure for the prevention strategies on how to manage stress (Reger and Rogers, 2010). Microanalytic approaches mainly focus on many coping strategies and macro-analytic analysis does operate in higher abstraction levels hence it concentrates on fundamental constructs of coping (Reger and Rogers, 2010).

How the Field of Psychology Is Improving on Conditions of Individuals Impacted by Stress

Much as there are various situations which tend to elicit different patterns of stress responses, there are also a number of differences in stress responses among individuals. The field of psychology is setting a pace to help individuals cope with stress challenges across the variety of stressful situation, some individuals show responses to stress with active coping, and others show the response to stress in an aversive vigilance.

The field of psychology takes into the consideration of managing psychological aspects of stress right way from childhood stressors through adolescences stressors and makes sure that it manages various individual groups’ psychological complications. The field of psychology has established that the common stressor of adolescents and children are sexual, emotional, or physical abuse exposures, violence, and marital conflicts. The field of psychology has so far identified resource factors that can help individuals manage stressed and these include the coping strategies, resource availability (optimism, self-esteem, and social support).

It was discovered that people with higher esteem tend to show greater response to lower cortisol responses in acute stressor situations. Another preventive factor discovered by the file of psychology is attaching a meaning to stressful event even if the event has caused horrific torture

The first subscale of coping strategies is seeking for social support through drinking together as a group, going for outings, and participating in hobbies (Galbraith et al, 2011). Participating in hobbies such as football, playing hockey, and involving in sports activities can be used to test the ability of the nursing students to support their collogues by involving them in whatever they love so much. Passive appraisals have also been discovered to be the best sub coping strategies (Galbraith et al, 2011). This subscale includes believing that the challenge will be solved with time, feeling helpless with regard to the challenge, over relying on luck and watching lessons. Most of the nursing students would prefer seeking for social support and spiritual support (having faith in God) as the best solution to solve the stressful complications of the fellows (Reger and Rogers, 2010).

The field of psychology attaches the importance of work to an individual’s mental health. The workplace and mental well-being are some of the environments that tend to affect the psychology of an individual (Reger and Rogers, 2010). The existing evidence shows that work environments promote or hinders the mental wellness much as it is currently difficult to quantify the impact of working environment on social identity, mental health professionals, and social wellbeing. Most of the professionals in the field of psychology and mental health have agreed that workplace environment can impact on the mental wellbeing of an individual. To help the individual at the workplace cope up with stressful moments, psychology professionals have encouraged various measures which include ensuring time trustee, keeping social contact, maintaining social identity and perform, regular activities that organize one’s daily life.

The field of psychology has also provided a mechanism for managing job stress. Psychologists define job stress a harmful physical response or an emotional response which occurs in case the requirements of the job fails to match resources need of the employee.

Psychologists in the field have discovered that job stress arises due to lack of decision-making, surveillance; unrealistic deadlines set and job insecurity, sexual harassment, and discrimination. Supporting workers in managing job stress is one of the greatest endeavors in the field of psychology. This has been achieved through career development strategies, setting organizational roles, decision control and maintaining internal relationships at workplaces as well as building organizational culture and functions.

Conclusion

Stress is the psychological disorder which is unavoidable and remains part of our life. This means that stress has a lot to support both physical and mental health. Throughout our lives, we tend to encounter stress in different ways though some of the ways are not recognized therefore there are different examinations that tend to describe stress physiology. This paper has discussed the relevant approaches to understating and managing stress in nursing programs and analyses the role of the field of psychology in supporting individuals with stressful moments on how to deal with stress.

References

Berk, L. E. (2014). Exploring lifespan development (3rd ed.). London: Pearson.

Clark, C. S., & Pelicci, G. (2011). An integral nursing education: A stress management and life balance course. International Journal For Human Caring, 15(1), 13-22.

Perciavalle, V., Blandini, M et al, (2017). The role of deep breathing on stress. Neurological Sciences, 38(3), 451-458. Doi:10.1007/s10072-016-2790-8