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help support the argument presented
When educating clients or patients regarding stress and stress relief techniques it is important to understand what exactly the stressor is in their life and how they feel it is negatively affecting them. People deal with stressful situations differently and some people may view a situation or circumstance as stressful while others do not. When discussing a plan to help a client cope with stress we must first sit down and do an appraisal of how much control the stressor has over their life and how much control they have over the stressor, this is called a primary and secondary appraisal (Sharma, 2017). During this first assessment the client may keep a stress diary or have an in-depth discussion regarding the issue.
There are several theories and methods to utilize when dealing with stress and educating others on ways to deal with and handle stress in their lives. If they stressor is something significant in their lives that is or will eventually be life altering it can be difficult to find a way that helps the client deal with their stress initially because the shock of the event takes over the psychological aspect of the coping mechanism and it is important to wait for that to pass before trying long term coping techniques.
When discussing work site stress management with new nurses or even those who have been nurses for many years there are several factors to consider when coming up with a plan on how to cope with this type of stress. As medical professionals, especially early on, we spend a great deal of time at work caring for others. This task that we originally felt was so rewarding can become daunting and overwhelming at times. There are two-techniques that the book talks about when dealing with stress, problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping (Sharma, 2017).
Problem-focused coping is a method that focuses on the environment or situational stress. If the person has the control to alter the environment causing their stress, then they should look into ways that would make the environment less stressful. For those nurses who work at the bedside this is not something that is feasible to do, unless they physically leave their current situation and simply get a new job in a new area. Emotion-focused coping is based on the person’s ability to deal with the stressor emotionally. Some examples of this technique would be avoiding the stressful situation, trying to look at the positives in the situation, or expressing emotions regarding how the stress makes that person feel. Emotional-focused coping can sometimes turn into negative coping mechanisms like consuming drugs and alcohol or excessive medications (Sharma, 2017).
The three theories addressed in the reading material include hardiness, coherence, and optimism (Sharma, 2017). These are three excellent ways to help and educate anyone with any type of stress that they may encounter in their lives from the simplest of things like traffic jams to life altering situations like illness or injury. Hardiness encompasses three parts control, commitment, and challenge. Control emphasizes a person’s control or the belief that he or she has control over the situation and can modify it to alleviate the stress. Commitment is what that person does to involve themselves in the activities of their life to get through the stressful situation or at least make it bearable. Challenge evaluates the willingness of the person to undertake change and either cope with the stress or take steps to change it (Sharma, 2017).
Coherence is a theory made up of three key constructs including comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness. These three concepts are combined to evaluate to what extent the person perceives the stressors, how they feel they can manage the stress, and to what extent the person feels that the stress is going to alter their life. A final theory is optimism which is the view and the effort to expect the best possible outcome in the situation and keep a positive attitude during the most stressful times (Sharma, 2017).
Reference
Sharma, M. (2017). Theoretical foundations of health education and promotion (3rd ed.). Sudbury, MA. : Jones and Bartlett Learning
