Sara Lefkowitz – Stress Reduction Strategies for Nurses: Revitalize Your Practice

Outline

• Know your Stress: Naming your Top 5 External and Internal Stressors
  • Workplace Stressors: Workload, high acuity, code blue, demanding patients, abusive co-workers, lack of control, scheduling
  • Home Stressors: Relationships, family, care giving, household management
  • Life Stressors: Money, time, illness, aging, death
  • Internal Stressors: Anger, fear, worry, attitudes, memories
  • Recognizing your stress reactivity pattern: Are you a Fight, Flight or Freezer?
• Immediate Stress Relief
  • Learn and Practice Quick Stress Busters: Four Square Breathing, Recruiting the Senses, STOP
• Long-Term Stress Relief
  • The new brain research: Neuroplasticity
  • Hypervigilance and the overactive amygdala
  • Mindfulness and Compassion Meditation Practices
  • Yoga
  • Self-Care
• Nursing and Negative Stress Reaction Patterns
  • Burnout: Emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and loss of personal efficacy
  • Rate yourself: Maslach Burnout Inventory
  • Compassion fatigue
  • Lateral violence: Disruptive, abusive, or inappropriate behavior between nurses
• Explore Mindfulness
  • Intention/Attention /Attitude
  • The present moment
  • Experience: Mindful eating
  • Mindful eating at work: Tips and techniques
• Focus and Concentration
  • Calming the mind
  • Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS)
  • Mindfulness and patient safety
  • Experience: Mindfulness of breathing
• Responding vs. Reacting to Stress
  • Stress reactivity habits
  • Experiential exercise: Stress awareness and stress release
  • Using awareness to ‘Center’ during workplace turmoil
• Caring and Compassion: Exploring the Heart of Healthcare
  • Job satisfaction and burnout
  • Self-compassion: Kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness
  • Rate yourself: Self-Compassion Scale
  • Compassion Meditation 1: To work with difficult feelings (judgment, blame, shame, doubt) towards yourself
  • Compassion Meditation 2: To cultivate greater compassion towards self and others
• Workplace Scenarios: Apply Mindful Communication
  • A patient’s family member wants to monopolize your time
  • You are overloaded and asked to take another admission
  • A colleague questions your clinical judgment
  • A patient is triggering unwelcome memories from your past
  • Today you are irritated by everyone at work
  • Working with an emotional spouse at the deathbed
• Stress and the Workplace
  • The Toxic Workplace: Overwork, Bullying, Blame and Burnout
  • The Healthy Workplace: Teamwork, Safety, Mentoring, Flourishing
  • Employee health and wellness programs
• Self-Care and Resiliency: Keys to a Sustainable Nursing Career
  • Stress reduction
  • Time management
  • Balance: Work to home transitions
  • Workplace wellness
  • Creating a self-care plan
• Teaching Stress Reduction Strategies to Patients and Families
  • Choosing appropriate techniques