Energy Efficiency Programs to Reduce Stress in Workplace
Which coping strategies can be more satisfactorily applied in healthcare? There are two types of coping: “active” and “passive” stress management.
Active coping involves quick-learning, simple techniques such as Time management, positive self-instruction, delegation, professional sorting and organization systems, “No Saying”, the mobilization of social support and is always based on the environment. It is particularly suitable if the user has enough resources.
Passive or palliative coping is caused by refueling and regenerating outside the workplace and is aimed at the individual. Relaxation techniques and changing one’s own behavior are used. Here the user tries to become active. Sometimes also inappropriate methods, such as trivialization, avoidance tendencies, compensation, and resignation applied.
The particularities of the nursing profession, arising from the long-term relationship with patients (contact for 8 hours each day), unlike other health professionals (with contact times for the duration of treatment), such as physiotherapists or medical office staff, are given priority in the following.
Personal Energy Efficiency programs
Burnout sufferers are barely coming down from the “fast lane” and often hesitant braking attempts are critically eyed by the boss or colleagues. Affected do not know how to get out of a system that fuels them, in the sense of “Do not let up now.”, Although it is clear that in the long term, this pace is unstoppable.
The therapy of burnout is not about striving for a life without stress. Or a life in which everything happens the way you imagine it. Rather, the person concerned learns to retrieve his life energy, to find less willpower consuming, individual way and to deal sensibly with the external events through changed thinking. This is not easy for many years full-power performers. By the time burnout patients are in a residential setting, some of them would like to be treated from morning to night because doing nothing seems so unproductive.
This is exactly where change processes start. Patients have to learn to think differently. Being “loved” even without having to perform is an important aspect for those affected to learn. By art therapy, For example, the childish sides can be rediscovered, and the spilled interest in the “useless,” in forms, painting, and music can be reactivated.
Use coaching
In the early stages of burnout, using common sense and reading textbooks or attending short seminars will in many cases help you on your own. Often it only takes the initiative from the outside. Thereby a reflection of the previous situation shall be made and be determined emotionless, what went wrong and what concrete possibilities for energy efficiency exist. The more times the risk of burnout is detected, the more successful prophylaxis or therapy will be. Sometimes even a few appointments help with a qualified burnout coach. This acts as an accelerating catalyst and helps to gain new insights by supporting change processes.
Take real breaks during work
Breakthrough research reveals that rhythms of onset fatigue or lack of concentration occur several times a day as important communication patterns between body and soul. The body needs after the break show in the desire for stretching, yawning, daydreaming and light appetite. Instead of overcoming fatigue, psycho-biologist Ernest Rossi recommends letting nature run its course and maintaining a regeneration phase. If, due to the workload, no break is possible at this time, reserve for these moments activities which are not very demanding for you, eg. Simple administrative tasks or picking up the post. In any case, unlike the previous work, you are doing something completely different.
Breaks
Ideally, you should go for a walk in the fresh air during breaks, sit down or lay outside, and make no grueling conversations (phone calls). Leave your place of work! In industry and the economy, single berths with sleeping facilities have already been set up to offer employees short sleep options. This led to an increase in productivity and to reduce burnout and also it is the best way to boost your resilience in the workplace. Practicing pauses at the right time is crucial for optimal performance of all major self-regulatory systems.
While the subconscious tries to summarize what has been experienced so far and deduce a possible meaning, our mind processes the events and derives new insights from them. This creates relief. Employees feel recharged after breaks and are ready to tackle subsequent tasks and problems in a motivated manner.
In a meta-analysis, British researchers came to the conclusion that a short walk in nature almost certainly leads to relaxation. Only 5 minutes in motion and fresh air are enough to improve the mood and self-esteem noticeably. Especially favorable were environments with water (river or lake). Here, stress can be reduced particularly well.
Insist on your breaks, which are prescribed according to working time laws. If necessary, talk to neighboring stations. How about instead of taking a break of 30 minutes with 2 x 15 minutes? Find a quiet place away from your field of work. There you can drink a cup of fresh tea and have a bite to eat. Be aware that you have worked the hours before and are allowed to enjoy this little break. It can not be “for hours” to pause. For example, keep your breathing responsive when pausing. Where in the body is well-being most noticeable? Extend this feeling to the entire body. The art of proper pausing is:
- The recognition of the need for breaks
- The provision of access and
- Finally the regeneration with a subsequent restart of a creative period.
Practical Tip
Attune yourself at least once a year. Take such a break and attend seminars for meditation or self-care.
Longer break
Many workers dream of taking a sabbatical, but are afraid to make it unnecessary for the employer. The term comes from the Jewish Torah and means that every 7 years of agriculture should rest so that the soil can recover. In the meantime, sabbaticals have also arrived in companies. Workers take a break from a few months to two years. The Part-Time and Fixed-Term Act of 2001 allows employees and employers to jointly decide on flexible working hours.
Nutrition and Drinking
In everyday working life, there are some extremes. Some come down to work soberly and give their bodies full power even though they did not “refuel” before. The first breaks are often 4-5 hours after waking up. Low blood sugar or hunger means extra stress for the body. But too much or wrong food can burden.
Imagine starting a challenging project after your lunch break. Would you rather have it after eating pasta and meat in cream sauce or after a fresh salad with turkey breast strips?
Water is the purest elixir of life. The (working) person needs 2-3 liters of liquid every day – and by no means, coffee is meant. Drink as much water, tea, fruit juice spritzers as possible. What scientifically applies to learn also works in everyday working life. Work and attention are only successful if the fluid balance is sufficient. Lack of water leads to difficulty concentrating, sluggishness and hunger. The staying power and the good mood sink.
Check The Need For Routine Activities
Are all measures really necessary? Does every requirement have to be done on-the-spot, or is it not better to prioritize it and then do it coherently? Do all patients and residents have to be washed daily from head to toe, even though they would never do this at home? In some institutions, there are still hygiene plans that lack the scientific basis. Shelves are washed out every day and trash cans are disinfected. Check whether your current plans comply with the current hygiene regulations.
Stop The Sensory Overload
Permanent radio and television dud unnecessarily requires your concentration. The psyche needs something constructive – that strengthens your immune system. The more negative and violence-glorifying content you expect your brain to do, the more your immune system will be reduced. TV programs and films in which almost all conflicts are “solved” by mental or physical violence or intrigue burn into the “mental hard disk” and affect health and contentment.
According to a representative survey for e-mail-free days at work, 37% of employees with a business mailbox on the computer phone. That’s why more and more employers are acting and setting clear terms and times when in-house emails may be sent. It is prohibited to send banal or negative copies in cc to the entire workforce. E-mail-free days are coming into fashion in the US and the UK. This action is voluntary, but employers, such as chip maker Intel, want to reduce internal SPAM for their employees.
This is to promote a more concentrated work and personal conversation among colleagues. Some also use the mobile Internet in their free time and can be reached everywhere. A good official e-mail on Saturday is quickly the trigger of bad mood and “non-turn-off ability”. Burnout prophylaxis involves setting up times of inaccessibility. I do not mean the “silent” on the phone, but the actual switching off the device for hours or whole days.
Rethink your telephone communication behavior: Do you waste time during the day with endless phone calls with people you see any way in the evening? You should talk to these people personally later.
Maintain Your Friendships
Share your happiness and misfortune with people who are close to you. An intact social environment is effective protection against burnout. Certainly, it may not be urgent to go on a weekend trip with friends or family. But it’s important!
Coping Strategies
Occupational burdens cannot be avoided. Your employer remunerates you in some way through your salary, holiday and maybe even Christmas bonuses. Through this compensation, we accept occupational stress situations. But you can further develop and train your individual coping skills. With each new problem, you continue to grow and become an expert. And how nice: These new problems are delivered to you almost every day for free!
Educate yourself to an inner stability to the typical professional requirements. This psychic resilience, called resilience in the terminology, builds on self-confidence. Resilient people have the will to create their own lives and are ready to make decisions for them. Like the eagle, they take responsibility for their lives and enjoy the challenge and success. They experience a high degree of self-efficacy. Here, the circle then closes to self-esteem, because resilient employees have respect for themselves! They feel inward that despite the external circumstances it will somehow go on and they will do it.
What are the consequences if the responsibility is not taken over? However, when an eagle grows up among chickens, after a certain amount of time, he considers himself a chicken and does not leave home anymore. And when he looks around at his “colleague chickens”, he realizes that flying is impossible – even though he dreams of flying.
Employees experience significantly less stress when they know why something is the way it is. These findings of salutogenesis (development of health) can be used for your professional life. Through the knowledge of the connections. For example, “Why are X and Y routine examinations?”, “Why is the patient reacting like this?” Reduces your burden.
It is equally relieving for employees to be able to design certain processes independently. Here a compromise between the standard program and the individual decision-making possibilities of the employee can be found. The geriatric nurse is by default based on the expert standard A – with resident Z, however, she diverges from the normal procedure.
The more meaning we see in our daily work, the less stress we experience. The original motivation to complete a training in health care often consists in the meaningfulness of doing. Statements such as “I want to do something meaningful and help other people.” Are standard statements in job interviews. In the course of professional life, this “sense motivation” is sometimes lost.
Conclusion
- The need for energy efficiency programs is shown. This includes a meaningful break design, the use of coaching and a reduction of overstimulation.
- Personal relief strategies are clarified: too. Failures can, must and should be handled professionally.
- An intact social environment is enormously important to each of us to recharge!
