Employee assistance programs such as Baylor s, which includes individual or family counseling and chemical dependency counseling, are good sources. Going to the source Wanda Cheek, RN, now retired, remembers working in the ER when a young drowning victim was brought in. She doesn t recall being offered any help to deal with the resulting stress. I m not sure there isn t a time in everyone s life when you could benefit from counseling. Solutions such as debriefing and counseling are not as effective when the source of stress is a chronic problem such as overwork, Scott said.
Stress management can only go so far when the organizational stress isn t changing.
That is a harder, more complex problem that involves money and hiring practices. Efforts to address this broader issue include collaboration between the Kentucky Nurses Association, the University of Louisville Hospital and School of Nursing, and England s University of Leeds on a long-term recruitment and retention program. It seeks input from staff nurses about improving working conditions. If you give nurses an opportunity to control the environment, they will make the changes that need to be made. Other measures proving effective are better communication between nursing and support staff, contracts outlining employee expectations and more flexible work schedules.