Most people in health care are nurturing, Osean said. I see if those beliefs need some tweaking and fine-tuning. Osean has developed a model to help people see that their thoughts are often irrational. A person has choice in every step except the first. Reacting irrationally can cause unnecessary stress, he cautions.
Some situations are inherently stressful, but others only seem that way.
Different people react to situations differently, and reactions can determine whether a situation is stressful, according to Janet Kivisto, RN, a clinical instructor in the School of Nursing, and Roger T. Couture, PhD, an associate professor of the School of Human Movement and the child and development studies program at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. In an article in the January-March issue of Nursing Forum , they use the example of two nurses assigned temporarily to a labor and delivery unit. One felt overwhelmed and distressed. The other, who had comparable education and experience, felt excited and challenged in the new surroundings. The appraisal of an event depends on the person's interpretation of what is happening at that moment in time, the authors said.