Effective Coping Mechanisms
Christina
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Today is the second day back into this rotation. The rotations I’m on are all 6 weeks long. We get one week off between rotations (it’s ostensibly ‘exam’ week but we don’t always have exams) and then the first week into the new rotation is an ‘intensive’ week. We spend the entire week in classes, with one day in our clinical orientation. The topics covered vary by rotation. This rotation for me is Mental Health and I’m doing my clinical on a psychiatric unit at a local hospital. The patient populations vary in terms of their illnesses. But, today we spent time discussing an important assessment tool: Suicide Assessments.
Like many people, I have been touched by people in my life attempting or succeeding at this tragic call for help. This meant that today was intense, exhausting, reminded me of some things, and I left feeling completely drained.
Fortunately, I was already signed up for this year’s bootcamp. So I had a workout set to go — and I’ve committed to this (in spite of large amounts of homework to do) to help with regaining my fitness that was slammed by mono, and to rebuild my self-confidence after a rough winter. It was the ideal coping mechanism. I felt great after it was over. I’m so glad they were emphasizing that returning to our past coping mechanisms is important to do in this rotation. So I feel supported in my decision to take more time to exercise. It means I need to balance my time carefully, but I’m so thankful I’ve got this — for this month at least. As we progress through life, asking ourselves how do we cope with life’s stresses is an important question.
So that’s the challenge I’m posing here. I challenge my readers to take time to reflect on how you cope with life’s stresses (both the effective ways and the ineffective/unhealthy ways), and ask: is it effective and healthy or is it something that you’d like to change. If you’d like to change it, do you have replacements in mind or how can you change this? Do you need support in finding replacement coping strategies?
I’d love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to post a comment. It can be anonymous – your real name’s not required (any emails that are requested are to prevent spam, no one sees them except me and are kept private blah blah blah).
Sandy
One in 36 Million’s Mom here – this rotation could be life-changing (positively) for you. Hope you have an interesting dedicated supervisor and a thoughtful bunch of students with whom to share your experiences.
I’ve been dropping in to your site to follow from afar, have mentally sent encouragement and cheers, but decided today I must do, not just think about it . . .
As a Psych RN I find this area provides an ongoing challenge, opportunities to learn, the chance to really make a difference in someone’s life . . . fascinating team members . . . disconcerting insights into oneself . . . plus is immensely frustrating at times!
I find a major challenge comes from having to respond ‘on the fly’, within guidelines to be sure; but therapeutic conversations are just between you and your patient (client). In most other areas of Nursing there are so many tasks to accomplish that the opportunity to give support, to do meaningful health teaching, to end a day with some sense of accomplishment . . . there just isn’t time – except in Psych where that is what we are there to do.
Sorry to be so long-winded . . . sending this with much admiration!
Sandy
One in 36 Million’s Mom here – this rotation could be life-changing (positively) for you. Hope you have an interesting dedicated supervisor and a thoughtful bunch of students with whom to share your experiences.
I’ve been dropping in to your site to follow from afar, have mentally sent encouragement and cheers, but decided today I must do, not just think about it . . .
As a Psych RN I find this area provides an ongoing challenge, opportunities to learn, the chance to really make a difference in someone’s life . . . fascinating team members . . . disconcerting insights into oneself . . . plus is immensely frustrating at times!
I find a major challenge comes from having to respond ‘on the fly’, within guidelines to be sure; but therapeutic conversations are just between you and your patient (client). In most other areas of Nursing there are so many tasks to accomplish that the opportunity to give support, to do meaningful health teaching, to end a day with some sense of accomplishment . . . there just isn’t time – except in Psych where that is what we are there to do.
Sorry to be so long-winded . . . sending this with much admiration!
Christina
That’s very encouraging! Thanks! I’m hopeful that our clinical group connects enough so that we can debrief well together. Some I’ve known in other clinical settings and others I haven’t worked with yet. I can definitely see how this rotation could be a time of significant personal growth.
Thankfully this is my last rotation before a summer break, so there is significant time for me to decompress (and work two jobs) after, before things ramp up again. It’s astounding how time is flying though — I’m 1/2 done!
Thanks for the encouraging words, feel free to comment as much as you want (no worries of being long-winded here!) — I definitely appreciate it!
Christina
That’s very encouraging! Thanks! I’m hopeful that our clinical group connects enough so that we can debrief well together. Some I’ve known in other clinical settings and others I haven’t worked with yet. I can definitely see how this rotation could be a time of significant personal growth.
Thankfully this is my last rotation before a summer break, so there is significant time for me to decompress (and work two jobs) after, before things ramp up again. It’s astounding how time is flying though — I’m 1/2 done!
Thanks for the encouraging words, feel free to comment as much as you want (no worries of being long-winded here!) — I definitely appreciate it!