3 answers
Amanda
Student
Gallup, New Mexico
1
Question
Asked
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What is an aspect that could be most challenging for Nurses?
I'm a Senior in Highschool and I would like to know the position of becoming a nurse later in my life. I'm a loyal, trust-worthy, and caring person. Curious of what the roles and responsibilities of my future what would look like. #nursing #jobs
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3 answers
Melissa Haltom, MSN, APRN, FNP-C
Nurse Practitioner
29
Answers
Houston, Texas
Updated
Melissa’s Answer
Great question!
Because nursing is a challenging career for many reasons, nurses experience 'burnout' quite often. Keeping this fact in mind, I would suggest that stress management is one of the most important aspects in a nursing career. Stress management is also extremely important for mental health outside of nursing, and I would argue it is one of the most important aspects of life in general. Distress causes disease, plain and simple. It's a fact. Disease of the mind, body, and soul. Managing stress can save your life, and a nursing career.
My suggestion would be to start looking into how to manage your daily stress right now. Everyone has stress. Does it come from school? Work? Siblings? Parents? People at school? Teachers? Is someone sick? Money problems? Find out what makes you uneasy. Notice when you get agitated, irritated, angry, panicky...these emotions come with some sort of stress in your life. Just start by noticing them. That step has to happen before you can do anything about it. A lot of people don't even know what stresses them out...but often the people around them DO know.
Start by identifying stressors in your life, and then find out ways to manage those feelings. Do a search on the internet. Often, the answers are so simple that people ignore them and say 'that won't work'. The answer can be as simple as writing feelings down (releasing them onto paper and getting rid of them), going on a walk or other physical activity (this can release the stressful energy out of your body and calm your mind in the process), looking at nature (a tree can teach us a lot- like how to be as still as a tree), drinking enough water and eating healthy foods (so simple and effective, yet so difficult for most), and getting enough sleep (most don't understand how important this is to our bodies).
Anyway, if you start there....you are on your way to being the most effective nurse you can be...because you will be on your way to being the most effective YOU that you can be! That is your life's most greatest challenge, and it will be a great gift to yourself and to the world around you.
A nurse that conquers himself/herself will be better equipped to conquer the challenges of the career. Go be the best nurse there is--your patients deserve it!
Melissa
Because nursing is a challenging career for many reasons, nurses experience 'burnout' quite often. Keeping this fact in mind, I would suggest that stress management is one of the most important aspects in a nursing career. Stress management is also extremely important for mental health outside of nursing, and I would argue it is one of the most important aspects of life in general. Distress causes disease, plain and simple. It's a fact. Disease of the mind, body, and soul. Managing stress can save your life, and a nursing career.
My suggestion would be to start looking into how to manage your daily stress right now. Everyone has stress. Does it come from school? Work? Siblings? Parents? People at school? Teachers? Is someone sick? Money problems? Find out what makes you uneasy. Notice when you get agitated, irritated, angry, panicky...these emotions come with some sort of stress in your life. Just start by noticing them. That step has to happen before you can do anything about it. A lot of people don't even know what stresses them out...but often the people around them DO know.
Start by identifying stressors in your life, and then find out ways to manage those feelings. Do a search on the internet. Often, the answers are so simple that people ignore them and say 'that won't work'. The answer can be as simple as writing feelings down (releasing them onto paper and getting rid of them), going on a walk or other physical activity (this can release the stressful energy out of your body and calm your mind in the process), looking at nature (a tree can teach us a lot- like how to be as still as a tree), drinking enough water and eating healthy foods (so simple and effective, yet so difficult for most), and getting enough sleep (most don't understand how important this is to our bodies).
Anyway, if you start there....you are on your way to being the most effective nurse you can be...because you will be on your way to being the most effective YOU that you can be! That is your life's most greatest challenge, and it will be a great gift to yourself and to the world around you.
A nurse that conquers himself/herself will be better equipped to conquer the challenges of the career. Go be the best nurse there is--your patients deserve it!
Melissa
Michelle Blake RN, BSN
Registered Nurse
8
Answers
South Lyon, Michigan
Updated
Michelle’s Answer
Many nurses struggle with time management. There are often many tasks that need to be completed, and nurses often don’t have enough time to truly provide the care they would under ideal circumstances (for example, sitting with a family to help them fully understand the patient’s condition by providing extensive education, wanting to take every person to the shower, but not having time due to other important tasks such as giving medications and performing dressing changes). Over time, nurses develop ways to sneak in education whenever possible!
I often hear that people want to become nurses because they like to help people. This is a good start, but you have to truly like people and be willing to help them get through some of the toughest times in their lives. Nurses often see people when they are at their worst. A person who is generally a nice and positive person may have more of a short temper or be extremely frustrated because of their situation. Nurses have the ability to find a way to motivate people to get better during such times, which can sometimes be very draining, but also be extremely rewarding.
Good luck!
I often hear that people want to become nurses because they like to help people. This is a good start, but you have to truly like people and be willing to help them get through some of the toughest times in their lives. Nurses often see people when they are at their worst. A person who is generally a nice and positive person may have more of a short temper or be extremely frustrated because of their situation. Nurses have the ability to find a way to motivate people to get better during such times, which can sometimes be very draining, but also be extremely rewarding.
Good luck!
Rachael Mabe, RN, LNHA, LNC
Nurse Expert
4
Answers
Sleepy Hollow, IL
Updated
Rachael’s Answer
Hi there. Challenging aspects of Nursing? This is a great question, and this would really be individualized to the nurse. Some nurses find the long hours the most challenging, or dealing with patients and family complaints the most challenging or the scheduling changes and staffing shortages to be the most challenging- there are a ton of challenging in Nursing.
As a nurse you have a tremendous amount of responsibility; administering medications, starting IVs, assessing and monitoring changes of condition, notifying the physician of lab and diagnostics, calling the family, monitoring intake and nutrition, and many, many other aspects of care and vary depending on what type of nursing you get into.
Nursing is a great field to enter and the more education you get the higher up the career ladder you can go- the sky is the limit!
Good luck!
As a nurse you have a tremendous amount of responsibility; administering medications, starting IVs, assessing and monitoring changes of condition, notifying the physician of lab and diagnostics, calling the family, monitoring intake and nutrition, and many, many other aspects of care and vary depending on what type of nursing you get into.
Nursing is a great field to enter and the more education you get the higher up the career ladder you can go- the sky is the limit!
Good luck!