Self-care: Recognizing and managing emotions
Objective: The worksheet aims to enable learners to reflect on their own feelings in stressful situations and to provide them with strategies for dealing with emotional stress.
Content and methods: Learners are asked about the most common emotions in their everyday and asked to describe a stressful situation. A dialogue scenario between an overwhelmed nurse and a patient serves as an example. Methods include completing checklists and answering open-ended questions to reflect on one's own behavior. Finally, new coping strategies are collected and presented in a mind map.
Skills:
- Self-reflection: Analysis of one's own feelings and reactions
- Emotional intelligence: Understanding one's own emotional stress
- Problem solving: Development of coping strategies
Target group and level: The worksheet is aimed at trainees in nursing professions.
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Target group and level
trainees in nursing professions
Subjects
Self-care: Recognizing and managing emotions
Assignment
Fill out the table and report on your experiences.
What feelings have you experienced most strongly at work in recent days?
In which situations do these feelings occur particularly frequently?
Work assignment
- Read through the example and reflect on your feelings.
- Fill out the table and answer the question that you will discuss in class afterwards.
- “What strategies would you adopt?” Answer the question.
- Use the booklet for self-reflection.
Patient: I’ve been waiting here for over an hour, this is ridiculous! My appointment was at 9 a.m., and it's already past 10.
Nurse: I understand your frustration, Mr. Thompson, but we are running behind schedule due to unforeseen circumstances.
Patient: Unforeseen circumstances? That’s not my problem! You people always have some excuse. I have other things to do today!
Nurse: I’m sorry, Mr. Thompson, but there’s nothing I can do about it right now.
Patient: Nothing you can do? You could at least try to speed things up! I’ve been sitting here, watching people come and go, and I still haven’t been seen!
Nurse: Look, I’m doing my best. We’re short-staffed, and emergencies happen. You need to be patient.
Patient: I’ve been patient! You should have informed me earlier if there were delays. I could have rescheduled!
Nurse: I didn’t have the time to notify everyone personally. It’s a busy day.
Patient: Busy or not, this is unacceptable! I’m considering lodging a complaint about how poorly this clinic is run.
Nurse: If you feel that way, go ahead. But complaining won’t change the situation right now.
Patient: This is unbelievable. I can’t believe how unprofessional the staff is here!
Nurse: I’m sorry you feel that way, Mr. Thompson. But we’re doing what we can with the resources we have.
Patient: Well, it’s clearly not enough. I hope the doctor is more competent than the rest of you.
Nurse: I’ll let the doctor know you’re waiting. Please sit down, and we’ll call you when we’re ready.
What would you do to cope with this stress?
Which strategies are good for you in the long term and which are not? Write down your thoughts and share them with the rest of the class.
Which of the suggestions made by the other course participants would you like to try out yourself?
Strategies for Relieving Nursing Staff
1. Managing Patient Expectations
Reflect on methods to effectively communicate delays to patients.
Discuss ways to set realistic expectations for patients regarding wait times.