It's a fact of life: No job is without at least some stress. And, healthcare professionals have their fair share each day as they deal with patients who may be demanding, annoyed, not feeling well, or anxious about test results or a difficult diagnosis.
Add to that managing relationships with coworkers, doctors and other members of the healthcare team and there really is no shortage of stress.
In the self-training publication, "Guide to Stress Management,"
One technique that Childress recommends to help relieve stress is to appoint a team to identify the top stressors for the department as a whole, then to develop a plan for managing them. She points to the following example, "a team of lab technicians found it frustrating and stressful when instruction forms were not filled out correctly by physicians. The technicians created a one-page instruction sheet which was sent to all participating physicians. While the problem didn't go away entirely, it got much better. And the technicians felt empowered to make more changes that would reduce stress and ultimately provide better patient service."
"Guide to Stress Management" is one of six self-training guides from the Customer Service Group's Healthcare Division. Additional information on each of the guides is available online at http://www.CustomerServiceGroup.com/
