It is easy to come up with examples of the stresses that nurses face every day at work that is patient related. In some of the speciality areas such as the ER, the ICU’S, Pediatric and any other speicialty unit where seriously injured and critically ill patients are cared for are example of places where nurses are constantly exposed to a lot of stress.
Of course, it is not exclusive to just these units. The first day at the end of my freshman year in nursing school is an example. We had to wait for our instructor before we could start patient care. I waited and waited. The rest of my classmates were all set and had started their care. Finally my instructor came to me and told me that my patient had died just before we came on. The was just a regular medical unit and my patient was an elderly man, so my point is that even on these units which are low stress units they are not completely stress free. This was the beginning of my career. I had never seen a dead person before, much less prepare them to be taken to the funeral home. My instructor, of course, stayed with me and helped me, but it was an experience that I never forgot and the beginning of many, many more.
These stresses vary in intensity and effect each nurse differently but the nurse is effected by every situation in some way. There are so many examples. This is only one type of stress. There are others. Let’s move on.