In terms of careers, working within the field of medicine is considered by many to be amongst the most rewarding and fulfilling available.  However, there’s no denying that it can be stressful too, full of long-hours and sometimes a lack of appreciation.  Because of this, it’s important to ensure that you do everything possible to minimise the potential effect that stress can have on you through your career.

Signs of stress

The first key to help reduce potential stress is to recognise the early signs when they appear: as with most conditions, the quicker you try to do something about the condition, the more effective your preventative measures will be.   Symptoms of workplace stress are varied, but they include tension headaches, stomach problems, feelings of anxiety, irritability and apathy towards the job itself, problems with sleep and issues of concentration.  If you find yourself suffering one or more of these, you should look to take preventative measures.

Health

A good way to deter anxiety in the workplace is to try and maintain good health wherever possible, as those in better physical shape are largely less likely to suffer from stress.  Even if you don’t have time to exercise regularly (which is fair enough, given the hours many medical professionals work), making sure you take in a healthy, nutritionally balanced diet, as this will help to naturally increase your energy levels, meaning that over the long days you’ll be less likely to suffer from burnout.

Sleep

It’s also vitally important that you try to get as much sleep as possible, as a lack of it is one of the main causes of increasing stress levels. In much the same way that poor diet will lead to increased levels of fatigue, so will a lack of sleep (obviously).  Decreased levels of sleep also mean you’ll be less capable of maintaining an emotional balance whilst working.

Work itself

Whilst the above are all based on you personally, there are a fair few ways that you can make the job itself less stressful.  Whilst it’s extremely tricky to maintain a sense of order in the fast-moving world of medicine, it can help to try and keep some sense of structure where possible.  Try to list your tasks for the day in order of priority, and if you’ve got something really unpleasant to do then get it out of the way early.  Also, cut larger projects into smaller steps – it’s a great way to stop them feeling intimidating.  It’s also important to ensure that wherever possible you delegate work – this can make a world of difference to your workload over the course of a week.

Laugh it off

Finally, to reduce stress try and approach challenges with a sense of humour.  Whilst it’s not always going to be easy to do so: many challenges within medicine aren’t funny at all – you should still try and approach any problem with a positive attitude, and see the funny side of things where possible: you’ll be amazed how much of difference it can make in the long run.

About the Author: Charlie Lake, is a retired nurse and a contributing writer for Nursing 2000, a leading company providing medical staff recruitment services across the United Kingdom.
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