Osmosis recently launched Nursing Resilience, an interactive e-learning course on mental resilience and well-being for nurses with help from #FirstRespondersFirst, and the Johnson & Johnson Foundation. This eight-module online course helps nurses create a foundation of knowledge to help identify, manage, and overcome the effects of stress in their professional lives.
From the stressors of the nursing environment to the anxieties around maintaining a healthy work-life balance, each module provides language to help you recognize the effects of stress, burnout, and compassion fatigue on your wellness. You will also learn effective tools to prevent the negative cycles of stress on your physical, mental, and emotional wellness.
Let’s take a look at each module of Nursing Resilience, and what you’ll learn from it.
Module 1: Stressors for Nurses when Working with Clients
This module presents two learning objectives that identify stressors for patient-facing nurses: insufficient time and negative experiences in the nursing environment. These two stressors undermine nurses’ ability to care for patients fully, a familiar experience for any nurse who works with clients on a daily basis. You’ll learn about the negative impacts of stress on your well-being, leading to poor job satisfaction and performance of your key role in patients’ lives. This module also provides concrete suggestions for identifying these stressors and curtailing their effects.
Module 2: Institutional Management and Logistics Stressors
Have you ever struggled with a controlling boss or an onerous work schedule? Module 2 will review stressors caused by problems in institutional and logistical management in the nursing workplace. While the nursing environment can undermine nurses’ ability to do their jobs well, poor management and the nature of nursing shift work can have serious negative effects on your resilience and well-being. Learn how to identify the unsupportive management practices that become stressors for nurses, and how to respond effectively.
Module 3: Stressors for Nurses Outside the Workplace
Though every workplace comes with its stressors, the ones that nurses face can often seep into their lives outside of work. Module 3 explores the particular anxieties and challenges that come with life as a nurse, including negative effects on personal relationships, worry over bringing an infectious agent home with you, and financial worries. During the COVID-19 pandemic, these stressors were amplified as nurses were called on to hold the frontlines in the fight against the virus. This segment also lays out resources that are available when nurses start to feel overwhelmed due to these stressors.
Module 4: Physical, Mental, & Emotional Toll of Stress
Module 4 introduces Charlene, whose story you may find yourself identifying with closely. Charlene describes the effects that her nursing work had on her, especially once the pandemic hit and she became isolated from her support network of friends. That’s when the panic attacks started. The course delves deeply into the tolls that stress has on the body, mind, and emotions, how to recognize them in yourself, and real ways to counter the effects. Follow Charlene’s story to the end as she explains the solutions that worked for her—and may help you too!
Module 5: Red flags of Stress
Module 5 builds on the tolls of stress identified in the previous course. The pre-module activity asks you to identify the personal warning signs of stress that you’ve experienced in your work and reflect on how often you experience these signs. The module video will guide you in learning language around the warning signs, as well as recognizing your individual reactions to stress. These steps can help you counter the negative effects that stress may be having on your well-being that you hadn’t previously realized.
Module 6: Stress-Relieving Activities
This module is dedicated to helping nurses build self-care practices into their routines even during times when they’re busy caring for others. The segment provides evidence-based activities to support nurses as they practice self-care with mental well-being exercises, and also provides ways to manage stress and healthy interpersonal connections. Watch the video for practical suggestions on lessening the burden that stress has on your physical and mental wellness, then take the post-module activity to help incorporate these ideas into your daily practices.
Module 7: Barriers to Accessing Mental Health Services
The material in module 7 follows directly from the previous course, building on the self-evaluation and activities you learned in course 6. From the pre-module activity to the video on Barriers to Accessing Mental Health Services, you will be guided through the process of identifying and overcoming the roadblocks that might prevent you from seeking out or accessing services for mental health support. Nursing demands a great deal of emotional, physical, and mental strength from its practitioners; this course will help you access resources that nurture and maintain the mental well-being you need to succeed in this challenging role.
Module 8: Building Resilience in Nursing
Resilience is the ability to face intense challenges and deal with failure and setbacks. As a nurse, you’ll be called upon to rise up in situations that many people can’t even imagine, and that’s just a regular Tuesday. How do nurses build a foundation of resilience that will help them succeed at their jobs while also remaining positive and centered? No nurse is an island: your department leadership and care teams bear responsibility for supporting nurse wellness. Resilience is a skill that can be learned; module 8 explores the ways institutional management can integrate this skill into the ethos of the workplace. The module is effective for nurses on the ground, with many concrete recommendations to bring to your manager.
Join in!
These eight compact modules construct the foundation that nurses need to build resilience and deal with the challenging nursing environment—even without a pandemic raging. With compelling personal testimonies from working nurses and real solutions aimed directly at the particular stressors that nurses face, the Osmosis University course on Nursing Resilience may become the required continuing education course of 2021!
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Nursing Resilience is available now and completely free to take. Everyone who completes the course’s eight modules is eligible for up to 3.75 contact hours toward continuing education units. Sign up now.
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