Finding time for quiet reflection and bodily connection are important coping mechanisms to manage stress.
Recognizing personal values and setting boundaries are essential in managing stress and effecting change at work.
Deep dives
Understanding and Managing Stress in Palliative Care
Sarah Rose Lamport, a nurse practitioner specializing in palliative care, shares her insights on dealing with stress in her profession. She highlights the challenges of building meaningful connections with patients while also worrying about personal and family well-being. Lamport emphasizes the importance of finding time for quiet reflection and bodily connection as coping mechanisms. She also discusses the distinction between burnout and stress, highlighting the adaptive nature of stress and the importance of recognizing physiological responses. Professor Mandy O'Neil provides additional insights, noting the significance of workplace relationships in managing stress and the need for emotional intelligence and boundary-setting. The conversation highlights the importance of situation selection, exercise, and interpersonal connections as stress management strategies.
Addressing Conflict and Prioritization in the Workplace
Sarah Rose Lamport talks about different forms of stress at work, including stress related to patients and institutional issues. She shares her coping skills and struggles with prioritizing competing demands. In response, Professor Mandy O'Neil suggests the importance of recognizing personal values and engaging in self-assessment when deciding whether to take on additional stress for effecting change. They discuss the role of workplace relationships in managing stress, emphasizing the need for constructive conflict management and emotional intelligence. Boundaries, both with colleagues and family, are identified as essential in preventing stress absorption. The conversation also addresses the significance of organizational support, the need for promotive voice instead of complaints, and the potential for collective solutions to workplace stress.
Recognizing and Mobilizing Stress in the Work Environment
The conversation highlights the shared nature of stress in healthcare institutions and the importance of recognizing it as a collective issue. Sarah Rose Lamport discusses the clash of personal values with institutional values and the resulting stress. Professor Mandy O'Neil emphasizes the role of emotional intelligence, self-care, and boundary-setting in managing stress. They also underscore the importance of organization-wide mechanisms to understand and address stressors. The conversation concludes with a discussion on recognizing signals of stress in colleagues and the role of supervisors in supporting employees in stress management, including encouraging breaks and time off.
Stress affects everyone, but we all express and experience it differently. Hearing how a nurse practitioner responds to the various stressors of her job reveals how stress works at a fundamental level. Workplace well-being researcher Mandy O’Neill says that we’re more likely to feel stressed when there is an imbalance between the threat we’re facing and the resources we have to prevent damage or danger. When the current threat feels greater than our available resources, we become — understandably — mentally and emotionally strained.
The two of them join Amy B to discuss the constant challenge of managing stress, as well as actions that help control tension and anxiety — or, even better, the stressors themselves.
Guests:
Sarah Rose Lamport is a nurse practitioner.
Olivia (Mandy) O’Neill is an associate professor of management in the George Mason University School of Business and a senior scientist at the university’s Center for the Advancement of Well-Being.
