Fernando Sarráis, doctor in Medicine and Surgery by the University of Navarra and specialist in Psychiatry, will give tomorrow, the 6th, a new free online webinar in the framework of the activities of training continued that gives the School of Nursing.

This virtual meeting - especially focused on nursing alumni but also for students and in general for all health professionals - will be offered by Zoom, prior registration, at 6.30 pm.

The subject that Dr. Sarráis will address is the prevention and management of stress in the nursing professional, for which he will detail some specific strategies both to prevent and neutralize stress: "There are strategies both to prevent the accumulation of stress, which is the one that can do the most harm, and to reduce it. In any case, nursing professionals should employ both types of strategies simultaneously.

Among the signs of stress to be particularly attentive to, the psychiatry expert distinguishes somatic and psychological "alarms": "Among the somatic ones, I would highlight sleep disturbances (insomnia), eating disorders (anxious bulimia or anorexia) and muscular pain (headaches and dorsalgia)". "On the psychological level, it is advisable to pay attention to the appearance of excessive tiredness from the beginning of the day, with irritability and anger over insignificant things; the negative view of everything, the decrease in the capacity for enjoyment and the coldness or disinterest in loved ones," he adds.

95% of staff Nurses reported job stress with the pandemic

As for what percentage of healthcare professionals might have seen their stress levels increase with the pandemic, Dr. Sarráis recalls that a article published in September 2020 by the Ocronos Nursing journal reported that 95% of the participants in its survey on this subject said they felt stress at work with the arrival of COVID-19. "The main reasons they pointed out were work overload, lack of material and lack of knowledge of the disease".

On how to cope and avoid reaching very high levels of stress, the specialist stresses that "the best strategies are the easiest and simplest to apply, knowing that we must do it in a constant way, not only when the stress peaks arrive. In addition, each person should do it in a way that is adapted to his or her person and in a creative way, because each person is different and so are the circumstances".

The webinar with Dr. Sarrais is part of a series of sessions of training for professionals in Nursing, but also in Medicine and the environment partner-sanitary, which offers the School Nursing of the academic center throughout this course on its website www.nuncadejesdeaprender.com.

6 strategies to prevent stress and 6 strategies to neutralize stress

1. Do things slowly: at least those that are not in a hurry, because hurrying stresses you out. One way to achieve this is to focus only on the task at hand.

2. Avoid conflicts: they are a source of intense stress.

3. See the problems, own mistakes and those of others, as one more work and avoid complaints and blaming.

4. Do not accept new orders without having thought about whether they can be carried out. And say no to what cannot be done.

5. Do not accumulate pending things to do: the pending things are more tiring and stressful than the things that are being done.

6. Keep things in order: financial aid to find what you need as soon as possible.

7. Some activities facilitate mental relaxation, such as sleeping at least 7.5 hours a day, doing 10- or 15-minute relaxation sessions, or leaving the work site for a 15- or 20-minute walk.

8. Spend an hour every day doing pleasant things, such as reading, listening to music, watching series, etc.

9. Resting and enjoying the weekends eliminates the stress of the week and financial aid to start the next week more relaxed.

10. Start the mornings and afternoons of work slowly, little by little, to start with a very low level of stress so as not to reach too high a level at the end of the day.

11. Avoid meals from work or reduce them to one per week. This break is important to relax the stress of the morning and to allow some time to rest before starting the afternoon work , about 15 to 30 minutes.

12. Avoid the use of chemical substances such as tobacco, alcohol, cannabis and tranquilizers to treat stress, as they temporarily relieve stress and hide underlying problems, such as the lack of psychological mechanisms to cope with excessive and persistent stress levels.