You will find nursing a rewarding profession, but it does have its sources of stress. The key is to get this stress under control from day one. Start out by identifying what areas of your work are causing you the most stress. Is it something you can change? If so, develop a plan and put it into action.

There are various ways you can manage on-the-job stressors, such as:

• Avoiding the stressor (e.g., a nurse who is rude to you)
• Eliminating the stressor (e.g., asking someone else to do a hated chore for you)
• Confronting the stressor (e.g., talking with the person who is making your job more difficult)
• Managing the stressor (e.g., adding something fun to the task, or better yet, rewarding yourself once it’s done)

Source: Stressed Out About Your First Year of Nursing, HCPro Inc., 2006. For more information on our series of Stressed Out books, visit www.stressedoutnurses.com