Psychological Stress and Coping Methods for ICU Nurses

Psychological Stress and Coping Methods for ICU Nurses

Today let's focus on the mental health of intensive care unit (ICU) nurses. With population growth and aging, the demand for nursing care is increasing, and nurse shortages are becoming more prominent.

ICU nurses face life-and-death challenges daily, caring for critically ill patients while bearing tremendous psychological pressure. Among these, secondary traumatic stress is a significant factor affecting their mental health.

What is secondary traumatic stress? Simply put, it's when someone is affected by exposure to others' traumatic experiences, even though they haven't personally experienced the trauma. Symptoms include involuntary thoughts about patients, avoiding painful memories, emotional volatility, and sleep difficulties.

Research shows that the incidence of secondary traumatic stress among nurses is quite high. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the occurrence of this psychological problem among nurses increased significantly. This not only affects nurses' physical and mental health but may also lead to anxiety, depression, impact work performance, and cause frequent absences and burnout.

To help nurses cope with this pressure, researchers focused on two important factors: spiritual support in the work environment and moral resilience.

Spiritual support in the work environment refers to the atmosphere of understanding and communication about spiritual aspects in the workplace. Research found that positive work environments make nurses more engaged, emotionally intelligent, and satisfied with their work.

Moral resilience is the ability to adhere to principles when facing difficulties. In nursing work, enhancing moral resilience is crucial for providing high-quality care. Moral resilience also helps reduce nurses' compassion fatigue.

A study invited 229 ICU nurses to participate in a survey. Results showed secondary traumatic stress was at moderate levels, but nearly half of nurses scored high. Spiritual support in the work environment was generally good, but "expressing spiritual thoughts" scored lower. Moral resilience also had room for improvement.

The study found that spiritual support in the work environment was positively correlated with moral resilience and negatively correlated with secondary traumatic stress. Moral resilience was also negatively correlated with secondary traumatic stress. More importantly, moral resilience played a mediating role between spiritual support in the work environment and secondary traumatic stress.

This means that positive work environments can both directly affect nurses' psychological pressure and indirectly reduce pressure by enhancing moral resilience.

Positive work environments provide nurses with emotional and psychological support, giving them more strength to face work challenges and better uphold their values. Moral resilience helps nurses reduce the psychological burden of caring for critically ill patients.

If you have ICU nurse friends, you can help them by:

1. Encouraging them to communicate more with colleagues to create a positive work atmosphere

2. Reminding them to recall warm moments of helping patients to enhance moral resilience

3. Suggesting they try relaxation methods like meditation

Nurses themselves can also:

1. Practice deep breathing during work breaks, feeling the strength of their work environment

2. Stick to their original intentions when facing difficulties to enhance moral resilience

3. Confide in trusted people or attend relevant training when stressed

These methods can help ICU nurses better cope with work pressure and protect their mental health. Understanding and supporting healthcare workers' work, and caring about their mental health, are things each of us can do.