Introduction

For nurses, stress can be beneficial in providing patient care: it provides an edge of vigilance while managing all the facets of caring for patients who are at their sickest and in the most chaotic circumstances. Stress can have a negative effect on patient health, contributing to pathophysiological changes and causing problems, possibly even mortality.

Stress happens for a variety of reasons in all sorts of settings. Whether the stress response is helpful or a contributor to harmful changes depends on the individual’s response to the stressor. In stressful situations, the body responds by releasing certain chemicals in an effort to provide the necessary physiological tools to confront whatever the challenge is. Those who manage stress in a positive manner ultimately tend to feel a sense of accomplishment; when stress is managed poorly, and especially in the setting of chronicity, those same signs and symptoms can cause detrimental changes.