3 Steps to Tackle Stress
A structured approach to workplace wellness
Janiece C. Ervin, RDH, BSDH
Jumping out of bed each day and heading to work with a positive attitude continues to be a challenge for many healthcare professionals. We pull up to the office each morning, take a deep breath, say a few words of affirmation to ourselves and head in to start our day. As we review our day, a feeling of heaviness can begin to set in around our neck and gradually make its way down to our shoulders. Then, the negative thoughts start swirling around in our head. "I don't want to be here." "I wish my 8 a.m. patient would cancel," or "I swear if they ask me to do one more thing in my prophy visit, I am going to lose it on someone." This is the beginning of a stress cycle.
We all experience a range of emotions each day. That is one of the beautiful gifts we get to experience as human beings. We can experience joy, sadness, fear, and pain throughout our day. The tricky part is how we handle our emotions in stressful situations in the workplace.
When a negative trigger occurs, our body evaluates the situation to assess how harmful the event is. The body will then start to react to the threat. Our heart rate might increase and our temperature begin to rise. At this point in the stress cycle, either the person will be able to gather themselves together, or the stress cycle will continue. If the stress cycle continues, the body will be flooded with stress hormones that activate the body's fight-or-flight response. This then leads to the person reacting in an intense, emotional way that may be out of proportion to the situation.
A negative experience can have a physiological effect on a person's body for up to 4 hours after the event. If someone is in a workplace where the stress cycle is constantly being triggered, their body can be flooded with stress hormones for several hours each week, and this could put their health at serious risk.
Symptoms of chronic stress include:
• Irritability
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Headaches
• Insomnia
• Weakened immune system
• High blood pressure
• High blood sugar
• Decreased sex drive
• Gastrointestinal issues
• Fertility issues
• Risk of heart attack
Reducing the stress cycle in the workplace is critical for all healthcare professionals. To achieve workplace wellness, healthcare professionals need to gain control of their workspace and assess which triggers cause the stress cycle to occur.
As a business owner, I have implemented a workplace wellness program for my employees. In this program I have developed a three-step process to reduce stress in the workplace: Assess, communicate, and take action (A.C.T.).
Assess: Assess your environment for triggers. This includes both personal and professional environments. Reflect on what exactly is causing you to be triggered. Examples of triggers could be an interaction with a person, a task, lack of communication, leadership issues, the pace of your day, or income expectations.
Communicate: Communicate your need for change. The most common event that triggers high emotion at work is miscommunication. Having clarity on what triggers you in your workday allows you to be in control of your workspace. Identification of your trigger and clear communication of your emotions and potential solutions to remedy the situation needs to occur. Not communicating allows for speculation to occur, which leads to miscommunication.
Take action: Communicating your needs can be challenging. Although the act of communication occurs, it does not guarantee a desirable outcome for each party. This is where the action steps begin, the action of accepting the outcome of your communication. There are three common outcomes that can occur (Figure 1).
Using A.C.T allows you to shift your mindset and reassert yourself in your workspace. Rather than feeling powerless, you are able to assess your situation, create a game plan, and regain the power to choose what you want for yourself. Workplace stress will always be present. Mastering techniques to deal with that stress and reduce the activation of the stress cycle in your workspace is imperative to your overall health and will allow you to achieve workplace wellness.
Janiece C. Ervin, RDH, BSDH, is the founder of the Dental Explorer Network in Denver, Colorado.
