Mindfulness breaks help caregivers

Mindfulness breaks help caregivers against burnout

09/22/2014

Constant congestion is a problem that nurses find difficult to deal with. Often many patients have to be treated in a short time. This creates stress and can lead to burnout or other diseases in the nursing staff. In contrast, so-called mindfulness pauses can help. In the mindfulness breaks, the nurses should concentrate fully on themselves.

Overload is a big problem
Many caregivers complain about too much stress and constant overwork while maintaining workload. Nurses can counteract this by fighting stress that does not just come from the workload. This includes, for example, the anger over co-workers or increasing tasks in the work week.

In contrast, the mindfulness breaks should help. The employees should focus on themselves and their bodies. It should be tried to arrive fully and completely in the moment.

„If one pushes a patient across the hall, one should trace how it feels“, advises Markus Classen to the dpa. Markus Classen is a job coach for nurses and has worked in the healthcare industry since 1993. This is to prevent the employees from going too far in the past or the future with their thoughts, worrying or annoying themselves and thus producing unnecessary stress.

Concentration exercises help
Employees can practice these exercises best at home. For example, The stressed out try to focus on activities such as cooking, brushing their teeth, or other everyday things, but not focusing on other stress-inducing thoughts. After some time you will find out that you succeed in keeping your job routine calmer even in stressful situations. (Bn)

Picture: Helene Souza