A nurse must have the ability to maintain composure during an emergency situation, whether it’s performing CPR on a patient or responding to a code blue. This is why nurses are taught how to handle stressful situations in nursing school. CNAs are often faced with stressful situations, but it’s these emergencies that help nurses grow. The key to handling any emergency is to stay calm and think quickly. Here are fifteen tips on how you can do this:
1. Be prepared
Emergency situations can happen at any time, so it’s important to be prepared. Nurses should learn how to respond when things go wrong so they aren’t caught off guard in this type of situation. You should also know what to do when the unexpected occurs. Remember that you are not alone in this emergency; nurses work together and help each other out. If Nurse A forgets something, Nurse B will be there with whatever is needed.
2. Know the procedures
After learning how to handle emergency situations during nursing school, one must continue practicing these procedures during their professional career. Make sure you review the basic life support (BLS) guidelines regularly and know why certain actions are performed. Nurses often practice these steps on manikins during training sessions.
3. Keep an open mind
One way to avoid making bad decisions is by keeping an open mind. Go into every situation with only one thought in mind-to help your patient. You don’t know why something may have happened or what caused the problem, so keep your mind open when you’re faced with this type of dilemma. When nurses feel threatened or pressured during emergencies situations, they often act out verbally. In the end, this makes the situation worse.
4. Take a deep breath, exhale, and take another one
Professional nurses know how to handle stressful situations under pressure. During an emergency, a deep breath can help you remain calm and collected, as it sends signals to your brain that all is well. When you stay calm during an ethical or moral dilemma, your body releases a hormone called oxytocin which causes muscles to relax.
5. Ask questions to get the information you need
In order to make quick decisions about a patient’s care, it’s important to ask questions from the staff who are with the patient during the emergency. This allows for nurses to think clearly and make quick decisions based on what they know will help their patient recover quickly and safely. Emergency nurses may be required to do CPR on patients who have had heart attacks or perform other procedures to save lives.
6. Check the patient’s medical history
If there is a patient in jeopardy, it’s important to check their medical history carefully so that you can find the information you need as quickly as possible. This is essential for nurses who work in Emergency Departments of hospitals and other healthcare facilities where many different patients come through the doors each day with all sorts of dizzying ailments that need to be properly diagnosed and treated immediately. If an emergency strikes during off hours or on weekends, it might be necessary to consult a physician at another facility or visit a 24-hour hospital if nobody else is available on site to help save lives and provide comprehensive care.
7. Gather your thoughts and make quick decisions
In order to deal with emergencies in a timely manner, it’s important to gather your thoughts and think clearly about what the best course of action is when caring for patients during an emergency situation. This helps nurses stay calm and communicate quickly and effectively with their colleagues during stressful situations. Professional nurses must also be able to document information efficiently and appropriately, even when under pressure due to time constraints or distractions from other factors.
8. Be cognizant of your limitations
Each nurse is different, so it’s important to be aware of your limits as a caregiver. Nurses often work long hours and have various responsibilities; therefore, it’s essential that you know yourself and what you can handle. You should also be able to recognize when you need help or if another team member needs assistance with a patient. If the situation becomes too stressful for you, don’t hesitate to ask for help from a colleague who can take over care. While nurses are taught how to respond in emergency situations during nursing school, they must also learn how not to become overwhelmed by these situations.
9. Tell your teammates what to do
When presented with an emergency situation, it’s important to let your teammates know what you need from them so that they can provide quick and precise care for the patient. This allows nurses to coordinate their actions quickly, which helps produce good outcomes for patients in life-threatening situations. For example, some hospitals require nurses who are not directly taking care of a patient during an Emergency Code (or CPR) to clear out of the room because more precise techniques need to be performed without risk of interference by bystanders.
10. Explain away to your patient
Some patients may feel anxious when faced with a stressful situation. This is where it’s important to explain what is going on and why these actions are being performed. Always remember that you’re doing this for their well-being. It takes a great deal of patience to perform CPR or other procedures during an emergency , so be gentle with your patient. You can also reassure them by explaining that everything will be okay after they have been treated.
11. Ask for help from an expert to identify the problem
If you’re stumped with an ethical or moral dilemma that requires urgent attention, ask for advice from someone who is qualified to provide you with assistance. Professional nurses can call on physicians if they need help diagnosing their patients during an emergency situation. Physicians who specialize in the field of Emergency Medicine must be able to provide assistance quickly so that immediate action can be taken for life-threatening emergencies.
12. Be calm when the patient undergoes surgery
Professional nurses must remain calm during surgery so that their patients remain comfortable throughout the procedure without feeling any added stress or anxiety over what is happening to them. It can be difficult to stay quiet for very long after witnessing something so traumatic, but it’s important to keep your composure in order to provide support and comfort to your patient throughout their surgery to speed up the healing process and reduce complications.
13. Roundup after the emergency is over
After an emergency situation has been dealt with, it’s important to round on the patient and see how they’re feeling. Professional nurses assist in this process by arranging for information about the patient’s progress to be documented throughout their treatment. It’s also essential that nurses gather additional facts about the circumstances surrounding the emergency before moving on to other patients or tasks. These details will be helpful later on if something similar occurs in the future.
14. Remain optimistic and positive
Even in the face of chaos and trauma It’s not easy to maintain a positive attitude during an emergency because you never know how it will turn out, but nurses must remain hopeful and optimistic about the outcome every time they enter a room with an emergency situation. If the patient suffers another similar incident, your positive attitude will be beneficial because it can help them cope with the trauma better than if you were to act dejected and disheartened by what has happened.
15. Be grateful for a happy ending
No matter how many patients face a life-threatening situation, nurses must always remain thankful for those who survive and recover from their injuries. It’s important to celebrate the good times with your patients and let them know you are grateful for their recovery because it can be very difficult to see them in so much pain. Every happy ending is a reason for professional nurses to rejoice even when they’ve faced many tragedies.
Nurses who are calm under pressure have an easier time remaining positive at work, which helps them get along better with patients and co-workers alike. It also makes it a lot more fun for them to go to work each day so they can help people who really need it most during life-threatening emergencies when no one else is around to give aid. Patients will always remember how nurses responded in a crisis situation, so it’s important that they remain levelheaded if they want patients to feel positively about them after a potentially traumatic event unfolds.
