Manage nurse stress and increase potential at the bedside

The nursing profession must continue to cement recognition as a powerful and innovative force in health care by first "caring for themselves" at the bedside for the goal of patient continuity of care. The negative effects of stress, both internal and external, major, minor, and adaptive, are rooted in the nurses occupational stress level, and how that level influences the continuity of care. Stress assessments and unit specific stress management sessions need to become ingrained within the health care environment by instituting "comprehensive" stress management programs. Communicative "healing" needs to flow from the bedside to the CEO and back down again.