Transition to the Nursing profession
3-Minute Reflection Guidelines:
The 3-minute reflections are designed to focus students on a topic and to help them get their thoughts organized prior to discussion. The activity also serves as reflective summations of class discussions
Reflectively Writes:
Required criteria:
1. Writes about the assigned topic.
2. Demonstrates strong evidence of reasoned reflection.
3. Demonstrated depth of original thought.
1. Read: Mindful Moments & The Sleep Journal
2. Read: Breathing & Stress Warning Signs
Note: Write the reflection (like a summary) 2-3 paragraphs based on those two files
00:00
[BLANK_AUDIO] Hello everyone and welcome to class number two. In this class we wanna cover a couple things, the first thing is mindful moments. And essentially what that is, is that’s finding ways to incorporate mindfulness into our day in an easy, convenient and effective way. So you’re going to be doing the two to five minutes of some sort of breathing technique, or maybe the body scan meditation once a day.
But then we want to find other ways to incorporate mindfulness in your day. Cuz that will make sure that you really get the benefits from this practice. The second thing we’re going to go over is sleep. And how important sleep is not only to make your body healthy but to make sure brain is healthy and ready to perform at your peak.
With that, we’re gonna talk about the drawbacks of not getting enough sleep. And then give you some tips on how to make sure you are getting that rest and that restorative sleep that you really, really need to function at your best. And then I’ll give you at the very end one quick mindfulness activity that you can use before you fall asleep, to help you fall asleep.
Nice and easily. So those are the two things we’re gonna talk about. Before we do that, though, I wanna continue a little bit on the class number one. I wanna talk about a couple things. One is breathing, and the importance of breathing and how to breathe, and then the second one is to identify signs of stress.
So let’s go into those now. [BLANK_AUDIO] All right, breathing, I have a question for you. Do you know how to take a good, deep breath? I may think that’s kind of a silly question. Of course you know how to breathe. But let’s see if you do. What I want you to do is I want you to try something.
I want you to go ahead and put one hand on your belly. Another hand on your chest and then I want you to take one deep breath, all the way in and all the way out. So go ahead and take that deep breath now. Breath in very, very deeply.
Fill up those lungs and now breathe out. Let all the oxygen go out of your lungs. [BLANK_AUDIO] Once you’re done with that, I have a question for you. Which hand actually moved out the farthest? Was it the stomach? Or was it the chest? If it was the stomach, you know how to take a deep breath correctly.
Why don’t you try that again? Go ahead and try that one more time. Again, put one hand on the stomach, one hand on the chest, and take one big deep breath. Breathe in, inhale. [BLANK_AUDIO] And exhale all the way out. [BLANK_AUDIO] Hopefully that time your belly went out the farthest.
That’s what you want to focus on, that’s belly breathing. And the key things about belly breathing, there’s two main things with belly breathing. One, is that it allows for the most oxygen exchange in your lungs. So you wanna focus on that. Putting that belly all the way out when you’re breathing when you’re breathing in.
The other one, that it actually relaxes the muscle fibers in your body and those muscle fibers when they relax the actual signal to your brain. Go into that relaxation response. You see when we’re when we’re stressed and in that stress response, our muscle fibers usually contract and that causes things like irregular breathing, not being able to get enough oxygen in and out of your chest and your lungs.
So you want to focus on doing that with your belly. Let’s try two more breaths really, really quick. And this time you want to focus on having that stomach go out just a little bit further in your chest when you’re taking that breath in. All right breathe in, fill up those lungs, push out that stomach, breathe out, push in that stomach.
Breathe in. Take the oxygen in with the stomach all the way out. And exhale. Have the stomach go all the way in. So that’s a quick tip on how to breathe correctly. When you’re taking those deep breaths throughout this program. As we’re talking more and more about different breathing techniques, I want you to start to focus on that a little bit.
Focus on getting that good healthy breath that’s gonna get all that oxygen out of your lungs and into your lungs and also help you to kind of relax those muscle fibers so you get into that relaxation response a much easier. Next, then we’ll go on to signs of stress.
Let’s take a look at that now. [BLANK_AUDIO] In this next section of part one, I want to talk to you a little bit about the signs of stress. You see, stress manifests itself in each and every one of us a little bit differently. And it’s important to identify for you personally how stress manifests itself so you can work quickly, identify it and then use many of the techniques we’re gonna talk about in this course to help manage that stress so it doesn’t get to that toxic level.
There’s typically four different ways that stress can manifest itself. One is through the body, the things that are going on in the body. The second one is through the brain. Third is the emotions that you may feel when you’re in that stress response. And fourth and final one is the behaviors that may happen when you’re in that stress response.
So what I want you to do now is kind of think of a stressful situation for you, when you’ve been in a stressful situation, try to think of that one. Then, maybe grab a sheet of paper and what I want you to do, maybe pause this after I’m done kind of explaining this.
Pause this, grab a sheet of loose leaf paper and on that sheet of loose leaf paper, what I want you to write is the body, maybe skip three or four lines, write brain, skip three or four lines, write emotions, skip three or four lines and then write behaviors at the bottom of that sheet of paper.
Why don’t you just pause that and go ahead and do that now. [BLANK_AUDIO] Now, what I want to do, is I want to talk to you a little bit about how it may manifest itself in your body. So, in your entire body. Stress, I’ll give you a couple of examples.
Stress, for me, where it typically manifests itself is in a couple of places, one unfortunately is my stomach. When I’m really, really stressed out, I usually have stomach pains, I got to go to the bathroom more often than I would normally and my stomach start to grumble and different things like that.
Another thing that I have noticed now that I’ve got enabled to kind of more identify is that my heart too. My heart would start pounding. A lot faster when I’m in that stress response. Other areas that you may see stress identify itself within your body, is maybe some people, some people sweat a lot.
And they start sweat a lot on their head, and their arms and their body starts to sweat a lot when they’re in that stress response. Other people, I’ve got a family member of mine who gets headaches really bad migraine headaches typically when they’re in that stress response. And then people sometimes will get pain in their body.
Back pain is a typical one that you typically see. So take a moment now. Think about that stressful situation that you’re in, and jot down maybe one or two things that happen in your body when you’re in that stress response. [BLANK_AUDIO] Next, let’s focus on the brain. What happens in the brain?
Where does your thinking happen when you’re in that stress response? How does that impact your thinking? Well, for me, a lot of times when I’m in that stress response and in that toxic level of stress, I start to go to worst case scenario type stuff. I start to think, oh my gosh, what is the worst possible thing that could happen in that situation?
And then start to think that that’s exactly what’s gonna happen. I get kind of use some of this mindfulness techniques to kind of bring me back to reality and really evaluate. Remember, we said that prefrontal cortex goes down that amygdala takes over and I’m thinking the worst automatically. Maybe that’s what you have had happen to you.
But there’s other things too that may happen. Here’s a few of them. [BLANK_AUDIO] One, you could be more forgetful, maybe have trouble remembering things. You promised somebody that you’re gonna do something, but you’re in that stress response and you completely forget it. Other people have that their mind is racing.
They’re constantly thinking about all the stuff that they got worries over and over and over again. On, and on, and on, over and over, and over again, and then other people have trouble making decisions, where they can’t make a decision because they’re in that trust response. Remember, again, that pretty frontal cortex is down, that’s the part of your brain that’s made to make those decisions, if that’s down you may have trouble making decisions.
Why don’t you pause here then and let’s go ahead and have you write down maybe a couple of things that happen to your brain, you personally, happen to your brain when you’re in that stress response. [BLANK_AUDIO] The third one is emotions. What type of emotions happened in your body?
For me a lot of times it’s anger, unfortunately. Sometimes I’ll fly off the handle, really, really easily. Unfortunately, it’s usually around my family members that I’ll fly off the handle, when I’m in that stress response and I just kind of get overwhelmed with it and I get angry really, really easy.
That’s what usually happens in my emotions. How about you? What are some of the emotions that may happen for you when you’re in that stress response? A few of them are listed here. You got sadness, you could have kind of an overwhelming feeling of sadness, you’d feel a lot of pressure on you.
When you’re nervous you got all these pressure, all these things you need to get done. Sometimes you may feel completely powerless or really, really lonely that you may have happen when you’re in that stress response. But take a moment now, think about some of the emotions that you have when you are in that stress response.
And go ahead and jot them down on that sheet of paper. Last is the behaviors that happen. What are the behaviors that typically happen for you when you’re in that stress response? I mentioned for me that I get in that anger for emotions usually then that means I’m kind of lashing out at people.
Unfortunately, when I’m in that stress response. Other things that may happen, a lot of people I’ve actually got another family member of mine who grinds her teeth when she’s in that stress response. And she used to do it so much that at one point her jaw actually latched. She had to have surgery because of all the stress she was under.
And grinding her teeth at night kind of wore it down and boom it clicked one time and she couldn’t open her mouth completely until she had that surgery. Other things that you have happen to you, you can’t sleep, you have trouble sleeping because your mind’s racing potentially, you can’t sleep.
Some people start to drink more alcohol or they start to eat more. A lot of times, they start to eat more fatty foods or things like that. That can happen when you’re in that stress response. [BLANK_AUDIO] So go ahead take a break now and jot down the behaviors that typically happen when you’re in that stress response.
[BLANK_AUDIO] So take a look at that list. Scan that list. Identify those things. The more you have it in your brain that those are the types of things that happen when you’re in that stress response, the easier it’ll be to identify it, and then take the right steps to help you manage that.
If you had trouble writing down a few things, had trouble identifying a few things, that’s okay, just put that sheet to the side. The next time you’re in that stress response, or maybe after you’re out of that stress response the next time, jot down a few things. Another great resource for you is family and friends.
People that you’re closest to, people that see you in that stress response. Tell them to be honest with you and identify the things that you do, whether it’s in the body, in the brain, your emotions, or your behaviors when you’re in that stress response. That’s all for part one.
In part two, we’ll talk about mindful moments. 00:02
Now, as I mentioned earlier, I was very pessimistic about how I was going to possibly fit a mindfulness practice into my everyday life. I’m excited to share with you ways that you can incorporate mindful moments into your busy day as a nurse or a student. [BLANK_AUDIO] First, we’ll talk about an anchoring practice.
It’s actually one of my favorite ways to incorporate mindfulness into my life, in and outside of work. Basically, all you have to do is pick one thing that you do often throughout your day. [BLANK_AUDIO] This could be washing your hands or using hand sanitizer prior to entering a patient’s room, checking your e-mail, administrating a medication, or badging into a secure area of the hospital.
[BLANK_AUDIO] Now, each time you do that one thing, pause, take a mindful breath, and picture yourself performing your next task in a focused manner. So for example, I work in a NICU, which is a secured unit within a secured unit. So I choose my anchor as the process of waving my badge in front of a badge reader to gain access to wherever I need to go.
I stop, wave my badge, take a mindful breath, and set my intention to administer caffeine to baby Smith. Or as I’m entering the unit as my shift starts, I’m going to make it a great day. Or before I head home for the day, I’m going to leave the stressors of my day at work so I can enjoy my day off tomorrow.
[BLANK_AUDIO] Now, I’d like to teach you how you can incorporate mindfulness into your head to toe assessments. How many times have you sat down to chart your assessment or reconnect with your clinical instructor, and think to yourself, wait, did that patient have a murmur? Or what limb did I take that blood pressure on?
Or did the infant have split or overriding suture lines? I’ve been there. It’s so easy to simply go into autopilot throughout your day. [BLANK_AUDIO] Instead, approach your head to toe assessment with a focused beginner’s mind. [BLANK_AUDIO] When you listen to a patient’s heart, really listen. Is there a murmur?
Is the rhythm regular or irregular? Count the heart rate. Does it correlate with the monitor? What’s the location of the point of maximum impulse? [BLANK_AUDIO] When assessing an infant’s head, truly feel and visualize the characteristics. Palpate the anterior and posterior fontanelles. Are they split or overriding, bulging or sunken?
Does the infant have a caput or a cephalohematoma? [BLANK_AUDIO] If the infant has a lot of hair, sift through it, to look for any abnormalities. What is the infant’s reaction to this assessment? Is he or she content, or do they wince when you palpate one area? You get the idea.
When you approach patient care in this manner, hopefully you’re not gonna miss anything, or you might even catch something before it’s really an issue for that patient. [BLANK_AUDIO] Lastly, I’d like to walk you through a mindful hand washing exercise. Remember how good old Florence Nightingale taught us the importance of hand washing?
Well, we’re about to take it to the next level. Remember that ideally you should wash your hands for at least 30 seconds. Think about how often we do this throughout our day. There are so many opportunities for us to squeeze in some mindfulness. I challenge you to try this the next time you wash your hands.
[BLANK_AUDIO] So turn on the water, note the rushing sound that it makes. What temperature is it? [BLANK_AUDIO] How does it feel hitting your skin? [BLANK_AUDIO] Now, dispense soap into the palms of your hand. [BLANK_AUDIO] Move your hands together to create a lather, noting its consistency. [BLANK_AUDIO] Bring your hands up to your face and simply take in the scent of the soap.
[BLANK_AUDIO] As you bring the soap to a lather, work it around each individual finger, noting how it feels all the way from the base through the fingertips. [BLANK_AUDIO] What color is the soap now in relation to when you first dispensed it in your palm? [BLANK_AUDIO] Now, place your hands into the running water.
Feel the soap slide off your hands and note how it swirls into the sink and down into the drain. [BLANK_AUDIO] Now, dry your hands, taking note of the feeling of the paper towel against your hands. How different do they feel from the time you rinse them to the time they are completely dry?
Now, just take a mindful breath and move on to your next task. So there, we have three mindfulness activities that you can incorporate into everyday. So remember, we’ve got the anchoring activity, the head-to-toe assessment, and hand washing. I challenge you in the next week or so to incorporate those in to your every day practice.
[BLANK_AUDIO] As we finish up section two, before we move on to section three and really dive in to sleep, I wanna talk to you a little bit about the assignment that you have for this class. You may wanna pause the video now and pull up that assignment, maybe print it out.
It’s actually the sleep journal is what you’re gonna take a look at. [BLANK_AUDIO] This sleep journal essentially is a way to help you identify what either helps or hurts you from getting a good night’s sleep where you wake up the next morning and you feel really, really refreshed, restored, and ready to take on the day, basically.
If you have that in front of you, essentially you’re gonna feel this out twice a day. In the morning, as soon as you wake up in the morning, what you’re going to do is you’re gonna fill out that top part of that sheet. So what that is, is essentially to identify how much sleep did you get last night?
What time did you did you go to bed? What time did you wake up? How many hours of sleep did you have? If you woke up in the middle of the night, remember to subtract whatever that is, you woke up for 20 minutes or 30 minutes, something like that, subtract that out and the total number.
Other notable things that happened last night as far as your sleep goes. Maybe there was a loud neighbor or something that woke you up, so you can jot that down. And then, when you woke up, how did you feel, kind of an one to four scale, with four meaning felt fantastic, one meaning I just wanted to go back to sleep, basically.
So you fill that out in the morning. And then, in the afternoon, probably in the evening right before you’re about to go to bed, you’ll fill in the bottom half of that sleep journal. And that’s really to identify what happened during the day. So a few of the things that are on here, how much caffeine did you have, or alcohol was intake?
Did you get exercise, and if you did, what time of day was it? What type of exercise was it? How long was it for? Other things, did you nap? Was there any notable activities that you had that you did right before bed, maybe one or two hours before? Because maybe you did a really stressful thing that might affect your sleep that night.
And then, other events of the day that may have happened. Did you have something really bad happen at work or with family members that may affect your sleep? And then, what was your mood throughout the day? It’s kinda last piece there. Did you feel good throughout the day, refreshed, a lot of energy?
Or were you just kinda lethargic and very, very tired throughout the day? What I want you to do is to actually start this today, or tomorrow morning if it’s later in the day. Start this tonight or tomorrow morning, and fill this information out for one week, at least one week.
If sleep is something that’s really, really important to you that you’re struggling with, then maybe do it for two or three weeks. Or maybe even longer. The idea is after that week, or after two or three week,s is to really study this stuff. And then, identify are there any patterns?
Is there maybe something that you’re doing that’s helping you get a great night’s sleep and feeling refreshed and energetic all day? Or are there other things that may be actually kind of taking away from your sleep and making you wake up feeling really, really tired or lethargic throughout the day?
It’s really with that analysis of something like this, this sleep journal, that you’ll be able to identify for yourself what’s working and what’s not working. So let’s start that now, and then in part three and four we’ll go over and give you some tips on how to get a better night sleep.
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