During your Clinical Attachment (CA) in June, Singapore

Assignment Description:

During your Clinical Attachment (CA) in June, you are tasked to identify a stressful experience that occurred to either:

• You, as a nursing student
• Your patient
• The staff nurse or clinical instructor
• The patient’s family or caregiver

Take note of:

1. What actually happened?
2. The causes of stress
3. How did the subject experiencing the stressor manage their stress and the situation? (e.g. the coping strategy, solution or intervention)
4. Suggestions for coping strategies

This is a written assignment organised into 4 parts:

PART A: Description of the stressor

Identify the stressor and who it is occuring to (either you, your patient, staff nurse, patient’s family/caregiver)

Describe the stressful event or situation.

PART B: Appraising the Stressor

stressor was appraised by the subject.

• Primary appraisal: Was the stressor a threat to the subject (i.e. considering its significance; whether positive/negative encounter; whether harmful or challenging)
• Secondary appraisal: Evaluating available resources (considering knowledge of the situation, beliefs about responsibility, availability of resources & self-efficacy)

Elaborate on the impact of the stressor on the subject’s emotions, thoughts and/or behaivour.

Explain the consequences of prolonged exposure to this stressor for the individual, family and/or organisation.

PART C: Coping Strategies

Suggest two specific coping strategies that you think might reduce the stress level experienced by the subject.

Identify each coping strategy as being either problem-focused or emotion-focused. Explain why you think these strategies would be useful and their limitations.

PART D: Conclusion

Reflect on this topic of stress appraisal and management based on what you have learnt.

• How have your thoughts have changed with regards to understanding stress?
• How do you think this might affect the way you deal with stressors in the future?
• What would you do differently?