Stress 101

Course overview

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that 90 percent of all physician visits are stress related. It is important for health professionals to understand the dynamics of stress, how stress contributes to illness and what to do to change stress habits. In this course, healthcare professionals will be able to identify how the stress response works, the different kinds of stress and many strategies for releasing stress quickly and also handling chronic stress and specifically stress in the workplace. The outcome of this class is that the student will have more awareness and skill in identifying, understanding and handling all kinds of stressors more effectively for self and for patients or clients. Upon completion of this course, the participant will be able to: 1. Define in one word the basic nature of stress. 2. Name two kinds of stress. 3. List three stages of the stress response. 4. List three basic (primitive) responses to stress. 5. Identify how chronic stress contributes to chronic illness. 6. State the one cause for all stress. 7. List at least three actions to reduce stress quickly. 8. Identify at least one strategy to break the chronic stress cycle. 9. Identify at least two ways stress impacts work performance.