Pressure
A clinical placement or internship comes with pressure. Pressure to succeed. To meet and surpass expectations. You can feel pressure from yourself, from faculty, from your family and friends, from peers, and from your new supervisors and co-workers. Sometimes you can handle pressure with out much difficulty or strain. Other times the pressure seems to feel bigger and more difficult and can affect how you behave, feel about yourself, think, and perform.
How Pressure is Experienced
Pressure in and of itself is not a negative thing. A build up of pressure and feeling unable to handle it or know what to do about it can lead you to shutdown or simply not behave in ways that you would normally.
Pressure experienced emotionally - Sometimes pressure is experienced through emotions. You can feel motivated to do well and it pushes you to do your best in a healthy way. It can also feel like a constant worry that makes you doubt much of who you are, what you do, and if you made the right choices about anything in your life. The constant worry can start to fill you with a constant feeling of anxiety and/or depression/sadness.
Pressure experienced physically - Pressure can motivate you and when it does, physically you can feel stronger, energized, and confident. It can also cause you to feel run down, tired, listless. You can feel physical symptoms like headaches, stomachaches, a heaviness in their chest, dizziness, or even difficulty breathing.
Pressure experienced cognitively - Sometimes pressure can ramp up your thinking and allow you to think with more focus. It can allow you to problem solve effectively. Pressure can also cause you to think negatively, about yourself and your situation and take away your focus, making it difficult to see anything positively.
Pressure experienced spiritually - Pressure can be invigorating and can lead you to feeling more connected to yourself and to others. It can also leave you feeling disconnected. You may feel disconnected from people, from yourself, from you spiritual sense of self and community. This feeling of disconnection can leave you feeling like your purpose or meaning is lost.
Ways to Relieve Pressure
There are many ways for people to manage/relieve pressure. Typically you already instinctively do things that help you. Maybe you like to workout to clear your head, or talk with friends, or listen to music. These are great ways to maintain your sense of stability, however, there are times when your typical routine for managing stress doesn't seem to work. Pressure/stress is one of those things that can creep up on you and slowly build. So what can you do?
Look at your daily routine - Always check the basics first. Have you been sleeping enough or too much? Have you been eating in a healthy manner? Hygiene habits? Is there anything missing in your day that you used to do regularly? - If you notice that you have been skipping some things or doing some things too much (even studying can be over done) can you cut back or add them in again?
Check in with your body - What do you notice? Are you experiencing tension, headaches, loss of appetite? Are you feeling sluggish, agitated? Ask yourself what you need? If you're not sure try some Mindfulness meditation. Check out some exercises here. Also don't underestimate the power of slow, deep breathing.
Know and use your resources - Identify one or two people that can be helpful and reach out. You may have someone who can be your emotional/spiritual support and simply be there to listen. Identify someone who can help you work things out if some of the pressure is coming from your placement. Who is your supervisor or placement coordinator? Have you accessed them enough and appropriately? Is some of the pressure from your supervisor? Who else can you consult with about how to better interact with your supervisor?
Do an honest self assessment- Ask yourself some questions; Am I trying to do too much? Am I pretending to know more than I actually do? Am I being open to feedback or do I dismiss it? Am I selling my skills short? Do I need support and who can I get it from?
Once you do the above, you can make a plan. That plan may be to get on a better sleep schedule, stop drinking so much, change your mindset about your placement, etc. If you need assistance making a plan, identify your resources and ask for help. A good plan will contain actions that will help you in each of the ways you are experiencing pressure/stress.