STRESS & COPING — FULL SET (5th‑Grade Level Flashcards) SIMPLER

How do nurses build trust with stressed clients?

By listening closely, asking open questions, and helping the client feel understood.

What cultural factors affect stress and coping?

A person’s beliefs and values shape how they see stress and how they cope.

Why should a nurse build trust at the start of a crisis?

Trust helps the client feel respected, accepted, safe, and not judged.

What can long‑term stress cause?

High blood pressure, depression, heart disease, and a weak immune system.

What happens in primary appraisal?

The person decides if the situation is a threat or not.

Who gets episodic acute stress more easily?

People who take on too much, feel disorganized, or think negatively.

What actions are part of a crisis action plan?

Finding support people, contacting resources, and starting needed help.

What does cortisol do?

It keeps you alert during stress and lowers pain, but too much for too long harms your body. (weaken the immune system and cause illness)

How does journaling help stress?

It lets you express feelings, spot stress patterns, and calm your mind.

How does exercise help stress?

It boosts mood, relaxes the body, and helps you sleep better.

Which “A” means saying no and avoiding stress?

Avoid.

What are situational stressors?

Stress from life problems like illness, money issues, or family changes.

What does a nurse do during implementation?

Carry out the plan, document progress, coordinate care, and delegate tasks.

How can nurses help clients find anxiety triggers?

Ask the client to write down stressful events and look for things that happen again and again.

What behaviors show a mental health emergency?

Threatening harm, breaking things, or acting on suicidal thoughts.

What is proactive coping?

Planning ahead to stop a future problem or make it easier to handle.

What are developmental stressors?

Stress that changes with age—school, identity, career, health.

How can nurses handle moral distress?

Ask for help, talk to leaders, focus on ethical care, and use stress tools.

What is reappraisal?

Checking again to see if the stress is still a threat and if you can handle it.

What is the goal of Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation?

To help nurses care for their own health and help make the nation healthier.

How can nurses help clients find stress triggers?

Use journaling, talk about past stress, listen carefully, and look for patterns together.

What five kinds of stressors can cause a crisis?

Situational, developmental, adventitious, socioeconomic, and cultural.

What affects how someone judges a stressor?

Their thinking skills, emotions, health, and resources.

What does cortisol do in the alarm stage?

It raises blood pressure, heart rate, blood sugar, oxygen use, alertness, and pupil size.

How does low socioeconomic status cause stress?

Poverty and homelessness make life harder and increase stress.

What should nurses consider in a stress care plan?

The client's Knowledge, support, access to care, beliefs, habits, and culture.

How does a person decide if a stressor is a threat?

If it seems harmful, it’s a threat; if not, you ignore it.

Also, it happens in primary appraisal

What stress‑related disorders come from TTSC?

Acute stress disorder (ASD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

How is episodic acute stress different from acute stress?

Acute stress is short. Episodic acute stress happens often and may cause headaches, migraines, or high blood pressure.

Problem‑focused vs emotion‑focused coping?

Problem‑focused fixes the problem; emotion‑focused changes how you feel.

Warning signs of violence?

Past drug misuse, violence, mental illness, depression, suicide behavior, or family abuse and neglect.

Why build trust before a stress assessment?

Clients share more honestly when they feel safe.

Why is cortisol called the stress hormone?

The body releases it during stress to give energy, lower pain, and help the body respond.

What does fight‑or‑flight do?

It speeds up the heart and breathing, raises blood pressure and sugar, and opens the airways and pupils.

What body signs can anxiety cause?

Fast heart rate, fast breathing, tight chest, shaking, tight muscles, and tiredness.

How does mindfulness help anxiety?

Helps you stay calm and focus on the present.

Which coping style changes feelings instead of changing the problem?

Emotion-focused coping

How does the body recover during the resistance stage?

The parasympathetic system calms body functions while the body stays ready and repairs damage.

How does mindfulness reduce stress?

Helps you relax and control your thoughts.

Signs of moderate anxiety?

Slightly high vital signs, shaking, fast heart rate and breathing, tight chest, and racing thoughts.

Example of a physical stressor?

Extreme temperatures. Very hot or very cold temperatures. They can harm the body if they are strong or last too long.

Why use past coping strategies?

They may remind clients they can handle stress and support something that has worked before and can work again.

Why is a follow-up plan important after a crisis?

It checks that the client is safe, the crisis is ending, and the problem does not return.

Why check past coping in anxiety care?

To keep good strategies and replace bad ones.

What is guided imagery?

Using calming pictures in your mind to relax.

How does the hypothalamus start stress response?

It sends signals that turn on the sympathetic system and cause the adrenal glands to release cortisol.

How does nurse stress affect clients?

It can cause poor focus and burnout, which may lower the quality and safety of care

What is a biopsychosocial crisis assessment?

Checking safety risks, coping, medical needs, and support.

Signs of severe stress?

Fast heart rate, tight chest and muscles, tiredness, poor sleep, headaches, restlessness, or irritability.

How can nurses react better to stress?

Think positively, adjust expectations, and avoid worst‑case thinking.

How do listening and reflection help in crisis?

They help clients feel heard and understood.

What does the limbic system do?

It decides if something is a threat and tells the hypothalamus to start the body's stress response.

What is secondary appraisal?

Deciding if you have the resources to handle the stress.

What does secondary appraisal compare?

They compare the problem with their available help, skills, experience, and past successes.

Signs of moderate anxiety?

Higher vitals, shaking, tight chest, racing thoughts.

How do long-term stress and high cortisol affect immunity?

Too much cortisol weakens infection-fighting cells and raise inflammation, making illness more likely.

Why check subjective + objective data?

To understand both feelings and physical signs to give a fuller picture of stress.

How do nurses build trust with anxious clients?

Listening, open questions, clarifying, and sharing observation.

How does social support help in TTSC?

Support from others is a coping resource that can help a person handle stress.

Why is communication important in moral distress?

It helps clients express feelings and feel supported.

What workplace factors cause nurse stress?

Fast pace, long hours, time pressure, high expectations.

What are adaptive coping strategies?

Healthy diet, exercise, time management, mindfulness, journaling.

Alarm vs resistance stage?

Alarm starts fight-or-flight. Resistance tries to calm and repair the body while it stays ready.

What triggers GAS?

Physical or emotional stress starts it. Stages: alarm, resistance, exhaustion.

What is acute stress?

Short-term stress that starts fight-or-flight. It may cause irritability, headache, tight chest, or shortness of breath.

Why does perception matter in stress?

Each person judges it differently. It may feel helpful (eustress) or harmful (distress).

What can overwhelmed ICU nurses do?

Remove non‑priority tasks, take breaks, sleep well, reduce caffeine.

What happens in alarm stage?

The nervous system turns on, and adrenal hormones start fight-or-flight to face the danger.

What is fight-or-flight, and what stress starts it?

It is the body's quick danger response, usually started by acute stress

What does a nurse check to understand a crisis?

What caused it, main issues, and challenges.

Mild vs moderate anxiety vitals?

Mild = little or no change; moderate = slightly raise pulse, breathing, and blood pressure.

How does active listening help a stressed client?

It shows the nurse wants to help and makes it easier for the client to share feelings and stressors.

ASD vs PTSD?

ASD lasts less than one month after trauma. PTSD lasts more than one month and may be long-lasting and severe.

What does TTSC say stress is?

Stress comes from the way a person judges and reacts to what is happening around them

What happens in exhaustion stage?

The body's energy runs low. Organs wear down, and the chance of illness, depression, and heart disease rises

What is progressive relaxation?

Tightening and then relaxing muscle groups to calm the body and mind

How does chronic stress affect immunity?

It weakens the body's defenses and makes infections and swelling-related diseases more likely.

What subjective info should nurses collect?

Body complaints, current stress, work and relationships, coping skills, and beliefs about stress.

What are adventitious stressors?

Rare, sudden events such as disasters, violence, or terrorism that can overwhelm normal coping.

What is health promotion in stress?

To help people build healthy habits that lower stress and improve well-being

What steps are in crisis assessment?

Check safety, substance use, medical needs, coping, support.

Eustress vs distress?

Eustress feels positive; distress feels harmful.

Two stressor types in TTSC?

Physiological stressors affect the body. Psychological stressors affect thoughts and feelings.

What do norepinephrine & epinephrine do?

They speed up the heart and breathing, raise blood pressure and sugar, and open the airways and pupils.

What is chronic stress?

Long‑lasting stress that can cause illness.

What are the seven steps of crisis intervention?

1. Assess safety and needs.

2. Build trust.

3. Understand the problem.

4. Let feelings out.

5. Review past coping.

6. Start a plan.

7. Follow up

What is reappraisal?

Rechecking the stress and your resources.

How does journaling help anxiety?

Tracks stress, feelings, and helpful coping.

Why does the parasympathetic system matter?

It helps the body calm down, save energy, and return to normal.

Examples of adaptive coping?

Healthy eating, exercise, mindfulness, journaling, relaxation.