The Josie King Foundation believes that nurses are leading the charge for a safer, more compassionate health care system. But they realize that in addition to the joys of healing, nurses face many emotional upheavals related to patient suffering, a complex workplace, new technologies, and fear of clinical errors. When personal pressures from everyday living are added to the already heavy load, the weight can lead to nurse stress, anxiety, depression, or burnout.

The Josie King Foundation developed the Nurse’s Journal in 2004, to help alleviate stress through expressive writing. (The journal was a response to results from a research project, Care for the Caregiver, that indicated it was sorely needed.) Created with the help of experts on the topic and specifically for nurses, it is offered by the nonprofit as a tool for self-directed writing or through facilitated journaling workshops.

The Nurse’s Journal is an attractive 61-page spiral bound notebook and is filled with helpful content such as evidence-based theories about journaling, before and after stress evaluation forms, and suggested resources to help nurses cope with work-related stress.

The majority of pages are low-content, with just short guided writing exercises to help you reflect on the stresses of your work life and personal life. For instance, the first one is titled “Guided Writing: Signs of Stress,” and includes the following prompt:

“Things to consider. Do you notice stress-related symptoms in your life? Is there a particular time of day or day of the week in which you feel more stress? Do your stress symptoms affect your job performance or your quality of life? What do you do to combat your stress?”

The page ends with a quote from the Dalai Lama about avoiding the burnout associated with witnessing great suffering.

In between the prompt and the quote, the page is empty so that a nurse is free to write out their own personal thoughts and feelings, as an antidote to workplace and life stressors.

Since launching the Nurse’s Journal in 2004, the Josie King Foundation has distributed them to more than 15,000 nurses. Many hospitals buy the journals in bulk as a gift for nurses during the winter holidays, or to mark Nurses Week, or at anytime for staff training and development purposes. In addition, they offer a companion Nurse’s Journal Guidebook for anyone who would like to facilitate journaling workshops for nurses.

For more information about the mission of the Josie King Foundation and their line of specialty journals for nurses, caregivers, and patients, visit http://josieking.org.

Creative Nursing
A Journal of Values, Issues, Experience, and Collaboration
Today’s health care institutions need creative and innovative solutions. Nurses need to think creatively, to experiment, to take risks, and to innovate. Creative Nursing is an issue-focused journal that promotes best practices in all aspects of caring—caring for self, patients, families, colleagues, and communities.

Jebra Turner is a freelance health writer in Portland, Oregon. She frequently contributes to the Minority Nurse magazine and website. Visit her online at www.jebra.com for self-care inspiration.