Making decisions under pressure

While some pressure can be positive, keeping teams motivated and working towards their goals, too much can cause your employees to become stressed, burned out, or ready to give up. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, those working in health and social care roles might also find themselves in dilemmas where their personal values and available options are in conflict, which increases the pressure even further.

This web page from the NHS is designed to help team leaders working in healthcare to understand the impact of difficult decision-making while under pressure, and offers ways you can help to ease that strain.

It is broken up into multiple short sections, focusing on why this is something to consider, how you might notice a problem arising, and what you can do to lower stress levels as much as possible.

You can choose to make an account on the Our NHS People site, even if you do not work for the NHS. This allows you to track your progress through this guide and many others, and lets you return to the place you left off if you have to stop part way through a section. Click here to create an account or log in. However, you do not need to make an account to access it if you’d prefer not to.

To see the full list of guides available from Our NHS People, click here.