Well I used to be one, so I know what it's like to be a Professional Person Under Pressure! I was a PUPP for years, when I was involved with the management of older people's homes in a large local authority. I know how it is - you don't go into a role like that for the money, you want to improve the quality of care for the people you are responsible for. And then you get rammelled up in staffing problems, rotas, paperwork, medication rounds.....how do you ever get through it?

Then there was nursing - I was a student nurse long enough ago to remember with every bone of my body the 'Back Round'. This meant going round every patient in an old fashioned Nightingale ward and attending to their personal hygiene. Nothing got missed. Everyone was made comfortable. The beds were tidy. You had a sense that everything was under control, and nobody was going to go without a drink or any aspect of basic care, as, shamefully, seems to happen these days. It was marvellous and very rewarding - but oh, so tiring! How do you pick yourself up to just go round and do it all again?

Ultimately it's a question of getting focussed on where your efforts will have the most effect, and to keep in mind your larger purpose. Coaching is one of the ways you can help yourself to do this.

In my PUPP days I wish I had known someone like me, to tell me that I would get through, and that all would be well, and it wasn't my fault. So now I want to spare people in that position from unnecessary stress. There are lots of things I know now, but didn't now then, that will certainly help. 

Here's just one of them - the STOP technique. When you're starting to feel overwhelmed, STOP. That's S for STOP. Then T for Take a deep breath - so often we do not breathe enough! Then simply Observe what's going on, as it you were reporting it in a newspaper, no judgment or thought. Finally, P for Proceed - with kindness towards yourself as well as to others.