Nurse creates app to help peers manage anxiety

While being a nurse can be fulfilling, it can also be challenging and taxing, especially when it comes to mental health and anxiety.

Thanks to Shannon McPeek—a neonatal ICU nurse who created a safe space for her and her peers to deal with anxiety—that stress might be a little easier to manage. McPeek was inspired to create the Operation Happy Nurse app after she "suffered from work-related anxiety."

"I understood that I was going to have to deal with patient death; deal with difficult situations. But it's a lot different when you start experiencing them. Nurses are also the last line of defense," she said. "So in that, there's a lot of pressure. So it was a slow buildup of anxiety that led to developing signs and symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder."

McPeek's goal is to help "all nurses struggling with stress, anxiety and/or depression by offering a community focused on improving overall mental health and physical well-being."

"Nurses can go on to this free online community, pick and choose through the resources that we offer, and their profile adapts to meet their individual interests and needs," McPeek added.