Why stress is sometimes good for you. And what e-learning can do when it gets too much.

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It is immediately clear that stress is not something to be afraid of when you are with Koert Hendriks gets into a conversation. Or start following his e-learning. After all, you won't get up early in the morning without stress, he says. If you don't make it to appointments on time. And you'll never run a marathon (although luckily not everyone has to be able to do that).

So stress is not necessarily a bad thing, even though many people think so. In fact, it is a wonderful system that enables us to function and perform.

Insufficient recovery from stress is where it goes wrong. That you keep going on and on until your body can't do it anymore. And you're actually losing the connection with your body.

Because your body is perfectly signaling that it needs rest. It's just that we humans are sometimes really good at ignoring these signals. Because we want to keep a lot of balls in the air at the same time. We are incredibly loyal and want to keep our promises. To our partner, kids, boss, friends, you name it. Which makes us forget our own needs.

The consequences don't lie

You may have known the consequences of too little recovery from stress for a long time. It starts with symptoms such as insomnia, tiredness and too much worrying. This may be associated with headache, stomach pain or other physical complaints, which of course vary from person to person. If you do not intervene in time, this can turn into overstrain and even lead to a burnout.

Unfortunately, this is happening more and more often. In recent years, the number of burnout complaints has only increased (Arbobalans 2018, TNO). In 2017, even 16.1% (!) employees suffer from burnout complaints.

So that is not due to stress in itself. But this is due to insufficient recovery of the body. Koert Hendriks this development is not unknown. During his many years of career in healthcare, he came across this topic many times. After all, people in healthcare work from the ideal of helping other people move forward. And they are often willing to make big sacrifices for this. Too big sacrifices. Saying “yes” too often. But no person can do this. It may therefore come as no surprise to you that it absenteeism rate is the highest in health care & welfare in the Netherlands.

This absenteeism also causes a negative chain reaction. The more people drop out, the higher the workload becomes. The more people drop out again. The higher the workload becomes again.

Care workers also have less and less time for personal attention to patients. Not because they don't want to do this. But simply because they just can't get around to it anymore. While patient contact is often a driver for choosing a career in healthcare.

This can be done differently

During his trip to Sweden, Koert thought: this does not have to be the case. Healthcare is a wonderful sector to work in. But working in healthcare should also remain fun. And it shouldn't lead to a burnout anyway. How can I change this?

Thanks to his years of experience, he knew that you can limit the effects of stress. After all, when you know what stress is, how to identify it and how to recover from stress, the chance of failure becomes much smaller. From this idea, Koert started his company. With which he wants to make people more aware of stress. And they want to learn how to deal with stress better. His dream? Making healthcare healthy again!

“I want to make myself obsolete as quickly as possible. When someone knows how to deal with stress, my job is done”

In his search for a platform to offer his training courses, Koert came Pluvo against. Koert thought it was ideal that he could start building his training for free. This way, he was able to test whether the platform was right for him. See exactly how building a training works. And whether this was easy to do in Pluvo.

He was quickly convinced of the benefits of Pluvo. “Pluvo is a great program to work with, even if you're not very good with computers. The guidance at Pluvo is really great and the service is incredibly good. When I have a question, I always get a response very quickly”.

“The team behind Pluvo gives you expert tips, so you can quickly get back to your e-learning”

Koert decided to work fully on his e-learning. And with results. He now has a rock-solid e-learning, which is rated 8.8 (!). He called in experts for a number of chapters, for example about the relationship between diet and stress. Which, like Koert, have scientifically substantiated the teaching material.

The reason he chose e-learning is simple: “I want to help as many people as possible in the healthcare & welfare sector deal better with stress. An e-learning is ideal for this, because everyone can do the e-learning whenever it suits them. And can follow them at their own pace”.

After completing his e-learning, Koert launched his pilot. “I got so many positive reactions to that. Halfway through, there were people who said that e-learning helped them a lot. Everyone is very enthusiastic about the e-learning as well as Pluvo”. And of course, we at Pluvo are also very happy to hear that!

E-coaching

Koert offers various packages. For example, someone can opt for the basic package, which can be used to follow the e-learning. This includes a personal, ready-to-use stress prevention plan that you will receive upon completion of the e-learning.

The training does require some effort and goodwill to look at yourself. This can be quite tough. Therefore, if you need more guidance, there is also the option of e-coaching. Koert's girlfriend, a mental health psychologist, will soon join his team for this. Her education and background make her a more than suitable e-coach.

Opting for e-coaching has its advantages. After all, e-coaching is more accessible than 'offline' coaching, because clients often dare to tell personal things more easily when they can type it away. Safe, behind a screen.

This way, people have less of the idea that they are being judged. In addition, you usually have to wait quite a while until the next appointment with a coach or psychologist. While you often need to switch quickly with your coach. You don't have this problem with e-coaching.

To do this, Koert and his girlfriend make use of the Pluvo chat. So someone can consult quickly with the coach. This makes online training much more personal, which Koert also believes is important about Pluvo:

“The contact with Pluvo is very personal. That is such a power. If I ran into something, I was able to get in touch in no time. The people behind Pluvo always think along with me.”

How do you recover from stress?

In his e-learning, Koert gives you sufficient tools to deal with stress properly. Which will make you live more consciously. Learns the relationship between breathing, nutrition, sleep and stress. And much more. Of course, we also asked him if he could give you a sneak peek.

“Listen carefully to your body. Your body is very good at telling you what you need. Don't ignore this. For example, do you often have a stomach ache, headache or tension in your neck? This could just be due to stress. Make sure you become aware of this. And then ensure physical recovery”

Koert, what do you actually do about stress yourself?

“In Erp, a village away, I often work in a cafe in the woods. Which, by the way, is also where I wrote a large part of the e-learning. I love walking in the woods there between work. What also helps me is to look in my backyard and just do nothing. Sleeping is also very important: sleep is the best recovery you can have. When my one-year-old son is sleeping, I also like to pack some extra sleep.

And very important: set priorities. What can you do now? What needs to be done now? And what is less important. Prioritise this. Plus, see if other people can help you when it gets too busy.”

The future

Koert is very positive about the future: “I want to help as many people as possible with my e-learning. For more depth, I also want to make specific training courses in Pluvo soon. And are going to give workshops. But of course, these are all plans for the future. First, I want to make sure that this e-learning is a great success!”

Want to know more about Koert's e-learning? You can find the various packages he offers here.

Do you want to get started with creating e-learning yourself? Then start with Pluvo for free!