Nurses are caring professionals; empathy, compassion, and affection are some of the necessary traits their job requires. Yet, understaffing, long working hours, workplace safety, and irritable patients make their jobs tough. Hence, it is no surprise that nurses don’t find time for themselves.
Workload, compassion fatigue, and persistent neglect of their well-being often result in burnout. Burnout is a state where you don’t find your work meaningful or exciting anymore. Motivation drops, and becoming cynical about your abilities and job is an outcome. Therefore, nurses must avoid burnout at all costs since t can affect their ability to give patients proper care. And this is why nurses need self-care to remain active and excited about their work.
If you’re a nurse struggling with self-care, consider taking action on the following tips
Create a balance in your routine
Nurses must first achieve a healthy work-life balance to find time to care for themselves. If you’re working round the clock and can’t set your priorities straight, it’ll soon get hard to manage your routine and look after yourself. So begin by creating a to-do list of your professional and personal tasks. Prioritize them according to their importance and work your way down the list. It is essential to set healthy boundaries between professional and personal life. So try not to take your work home.
You must also learn to manage and dive your time properly. Create a schedule for your week, and allocate some self-care time for yourself. This could be a spa day or a hangout with your loved ones to unwind. Or, if you’re a nurse aspiring to obtain higher education, save your time by enrolling in remote MSN or online DNP programs instead of campus-based ones. This will allow you to create a flexible learning schedule and properly divide your time between work, studies, and personal life. Using apps and planners will be quite handy in organizing routines and striking the perfect balance.
Include exercise in your routine
Nursing is a physically demanding job too. You often have to help move patients, maintain their balance, and help them with posture, walking, bathing, and changing clothes. All these activities require agility and strength since patients tend to transfer their weight on the nurses helping them out. If you do not take care of your body, your natural strength can wane over time, and you may become weak. Exercise is important because it helps develop muscle strength, stretches your muscles, and improves blood circulation. Nurses who exercise daily are less likely to experience fatigue and muscle cramps.
Exercise is also effective in reducing stress and improving your mood. It does so by regulating the release of endorphin, often called the
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