Participating in self-care for nurses is the best way to fight and avoid burnout. Scheduling time to relax and refresh your mind is essential to maintaining a work/life balance. Self-care strategies to help nurses prevent burnout include receiving adequate sleep, planning nutritious meals and maintaining social connections.
Nurses and self-care are deeply connected. Self-care is so important for nurses that it’s codified in the Nursing Code of Ethics. Just as they dedicate themselves to their patients, nurses also have a moral responsibility to meet their own physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs.
Why is self-care important for nurses? Working in health care can be demanding, and nurses must be able to manage the field’s most common stressors, such as long working hours and emotionally demanding situations, while providing quality patient care. Inadequate sleep and unmanaged stress can lead to burnout and mistakes.
That’s why self-care is essential to success and longevity in a nursing career. Maintaining self-care practices in your daily routine give you much-needed mental breaks and establish a healthy work/life balance.
Whether you are a nursing student or professional, incorporating self-care strategies into your schedule is the best way to avoid burnout. This blog post will examine burnout, warning signs and tips for nursing self-care.
Understanding Burnout
Burnout is the result of unmanaged stress. It can manifest in many ways, including exhaustion, lack of motivation and negative feelings toward your job. For nurses who work in a fast-paced environment, burnout can feel especially difficult to manage on top of everyday responsibilities.
Everyone experiences burnout differently. It can sneak up on you, and you may not always be able to recognize when you’re experiencing it. If you’re used to juggling multiple tasks at a fast pace and running on little sleep, it can be challenging to differentiate between your typical stress level and burnout. Signs of burnout can include:
- Fatigue
- Feeling apathetic toward your career
- Changes in diet
- Increases or decreases in sleep
- Frequent headaches
It’s important to regularly check in on your emotional needs and stress levels. If you’ve noticed that it has become harder to get through the day and you are showing any of the above signs, you may be experiencing burnout. If this is the case, you should adjust your routine to make self-care for nurses a priority.
Nursing Self-Care Strategies
The best way to fight burnout is through prevention. If you are already experiencing burnout, however, establishing routines that allow for a better work/life balance can help you manage the stress and prevent burnout from returning. Consider these nursing self-care strategies to help you fight and avoid burnout:
Schedule Time for Self-Care
Self-care in nursing requires planning. It is easy to set aside self-care activities, such as hobbies, yoga or exercise, in favor of other tasks. Juggling a family, personal responsibilities and work or school often leaves little time for anything else.
Remember that self-care is vital to your well-being. Your emotional and mental needs are just as important as your physical needs. Scheduling time for self-care allows you to enjoy personal time without compromising your responsibilities.
You can incorporate small activities like yoga or meditation into morning and night routines and block out time later in the week for hobbies. As a nurse or nursing student, your schedule may vary from week to week. You must be flexible as you plan your schedule and adjust when circumstances change.
Scheduling time for self-care during a busy schedule is not always easy, but it is essential to maintaining a healthy work/life balance.
Make Time for Preventive Health
Nurses are dedicated to helping patients lead healthier lives, but paying attention to their own health is just as important. Preventative health is an essential but sometimes overlooked part of self-care. Ignoring health concerns or delaying screenings can cause larger issues down the line.
Take time off work for regular self-check-ins and remain up to date on vaccinations. Prioritizing your health ensures that you can continue to care for your patients and meet the demands of your personal life.
Maintain a Healthy Diet
It can be difficult to maintain a balanced diet when you’re busy. Food is often chosen based on convenience rather than nutritional value. While sometimes the circumstances call for take-out, it’s not a sustainable option long-term.
To help maintain a healthy diet as a nurse, you can employ nursing self-care strategies like batch cooking or meal prepping to save time during the week. Set aside time on a day off to prepare nutritious meals for lunch and dinner.
Depending on your preferences or needs, you can prepare meals for each day or cook large quantities of meals, such as soup or chili, and freeze leftovers for later. Preparing meals ahead of time removes the stress of planning meals daily, ultimately saving you time for other responsibilities or self-care activities.
Get Enough Sleep
Sleep is one of the most important aspects of self-care for nurses. Lack of sleep can impact mood, brain performance and even health. Poor sleep quality over time can also increase the risk of diseases or disorders, such as heart disease.
Nurses who do not get adequate sleep are prone to making mistakes and developing burnout. To ensure you are getting the sleep you need, consider the following nursing self-care strategies:
- Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day: Studies have shown that sleeping in on the weekend does not make up for sleep deficits during the week.
- Establish a nighttime routine: This can help you shift gears and relax as you prepare for bed.
- Create a quiet, cool, dark sleeping space: This is especially important for nurses working the night shift. A quiet and dark space at a cool temperature creates the optimal conditions for sleeping.
- Avoid electronics before bedtime: TV or your phone can keep your mind active and distract you. Avoid using electronics 30 minutes before bed.
- Avoid large meals, caffeine and alcohol: All of these can negatively affect your sleep quality.
If you have difficulty falling asleep, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends leaving bed after 20 minutes and engaging in a quiet activity with minimal light. If you continue to struggle with falling asleep or experience poor sleep quality, discuss your concerns with your physician.
Night shift nursing presents unique challenges that nurses must learn to navigate. Learn how to survive night shift nursing here.
Remain Active
Physical activity, whether a simple walk or an intensive workout, can significantly impact health and mental well-being. Its many benefits include improved sleep quality, weight management, reduced stress and a decreased risk of diseases like heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, adults need at least 150 minutes of moderate to intensive exercise each week, which is 22 minutes a day. Physical activity can range from taking the stairs instead of the elevator to walking to the store instead of driving. Depending on your schedule and preferences, 22 minutes of physical activity a day can look very different from person to person.
As a nurse, you spend most of your shift on your feet, so 22 minutes of physical activity a day is easy to achieve. However, because of the job’s physical and mental demands, exercising outside of work can help you relieve the day’s stress while building strength.
Participating in yoga classes is another great way to exercise regularly while practicing mindful self-care. Regardless of your preferred form of exercise, scheduling time for physical activity is an essential nursing self-care strategy to help fight burnout.
Spend Time Outdoors
Spending time in nature has a calming effect that promotes memory retention, cognitive flexibility and the ability to maintain focus, all of which are critical for nursing. Visiting a park, hiking or walking around the neighborhood can give you the rejuvenation and mindfulness you need for self-care.
While there is no hard and fast rule for the time we need to spend in nature, any time spent outdoors is better than none. The American Psychological Association cites a study that found adults who spent two hours in nature, whether consecutively or spread out, reported greater health than those who did not.
Minor adjustments in your routine, such as reading or studying outside or going for a short walk after work or classes, can significantly impact your well-being.
Connect with Your Support System
Social connection is essential for your mental well-being. Taking the time to reconnect with family and friends is vital to maintaining a healthy work/life balance. Talking on the phone, meeting for coffee or attending events together can help you de-stress and refocus on what matters most.
When experiencing burnout, whether as a nurse or nursing student, it’s also important to know when to ask for help. Nurse mentors or friends in health care can offer advice to help you through a challenging time or lighten your workload. Reaching out to your support system outside of work can help you manage household tasks and chores.
Remember that you’re not alone. Burnout can derail your plans, whether you’re a student or a nursing professional, and it’s okay to lean on your support system when needed.
Nursing mentors can be a vital source of guidance and support as you enter the career. Learn why mentorship in nursing is essential to the nursing field.
How Your Nursing Education Can Promote Self-Care
Nursing school serves as the start of your nursing journey. The habits and strategies you develop here can help you thrive in your future career. At Notre Dame of Maryland University, we recognize the importance of self-care for nurses and strive to foster a supportive educational environment for our students enrolled in the Accelerated 2nd Degree BSN (ABSN) program.
Our Academic Success Coaches provide personalized support for each student to ensure success. Additionally, our admissions advisors work with prospective students one-on-one to guide them through each step of the admissions process.
The ABSN curriculum is carefully designed to develop highly competent and compassionate nurses. Students have two course modality options, hybrid and on-campus, offering a dynamic learning environment where students can develop the lifelong skills they need to succeed in their careers. They will also learn from health care professionals during clinical experiences throughout the Elkridge or Baltimore, Maryland, areas.
Taking the time to learn from health care professionals and explore ways to promote self-care while in nursing school is the best way to prepare for your future career. At NDMU, our talented faculty is dedicated to preparing our students for the challenges of a nursing career.
Launch Your Nursing Career with NDMU
If you have a non-nursing bachelor’s degree and meet our admissions requirements, you can earn your Bachelor of Science in Nursing in as few as 15 months. With two program options, three start dates a year and no waitlist, your future nursing career may be closer than you think.
Contact our admissions team today to learn how you can launch your nursing career with NDMU’s ABSN program.