Resiliency keeps your nursing staff on the job. It staves off stress, illness, and burnout. A resilient nursing staff builds strong teams able to respond to the demands of this noble profession through long hours, patient and family needs, and… aching backs! Check out these tips to share with your nursing staff to keep them resilient and strong.
Resiliency keeps your nursing staff on the job. It staves off stress, illness, and burnout. A resilient nursing staff builds strong teams able to respond to the demands of this noble profession through long hours, patient and family needs, and... aching backs!
Check out these tips to share with your nursing staff to keep them resilient and strong:
Nurture with Nature
On those shifts where breaks are few or nonexistent, taking 30 seconds to get some fresh air, even if it's just sticking your head out the door to remind yourself that there is a "world out there" and breathing in some fresh air, can reset your mood and lower the stress response -- meaning lowering your heart rate, blood pressure, and cortisol levels.
Pack Your Lunch With Quick Snacks
If you are able to take a full lunch break - GREAT! But have a snack-type lunch on hand just in case. A few grapes, apple slices or a banana, an organic juice box, crackers, cheese, and nuts allow you to eat quickly and nutritiously as well, in order to get you through your shift. Also pack your locker with quick snacks just in case you do not have time to pack a lunch -- a small jar of a nut butter, crackers, nuts, dried fruit, juice boxes, and granola bars can get you through a shift easily enough. Just don't forget to restock your stash!
Focus on the Patient in Front of You
This is a case of easier said than done, unfortunately. Nurses often have overwhelming patient loads, but only one patient can be tended to at a time. Focusing all your energy on the patient in front of you prevents mistakes and often helps you catch things that you might miss if your mind is on your other patient(s), rather than the one in front of you. Mistakes are costly to nurses not only in their self-confidence in their ability to do the job, but also in their co-workers' confidence to be a strong and trustworthy team member. Give yourself the benefit of full focus. The next patient will still be there when you are finished with the one in front of you.
Keep a Reminder of Joy in Your Pocket or Locker
Some nurses decorate their lockers with pictures of their children or pets. One nurse I knew kept a small seashell in her pocket that her young son had picked up on their last vacation. Another sometimes brought her lunch in a Barbie lunchbox because her daughter packed it for her. A small touchstone of a reminder of the joy in your life can alleviate stress and bring a smile to your face and heart to power your through some tough shift hours.
As a Nurse Manager, you can.....
Plan Some Fun Outings
Great teams do not limit bonding to work alone. Great teams can bond over dinner and a movie, ice skating, hiking, the beach, and all sorts of other activities. You get to see your co-workers in a whole new light and some regular clothes. How many times have you run into a co-worker outside of work and almost not recognized them without their scrubs on? One guideline to follow during the outing: keep the shop talk to a minimum. We are never not nurses, but reserve the outing time as bonding and fun time. After all, you're not clocked in for work.
Educate New Nurses on Self-care Strategies
New nurses may believe that in order to be a good nurse they must give 110% of themselves at all times and forget that nursing is not a perfect profession. New nurses may be at greater risk for making mistakes if they feel stressed and are not taking care of their needs while also caring for patients. Although the media sometimes portrays nurses as SUPERHEROES (but of course!), we are human with human needs of rest, relaxation, and forgiveness of ourselves when we make a mistake. And one of the best self-care strategy tools a new nurse can have is not holding herself/himself to an impossible standard of perfection.
I hope you have enjoyed these tips and can put some of them to use on your nursing unit. What other tips have you employed that have been successful with your nursing team?
Interesting topic. I find a big part of being resilient is building a satisfying life outside of work. Work may drain my energy after a long day, but my hobbies, projects and people I love builds me back up.
Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
What are some things you have tried that DO work for you to prevent burnout and deal with job-related stress? Do you try to bond with your co-workers or are you happy to be more of a loner?
I've found that I prefer to leave work at work. Sure, we can bond on the job, but off the job I prefer other things. My friends that I spend time with out of work come from other walks of life- teacher, SAHM, business owner. It provides a variety and we don't talk shop, as happened frequently when I did meet up with coworkers outside of work hours. I wouldn't call myself a loner, just well-rounded.
Specializes in psychiatry, community health, wellness.
Thanks, Beth. I think you bring good points up. We are all resilient in our own ways. And what is important is that we reflect upon this and celebrate it. Great share, thank you!
Specializes in psychiatry, community health, wellness.
I love this. Leaving work at work. I teach a tool called the Boundary Ritual. Since nurses work with our hands, hearts, and words... it can be hard to find the "off" switch. Having something that separates work from life helps us build resiliency! Thanks for the comment.
Specializes in psychiatry, community health, wellness.
YES! RNperdiem, this is a great suggestion. Having a life outside of work is a great way to stay fully charged so that we can meet the demands of the work day. Thank you!!
Specializes in psychiatry, community health, wellness.
Thank you traumaRUs! You bring great awareness to this post. While adequate staffing and safe ratios are things that all nurses deserve... some of these larger decisions are outside of our individual hands. Thank you for pointing out that the suggestions in this article can be used when staffing is not ideal and we just need something quick to help in that moment. Appreciate your comment!
Specializes in psychiatry, community health, wellness.
Great point tnbutterfly, BSN, RN. This is exactly what I was thinking when I wrote this post. Sure, all of these tips may not work EVERY day for EVERY one. However, they are simple things that are intended to not take a lot of time. If you cannot get outside for a breath of fresh air, maybe going into the break area and sitting quietly with the breath. If I suggested that, I am sure I would have heard how that won't work too. Thanks for asking what does work for folks! Appreciate it.
I agree with the article AND I agree with the posters who didn't necessarily agree with the article.
I know that I am NOT doing proper self-care while at work yet I know that those things will truly help me and my patients. I rarely take a lunch or drink enough or go to the bathroom as soon as I should if at all. I even told a co-worker who "confessed" that she was going to eat/go to the bathroom/drink something before she got something one of her patients needed and I reminded her that she needs "put her own oxygen on first" and really meant it and believe that but I don't follow it.
At the same time, it is shameful that hospitals and other facilities won't staff properly and are ok with the state of the workplace conditions for their nurses and the way patients are taken care of or not taken care of.
TPTB would have to be ok with all of this or it wouldn't be happening as standard operating procedure at most places in the US, right??? If they aren't ok with it then it would change, right???
Specializes in psychiatry, community health, wellness.
I agree with the article AND I agree with the posters who didn't necessarily agree with the article.
I know that I am NOT doing proper self-care while at work yet I know that those things will truly help me and my patients. I rarely take a lunch or drink enough or go to the bathroom as soon as I should if at all. I even told a co-worker who "confessed" that she was going to eat/go to the bathroom/drink something before she got something one of her patients needed and I reminded her that she needs "put her own oxygen on first" and really meant it and believe that but I don't follow it.
At the same time, it is shameful that hospitals and other facilities won't staff properly and are ok with the state of the workplace conditions for their nurses and the way patients are taken care of or not taken care of.
TPTB would have to be ok with all of this or it wouldn't be happening as standard operating procedure at most places in the US, right??? If they aren't ok with it then it would change, right???
Thank you for your comment. I believe what you are pointing out here is something else that I teach in my presentations on burnout. That we need collaboration. Both the individual nurse to be accountable for their own self-care strategies. AND the organization to set up a workplace that supports resilience, self-care, and burnout prevention tactics.
It will not happen alone. We need ourselves, our colleagues, our management, our departments, our leadership, and our entire organizations to work on these issues as teams.
Nice post! I took those fresh air breaks, a couple times a shift if it was one of those crazy 12-hour night shifts. I worked on the 9th floor and a lot of times the cafeteria would close before I could get to it so I RUN down the stairs, get my fresh air and was back on my floor inside of 2 minutes. It was either that or eat whatever snacks I had in my locker, standing up and in tears. Nature healed better than food for me on those nights. And I always kept something my young daughter had given me on me somewhere -- a pin that I'd pin on the inside of my pocket or a small star-shaped polished gemstone; it was just a calming reminder of heart and home.
Nurses don't need management to tell them to eat a banana and focus on the patient. Forget the breath of fresh air.. it would take 15 minutes to get outside.
Nurses don't need pizza parties.
Nurses need adequate staffing and their legally required break time.
Exactly! Thank you!
Employers, please stop talking to me about stress management and self care while understaffing me, underpaying me and working me to the ground! Just stop!
(This comment is definitely not directed at the OP, but the post inevitably reminded me of all the talks and workshops about stress and self care at my places of employment, which feel very disingenuous in the setting of ever increasing nurse to patient ratios, benefit cuts and constant understaffing).
traumaRUs, MSN, APRN
87 Articles; 21,288 Posts
Excellent NurseBeth!
What works for one to relieve stress and make unbearable situations bearable may not work for someone else.