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?
My staff does not need resiliency tips. We need another nurse, another nursing assistant, a unit secretary and a house supervisor who understands the concept of acuity. On every single shift.
Don't get me wrong, I have never turned down bagels or pizza on principle, (that would be counter productive) but when, in 14 hours, I don't have time to pee, drink some water or change my tampon (sorry, true story, and I have the underpants to prove it,) you can take your fresh air and cleansing breaths and grapes and...
Give me another nurse any day. I'll stock up on fresh air on my day off, K?
Specializes in psychiatry, community health, wellness.
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.
Thanks for the feedback. It is good to hear that taking the short time outside helped you. As we have talked about above, some things work for some people. While others work for other people. Finding what works is like finding the right "diet" (I use that term loosely, as I do not believe in full blown diets). No two people are alike so we have to find the self-care practices that are going to work for us.
Thank you for your comment! Glad you shared with the group.
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.
OK...... Why all the negativity at the suggestions the writer offered???
Sometimes people I like suggest dumb things to deal with stress. Ypou know, like when my friends say, "Hey, let's go to O'Halligan's. It's nickel shot night!"
No... I'm pretty sure if we go to O'Halligan's we're going to die. Let's deal with the task at hand. If you're stressed because of the work environment, distractions are Band-Aids, not solutions.
Yesterday I swiped my badge to enter the hospital way before my shift started because we were short staffed and I immediately hear "CODE BLUE ICU". That's how the day started and it just got worse. Half the nurses on the unit were in orientation and the ER had patients who had stayed overnight due to lack of beds and staff to admit them. My 12 hour shift was really a 15 hour shift with no breaks in sight.
Still trying to understand the "nursing shortage " when I hear it's so hard to find a job. What's going on??!!!!
Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
Still trying to understand the "nursing shortage " when I hear it's so hard to find a job. What's going on??!!!!
Administration views nursing as a cost. Why would they want to provide adequate nursing staff? Since we're lumped in with the room, we don't bring any money to put toward the bottom line. Hiring more of us would make those executives lose out on at least some of their bonuses.
I still recall the words one of my former teachers had emphasized: the most important thing that could shape us was our attitude. Personally, I try to cultivate gratitude each day for the little things in life and resist the urge to complain/vent to others as it was not helpful in improving my mood.
Specializes in psychiatry, community health, wellness.
Can you tell me a little about boundary ritual?
Sure,
First off, thanks for the feedback. Glad you enjoyed it! In my book, Stop Nurse Burnout, I teach nurses the boundary ritual that you ask about.I
It involves taking a deep breath, pausing, and saying: "I'm coming ALL the way home!" when doing something that you do each day after work.
So, for example, if you drive to work. You pull into your driveway, park your car, and as your hand takes the keys out of the ignition, you stop - deep breath - and say "With this breath, I'm coming ALL the way home!" Now, you can do this as you take off your work badge, take off your scrubs, take a shower, walk your dog... whatever you do as you transition from work to home.
It is VERY important to do the cleansing breath- deep, slow, and paused- and say the line aloud to yourself.
I hope this helps. Thanks for asking! Enjoy the day,
Specializes in psychiatry, community health, wellness.
I still recall the words one of my former teachers had emphasized: the most important thing that could shape us was our attitude. Personally, I try to cultivate gratitude each day for the little things in life and resist the urge to complain/vent to others as it was not helpful in improving my mood.
Wow, this is awesome! Great to hear. And thank you for sharing!! Gratitude is the most amazing and powerful emotion we can have. Have a wonderful day.
First off, thanks for the feedback. Glad you enjoyed it! I teach nurses the boundary ritual that you ask about.
It involves taking a deep breath, pausing, and saying: "I'm coming ALL the way home!" when doing something that you do each day after work.
So, for example, if you drive to work. You pull into your driveway, park your car, and as your hand takes the keys out of the ignition, you stop - deep breath - and say "With this breath, I'm coming ALL the way home!" Now, you can do this as you take off your work badge, take off your scrubs, take a shower, walk your dog... whatever you do as you transition from work to home.
It is VERY important to do the cleansing breath- deep, slow, and paused- and say the line aloud to yourself.
I hope this helps. Thanks for asking! Enjoy the day,
Specializes in psychiatry, community health, wellness.
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.
This is spot on! Thank you for bringing this to the discussion. One way to stay charged and ready to go at work... is to have a life outside of work! Thank you so much for your comments!
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).
Ex: the workplace has $300 bingo contest, gives out weekly gift cards to staff yet the "hiring LVN and CNA" sign in the front building never gets taken down.
Apples&Oranges
171 Posts
Thanks, OP, but...
My staff does not need resiliency tips. We need another nurse, another nursing assistant, a unit secretary and a house supervisor who understands the concept of acuity. On every single shift.
Don't get me wrong, I have never turned down bagels or pizza on principle, (that would be counter productive) but when, in 14 hours, I don't have time to pee, drink some water or change my tampon (sorry, true story, and I have the underpants to prove it,) you can take your fresh air and cleansing breaths and grapes and...
Give me another nurse any day. I'll stock up on fresh air on my day off, K?