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Welcome to my blog about health, nursing, caring, kindness and positive change. Our world is full of such negative influences and bad choices, today is the day to make a positive change both physically and mentally in your life.
ERNursesCare is a blog incorporating my nearly 30 years of experience in the healthcare field with my passion for helping others, I want it to encourage others with injury prevention, healthy living, hard hitting choices, hot topics and various ramblings from my unique sense of humor. Come along and enjoy your journey......

Saturday, August 29, 2015

Nurses Are The Worst..........What?


Nurses are many things to many people, we are called many things from angels to saints, but the one thing I can admit myself is that this nurse is the worst.....patient. Yes, I have a hard time doing what I should be doing, taking care of me. I am getting better at it though, I have learned that oh so hard lesson of saying no and not taking on so much. Lessons I have had to learn the hard way, trial by fire. 
Giving so much of ourselves to others and the inability to say "no" can leave any nurse without the proper time to care for herself or himself. Burned out nurses leave the profession everyday because they forget the importance of self care.
Self  care is as important as patient care now, you must advocate for yourself because nobody else will. 

Many of us work 12 hours, night shifts, over-time, 2nd jobs, go to school, then turn around and have to go home to a house full of kids, disabled spouses or elderly parents that might be ill too. I know I work a weekender position, but often feel like I work 7 days a week due to the stressors of having a disabled husband and homeschooling my kiddos. There is always something at our house to do or somewhere to go. 



Have you ever gone to work tired, irritable, lacking sleep and felt like you took that frustration out on your coworkers or even your patients? How about going to work and feeling sicker than the patients that you were caring for? Those things should not be happening. 
Taking care of yourself on a daily basis, balancing work and home environments, decreasing the level of stress you feel and learning some tools to educate yourself so you can be your own healthcare advocate will lead to a nurse that enjoys taking care of others again.



List of Awesome Self Care Tools: these are just some of the things that I find to be helpful

  1. Learn how to say "NO"- this is one of the most important things you can do for yourself and your family. You don't have to do it all, your kids don't need to do every sport or club at school, let them pick one they love. The time you spend at home as a family they will cherish more later on. 
  2. SLEEP- your body heals itself and repairs itself while you sleep, you have got to get some sleep!! forget this staying up all day and trying to work all night long (unless you want to land in a ditch dead one day- that's where you are headed). I use essential oils to help me sleep, a little lavender or vetiver oil on my feet at bedtime and I have no trouble sleeping day or night.
  3. ROUTINE- get yourself into a routine- your body will thank you- your sleep will come easier- for instance I work night shifts on the weekends, so my routine is to stay up all night at home on Friday nights and sleep on Saturday- my family knows this is my routine and I get my sleep, everybody is happy and I am awake to drive to work safely. What kind of routines can you set up during the week? Make a white board for the kitchen and write your routine on it, tell the family you are going to follow this, they will love you for it.
  4. Eat whole foods, fresh foods and don't go without meals- this is just a no brainer, Food is energy..........if we don't eat, we don't get the fuel we need to function. Crap in is Crap out.....right?
  5. Add Probiotics to your daily supplement regimen - this is one of the most important things you can do to keep yourself healthy. Your gut health is one of the most important things, it is like your 2nd brain! Billions of good bacteria live in your gut and they need to stay healthy to help you fight off any threats to your immunity. Just do it! 
  6. Exercise- yes I know you are saying, when am I gonna fit that into my busy schedule, well a walk 3 time a week will make you feel so much better I am telling you. Even though I have arthritis and chronic pain, I can manage to get some walking into my busy schedule so I know you can do it too. Work your way up to swimming, biking, hiking and other activities that you can do together as a family. We love to go hiking in the mountains, it does not even feel like we are exercising but we are. Exercise is fantastic for your mood and your joints!
  7. Laugh! humor is such a stress reliever, smile daily and find something to laugh about. Think positive and your life will be positive. 
  8. Music soothes the savage beast-- you! I love to crank up the tunes and just get lost in the music when I am in the car, it helps me calm down and destress on the way home from work.
  9. Leave your work at the door!! As an ER nurse for over 28 years now I have learned many strategies to cope with the things we see in the ER. The biggest thing is learning to leave it at the door when I clock out, that has helped me more than anything. I don't take my job home with me, or talk about what happened at work with my spouse or kids. It's just like a switch, I just turn it off. ( Unless something tragic happened, we debrief and talk at work before we even leave work- highly recommended).
  10. Get organized-- get a day- planner and write everything in that planner, including your days off work, trips to the spa, your mani-pedi appt, all the things you can look forward too, schedule date nights with your significant other. Organize your house, keep things simple, don't overwhelm yourself with clutter. Plan and keep a routine for cleaning,laundry grocery shopping, bill paying etc. 
  11. Slow down and Breathe! learn meditation- it is a great way to connect with your inner self and de-stress. Prayer is a fantastic way to help you in your self care journey. 
  12. Try Aromatherapy- I discovered the power of essential oils and have fallen in love with the wonderful benefits they have provided my family and my health. We have felt so much better since discovering the value of these gifts from above that have been around for billions of years.
  13. Unplug and get outside- yes you can do it, leave that phone, tablet, laptop or other digital device off and get outside, breath some air, smell the flowers or fresh crisp leaves or newly cut grass. We spend so much time connected to our devices that we have lost the connection to ourselves and others.
  14. Explore Alternative Holistic Healthcare Options- we are always taught to use western medicine in our healthcare practices that we often forget the benefits of other types of medicine out there. I am learning so much more about the natural medicine model and a more "whole body" &  holistic approach to medicine. Medicine is much more that just prescribing a pill all the time, right?
These tips and tools are only good if you apply them, your patients, coworkers and family will surely appreciate a nurse that is the best ..................nurse he/she can be.



This post was written as part of the Nurse Blog Carnival. More posts on this topic can be found at http://thebossynurse.com. If you are interested in participating find out more details and sign up.

Nurse Blog Carnival

19 comments:

  1. The timetable of a medical caretaker can be requesting, yet that does not mean it needs to demolish your social life. Rather, you must have the capacity to work with the calendar and discover ways that you can keep up your life outside of the clinic. An excess of medical attendants who enter the field put their everything into the employment. While this may appear to be splendid, it can prompt burnout rather rapidly. You need to have a period and a spot where you will have the capacity to decompress. You require a social life! you can found more in this site

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. The timetable of a therapeutic overseer can be asking for, yet that does not mean it needs to obliterate your social life. Maybe, you must have the ability to work with the datebook and find ways that you can keep up your life outside of the center. An overabundance of medicinal chaperons who enter the field put their beginning and end into the work. While this may give off an impression of being breathtaking, it can incite burnout rather quickly. You have to have a period and a spot where you will have the ability to decompress. You oblige a social life! you can discovered more in this site

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  4. ER nurses are HEROs, or SHERO"S. What an interesting variety of tips, holistic and allopathic. Gratitude to you!

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  5. Thanks for the great tips. I see a common theme in many of the self care blog posts this month - Allowing yourself to say "NO". I need use this word more often!

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  6. Leslie, thanks for all your ideas! Perhaps because most folks don't understand nursing work very well, we get lots of stereotypes: Angels, Devils, Prostitutes...
    Nurses are people, not cartoon characters. Hopefully we can teach folks som reality in time.

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  7. Leslie, thanks for all your ideas! Perhaps because most folks don't understand nursing work very well, we get lots of stereotypes: Angels, Devils, Prostitutes...
    Nurses are people, not cartoon characters. Hopefully we can teach folks som reality in time.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Great advice Leslie. Between your list and your photo of 50 ways to take a break, you really simplify it. I love it all! Thanks

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  9. Great list and wonderful graphic, Leslie! I can see the 50 ways for taking a break being a poster in every Nurses' Lounge. Brava!

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  10. Wonderful suggestions Leslie.
    I put my yoga and pilates classes on my calendar....that is the only way I get there!
    At the end of my yoga practice, the instructor puts essential oils on our wrists. Iove it and learning so much about the benefits.
    Is the 50 ways a poster? Available anywhere?

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  11. "Care Jobs and Nurse Jobs" are reslly great porfessions,..but nurses should take care of their responsibilities,.

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  12. It would be a very good idea to take part in those of the emergency responses and sometimes it becomes difficult to transcribe with some instance but there are such principles that we really needs to look forward. resume for teaching

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