Work-life balance is the state of equilibrium where a professional effectively manages the demands of their career and personal life. Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is essential for nurses since they deal with stressful situations daily.
Increased stress levels can harm a nurse’s mental and physical health. It can lead to absenteeism, lower job satisfaction, depression, and anxiety.
Therefore, nurses need to find healthy ways to manage stress. Maintaining a balance between their personal and professional demands will help them manage stress to lead healthier lives.
This article discusses how nurses can maintain a healthy work-life balance.
10 Ways Nurses Can Maintain A Healthy Work-Life Balance
1. Defining priorities
Nurses work tirelessly to care for their patient’s physical and mental well-being. But apart from your profession, you also need to spend time on yourself. For instance, you might want to go to the gym or spend time with your friends.
For this, you can negotiate a fixed schedule and choose to work days or nights, whichever allows you to devote more time to yourself.
2. Enhance your skills and knowledge
Working on skills that will assist you in your job will not only help you in career progression but will also let you achieve a greater work-life balance.
This will help you efficiently manage your daily duties. Many online and offline courses can help you in advancing your nursing career. For instance, if you are looking for online learning opportunities, you can go for online MSN FNP programs.
You can complete these programs from the comfort of your home, allowing you to manage your time between work and personal life.
3. Make your life simpler and easier
Many nurses work to provide for their families, but due to the nature of the job, it might be difficult to spend quality time with their loved ones.
Find ways to complete your tasks efficiently. You can use several apps to manage your work and home tasks. For instance, you can use apps that aid you in monitoring patients.
You can use apps to deliver your groceries at home, so you don’t have to wait in long queues. So try simplifying your life to make time for the people you care about.
4. Take care of your emotional and physical well being
Prioritize your health. Make sure you eat a balanced diet. Eat fruits and vegetables since they are rich in several nutrients. Healthy meals help you manage your weight, enhance your immunity, and increase your energy levels.
Regular Excercise is also vital for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Exercise helps maintain a healthy weight and reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. Since nurses have to deal with stressful situations daily, following a workout regimen can be the perfect way to deal with stress. Adults (18 to 64 years) should spend get 150 minutes of exercise a week.
Try to engage in activities that make you happy such as gardening, painting, swimming, etc. This will help you take your mind off the stress of work.
5. Get plenty of rest
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), adults should sleep for 7 to 8 hours at night. Having adequate rest strengthens immunity and keeps a person active throughout the day.
Below are a few tips that you can follow to sleep peacefully and wake up well-rested.
- Don’t use your mobile phones or laptops before going to bed.
- Follow a bedtime routine. Sleep at the same time every night and wake up at the same time in the morning.
- Try to have a light meal at night.
- Try reading a book, taking a bath, or anything that helps you relax before bed.
- Sleep in a quiet and dark room.
6. Seek Help
Whenever you feel overwhelmed, don’t hesitate to ask for help. Seek assistance from a nurse manager or your hospital’s management. Similarly, ask your partner to do some household chores when you are too busy or tired.
7. Foster relationships
Plan a barbeque with your family or go to a nice restaurant with your friends. If you are too exhausted to go out, then have dinner with your family at home. Spending quality time with your loved ones will help you strengthen your bond with them.
Friends and family are a person’s support system, and a strong support system plays a pivotal role in maintaining a work-life balance. This means you have people you can rely on when you need help. For instance, you can always call a friend to babysit your children if you work overtime.
You can also call a friend or a relative when you feel stressed or demotivated. Talking to someone you care about can positively impact your mood and help reduce stress.
8. Take short breaks
Take short breaks whenever you can to cleanse your mind of stressful thoughts. Meditate if you have time since it helps relieve stress and reduce negative emotions.
9. Manage Your Time
Nursing is an incredibly diverse profession. Nurses have several responsibilities. They have to take care of their patients, perform physical exams, record the medical history of patients, and perform administrative duties. They can complete every task before their shift ends by managing their time effectively. This will help them relax since they won’t have the stress of pending tasks looming over their heads.
Below is a list of ways that will help in improving your time management skills.
- Get an early start to the day by arriving at your shift earlier. This will give you ample time to review reports and list down all the tasks of the day.
- Prioritize your tasks according to their level of urgency. Completing urgent tasks promptly will help alleviate stress.
- Delegate tasks to your colleagues if you have other high-priority tasks.
10. Try to resolve conflicts as soon as you can
Whether you argue with your spouse or a colleague, try to resolve it immediately. Conflicts can strain your relationships and make you feel stressed out. Stress can make you ineffective at work which can have grave consequences. So try to engage in healthy conversation and resolve the matter as soon as possible.
Conclusion
Maintaining a work-life balance in the field of nursing is very difficult due to the nature of the job and its unpredictable schedule. This often leads to higher stress and job dissatisfaction among nurses. Although maintaining a balance between your professional and personal demands is difficult, it is not impossible. We have compiled a few ways to maintain a healthy work-life balance.
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