4 Easy Tips For Nurses to Stay Fit and Healthy

4 Easy Tips For Nurses to Stay Fit and Healthy : Being a nurse means working in a position that demands having caring and empathetic behavior towards others who come to you in their most vulnerable state. But if you are mentally and physically unfit, you cannot demonstrate the required care and benevolent attitude towards your patients.

Staying healthy and happy at work is important not only for yourself but for your patients too. Fatigue and stress—two unavoidable results of working as a nurse can hamper your performance at work. Often the negative effects of your work become so severe that they catapult you toward burnout.

While you cannot do anything about your profession’s physical and mental struggles, you can prepare your body and mind to bear the brunt without surrendering.

You must adopt habits in your daily life that replenish your stores of mental and physical energies, which are depleted throughout the day. Some ways to boost your mental and physical health are mentioned below; continue reading to learn about them.

Upgrade your skills and knowledge

Skilled and educated nurses tend to be calmer during emergencies. It is probably because they know their abilities to assess and tackle critical situations more expertly.

The more educated nurses are, the more confident they can be about their abilities. Hence, they display better performance and have better patient outcomes.

Higher education and continuous training are ways to upgrade your skills and qualification. Therefore, it is highly recommended that working nurses enroll in online higher education programs and elevate their careers.

Once you have passed the elementary level education, you can proceed to advanced learning programs that even help you hone your skills related to one area of nursing. For instance, a nurse can enroll in online clinical nurse leader programs by opting for an MSN degree if they already have a BSN. Becoming a clinical Nurse Leader is just a drop in the ocean of your career opportunities with an advanced degree program.

Higher learning programs prepare you to assume higher responsibilities, perform more critical tasks, and make important decisions. Working in important positions and earning stature among colleagues boosts your morale and enthusiasm about work and slays stress.
Try to be happy

Working as a nurse and dealing with people with one or the other kind of illness often makes your life devoid of happiness. This feeling can make you despondent and dissatisfied with your work.

But happiness is integral to living a healthy life. A positive mood induces you to eat and sleep better. It keeps you active, and you tend to interact with your loved ones more. The feeling of joy also staves off high blood pressure, reduces the threat of stroke, and improves your heart health. Happy people also tend to have a better perception of how they look.

People who stay happy are less prone to getting mental health issues. Their chances of stress, anxiety, and negativity overpowering them are thinner than those of unhappy people.

It can be tough to stay positive and happy when you work in such a demanding career, even though it is rewarding. But you have to make a deliberate effort to benefit your body and mind. Besides, you cannot continue working for long if you are unhappy. You might quit or seek early retirement, as 28% of CNSs stated in the 2017 Medscape Nurse Career Satisfaction Report.

Happiness does not have to come from big occasions like going on an expensive vacation, getting a car, or a house. Happiness can be found in little things too.

Try to look for joy in everyday life, for instance, when a patient shows improvement, getting a chance to have lunch with colleagues, a few minutes of a nap between shifts, a chance to write in your journal at day-end, and so on.

You have to realize that you are instrumental in your workplace. Without you working at the forefront, patients won’t get the compassion and care they need during the most gruesome period of their lives.
Make friends

Having meaningful relations is important to living a happy and healthy life. You need a support system to turn to when in a rut and do catharsis.

Making friends at the workplace means a chance to laugh together, support each other, and find help. Work-friends make your life livelier and more comfortable.

Making friends when working as a nurse is important because you need a strong network of people who can understand you as they go through similar hardships and struggles.

Apart from work-friends have some connections outside work too. Such circles allow you to take a break from work and enjoy other activities.

According to Mayoclinic.org, having friends can result in the following:
- Boost your sense of purpose
- Reduce stress
- Improve self-worth
- Increase a sense of belonging
- Encourage you to drop bad habits and adopt healthier ones
- Cope with traumas such as death, divorce, and illnesses
Take care of your oral health

Oral health is the process of keeping your teeth healthy and mouth clean. But generally, oral health is the last thing on most people’s minds because they don’t realize that ignoring it means giving a safe passage to germs to reach inside their body and cause mayhem. Continuously ignoring your oral health results in severe gum and tooth decay.

Brush your teeth two times a day (morning and evening), use good floss, avoid sugary treats, and see your dentist at least once a year. If you have artificial teeth, don’t use tobacco or any substance that causes staining.

As a nurse, you must interact with countless people during the shift. Your mouth releasing a foul smell is the last thing you want. So use a mouth freshener to prevent bad breath and feel more confident when talking to others.

Conclusion

Staying healthy is integral to living a happy life and enjoying your work as a nurse. Ignoring your health means you will not have the strength to care for your patients either. Some ways to ensure mental and physical fitness are mentioned above; following them with dedication is the key to enjoying their effects.