Nurses: 7 Tips for Self Care and Resilience

Nurses inspire, innovate and influence us every day. To have a positive impact on healthcare, we know it takes more than being a caring and competent caregiver. It also takes determination, dedication, resilience and grit. Simply put, nurses are strong.

This Nurses Week, we celebrated that strength during a roundtable discussion featuring nurse leaders and innovators driving the profession and gave each and every nurse a chance to express what makes them…#NurseStrong. We hope you find inspiration from our panel of participants!

Question:
Given the role of the nurse in taking care of others, it’s equally important that nurses care for themselves to be resilient. What do you do to help make sure you're resilient and bringing your best self to care for students, faculty, colleagues, and patients?

1. Create a Culture that Thrives

“Specifically related to Chamberlain, one of my priorities is to make sure that our culture of care really continues to grow and thrive. Our culture is very special to Chamberlain, and I've talked to many people across the country that have worked in other schools of education and colleges of nursing, and they see the difference. They feel the difference. A culture is more than what you say, it's really what you do. The culture of an organization can really make an impact on one’s ability to be resilient when there are challenges.”
– Karen Cox, PhD, RN, FACHE, FAAN, president, Chamberlain University

2. Find a Destination that Provides an Escape for your Mind

“A long time ago, I started going to Aruba every year. I find that I do a lot of daydreaming in Aruba. My mind tends to relax in front of the ocean and sand and it puts me in the perspective to re-focus on the things that need my attention. While I know I couldn't live there forever, because I like to work, each year I like to live there for a little bit of time.”
– Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN, CEO, National League for Nursing

3. Find Humor in the Situation

“I try to find the humor in any situation that I can. I'm very blessed I have some excellent colleagues that I work with, and we have a good culture on our campus. We can laugh at ourselves a little bit. I find that it's very easy to bring work home. We all do it and some of us thrive on that, but we do have to have some time to ourselves where we actually close the door on the rest of it and find something else. With me, it's humor.”
– Donna Castellani, BSN, MSN/Ed, RN, CNE, faculty, North Brunswick campus, Chamberlain University

4. Discover an Activity that Provides Relaxation

“For myself personally, it took me longer to learn how to take care of myself. It was always easier for me to take care of other people. I found mindfulness-based stress reduction. I live in Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes, and I fish all the time. I discovered it as a way of relaxing. My favorite kind of fishing is ice fishing. I love being out there in the dark in the morning, and I need that peacefulness. So all of my travel is around fishing.”
– Marianne Olson, PhD, RN, associate professor, Doctor of Nursing Practice degree program, Chamberlain University

5. Meditate for Personal Mental Health

“I meditate and practice some form of setting intentions daily when I wake up in the morning. I usually keep a tight schedule and look at my schedule nightly, and go to sleep with good intentions. When I wake up, I set my intentions for the day as well. Sometimes I reach out to my friends and also lean into my colleagues on campus. Spirituality is also important for me, so I lean into my spirituality as well to keep me fortified.”
– Carmina Pouncy, MSN, RN-BC, HN-BC, assistant professor, Troy campus, Chamberlain University

6. Live with a Sense of Purpose

“You have to be purposeful. Part of that is making sure you have put in place positive people that can uplift you, that can carry you, that can give you words of advice. I have mentors all over the place. It's crucial to being able to have that connection and have open lines of communication.
– Charisse Hughson-Chitolie, MSN, FNP-BC, Chamberlain alumni

7. Practice Gratefulness

“When I moved to integrative health and medicine, the most interesting research that I read was on gratitude science. It is as simple as waking in the morning and going to bed in the evening and saying one thing that you're grateful for – it's no more complicated than that. So for me, gratitude is a daily practice and something that I really think has changed my perspective on how I look at things.”
– Melissa Harker, DNP, MSN, CNEcl, AHN-BC, RN-BC, education and training manager, integrative health and medicine, Hackensack Meridian Health

Interested in learning how you can contribute to impacting patient care and education? Explore the exciting opportunities available through Chamberlain University or request more information here.

For more nursing tips, check out these blog posts:

• Top 4 Relaxation Tips for Nurses
• Just Say OM: How Cultivating Mindfulness Can Enhance Your Nursing Practice
• The Balancing Act: 6 Tips for Achieving Work-Life Balance

By Natalie Sobolewski