31 Ways to Survive Nurse Burnout
Do you feel overwhelmed and exhausted from the daily demands of being a nurse? You’re not alone.
Most nurses will, at some point during their careers, experience burnout due to the nature of this type of work. Increased stress, unpredictable outcomes, compassion fatigue, and mental, physical, + emotional exhaustion all contribute to burnout.
Burnout will inevitably impact the nurse’s ability to give compassionate care to their patients and could even lead to poor patient outcomes. Fortunately, there are ways to combat burnout symptoms and increase your well-being.
So, if you’re looking to prevent or survive nurse burnout, read on to discover the holistic approach to health practices that will create work-life balance and help you thrive!
Let’s talk about all the ways to survive the B* word…
(Psst...I'm talking about Burnout!)
Mind
Digital unplug: Set your phone aside for a few hours or an entire day. Allow yourself to be bored and see what creativity blossoms from your boredom.
Practice positive self-talk: Replacing negative self-talk with positive will require compassion + understanding towards self and practice, practice, practice! Take notice of your thoughts, challenge negative ones, and take action to change the behavior.
Read an interesting or favorite book: Invest in your mental health by engaging your brain and reading a book instead of getting caught in the endless scroll. FYI, find the book club section of the resources tab to get some ideas on books to read!
Do something creative: Write, paint, garden, dance, sculpt, play an instrument, or whatever you feel is calling to you. Do anything that will create something new.
Learn a new skill: Learn how to paint, play an instrument, or speak a new language. Choose something interesting to you and have fun along the way.
Body
Move your body: Move any way you’d like. Just get up and get active! Your movement can be running, lifting, climbing, boxing, dancing, yoga, etc.
Get a massage: Getting a massage can help you to renew your energy and refresh your mind. Just remember to relax, restore, and rehydrate!
Nourish your skin: Maybe try a bath. Maybe use an exfoliant. Maybe try a dry brush routine. Or use your favorite lotion to hydrate your skin.
Meal prep for the week: It’s exponentially easier to grab and go than to make a new meal every day before work. Try prepping a meal you enjoy the second time around and go from there.
Stick with a sleep routine: Long 10+ hour shifts and night shifts can mess up your sleep schedule, so try your best to figure out a sleep routine that works for you and allows you to wake up refreshed.
Spirit
Reconnect with self: Slow down, listen to your thoughts, witness the way your body feels, reflect on your experiences, make an effort to allow yourself compassion for your experiences, and learn to trust your authentic self.
Spend time in nature: Nature can promote peace + harmony within, reduce feelings of loneliness, lower stress, boost energy, promote cognitive function, and inspire creativity!
Meditation / Prayer: Get quiet, witness your thoughts, let go of your feelings, and focus on your breathing. Spend this time reconnecting to you and your higher power.
Read religious text: If you don’t have a religious affiliation (or maybe you’re just curious), there can be some interesting and humbling lessons taught in religious text, and for some people, religious text can promote feelings of connection, encouragement, and peace.
Journal: There’s nothing like putting pen to paper. Taking the time to sift through your thoughts and feelings to write a cohesive sentence and story can be highly therapeutic.
Emotion
Give yourself permission to feel all the feelings: Unfortunately, you’ll need to learn how to separate and control your emotions while on the job, especially when challenging situations arise. However, don’t let yourself suppress your emotions all the time, even outside of work. Remember, it’s okay not to be okay. Find a safe place and allow yourself to feel your feelings, so you can process them and move on.
Talk to a mentor or invest in conventional talk therapy: Talking with someone can allow you to put language to your experiences and give power back to you, rather than allowing your experiences to control you.
Invest in an energy healing session: Your body is composed of vibrant energy; sometimes, that energy can become stagnant or blocked. You can stimulate your body’s inherent ability to heal by partaking in an energy-healing session.
Practice gratitude: I don’t just mean writing down three things you’re grateful for and then forgetting about them. Reach down deep and find the essence of what it means to have gratitude. Feel it in your bones and deep in your belly. Allow that essence to change your perspective on your day-to-day life.
Watch your favorite feel-good movie: A good movie can evoke emotion from its audience, providing a much-needed distraction when you’re feeling lost. Choose a movie that will make you cry, laugh, or simply remind you of why it’s one of your favorites. Watching a movie will help you shift your focus from scattered, overwhelming thoughts to the present moment.
Career
Create visionary career goals and align your work: Goals should inspire you, not overwhelm you. Make actionable and attainable goals to work towards to achieve the career and life you want to live.
Review your finances: Develop a financial plan based on your personal goals and review your finances weekly to ensure you’re making decisions that will lead you to your goals.
Clean up your locker or workspace: A cluttered workspace produces a cluttered mind - the chaos can be overwhelming! It’s essential to take the time to clean up, clear out, and organize your workspace to ensure a productive and efficient environment. Taking the time to declutter can help to reduce stress and allow you to focus on the tasks ahead of you. It’s a simple step but can make a big difference to your day-to-day productivity!
Take an interesting CEU course: If you have to complete continuing education units for your license might as well make it enjoyable! Do your research before diving in. There’s absolutely something interesting out there for you to learn.
Learn to let go + leave your work at the door: Constantly worrying about what you did or didn’t do isn’t going to help you in the long run. Learn from your experiences but don’t let your experiences drag you down or weigh on your shoulders for the rest of eternity. Breathe and let go.
Community
Volunteer: Choose a nonprofit that is personally meaningful to you. Take the time to connect with the mission and intent behind building a community to help others. Investing in your community can be a rewarding experience that can provide you with a sense of connection and purpose.
Play society games: Society games can be a great way to connect with other people and have fun in a community setting. From classic board games like Monopoly and Scrabble to card games like Poker and Blackjack to modern multiplayer video games like Fortnite and MarioKart, you can have good ole fashion fun playing in groups.
Put your phone/electronics away during meal times: Unplug is already on this list, but THIS is an intentional ‘unplug’ and a choice to share a meal in community with others without regard to what’s going on in the digital world.
Spend quality time with a friend or loved one: It’s not always so simple, and sometimes life gets the best of us. Reach out to a friend or loved one you haven’t spoken to in a while and spend some quality time reconnecting.
Set boundaries for who you spend time with: Learning to say ‘no’ can be a difficult concept for many to achieve, so this is really about you choosing to spend time with those that inspire, motivate, and encourage you.
Plan and execute a potluck with coworkers: I wholly believe Taco Tuesday with coworkers builds community within your workspace and helps pull your team together. Couldn’t we all use a little more light-hearted camaraderie in the workspace?
Benefits of putting yourself first!
Self-awareness + Self-discovery: You have an innate sense of self; it’s a matter of trusting your intuition and listening to your needs. As you try new self-care practices and routines, you’ll inevitably discover what you do and do not like, as well as discover the things that make you feel renewed and learn to stay away from the things that don’t.
Renewed energy: Self-care frees your mind from unnecessary clutter and motivates you to do what you need to do.
Improved self-esteem + Confidence: When you care for yourself, you’re sending your mind a message: you matter, you have value, your needs are important, and you deserve love and attention.
Self-control: Self-care brings you self-awareness and the ability to manage your emotions better.
Healthy habits: Self-care will boost your mood, realign your goals, give you endorphins, and reduce stress. The more you practice your self-care, the more you’ll be motivated to continue to care for yourself in every aspect of your life. These habits are the whole health work-life balance you need in your life.
Resiliency + Self-reliance: By caring for yourself, you can learn to rely on yourself because you are teaching yourself love, compassion, and understanding. Your relationship with yourself needs to be nurtured, just like any other relationship.
Increased capacity for empathy + improved interpersonal relationships: When you take care of yourself, you fill your own cup and can then fill the cups of others. Treat yourself with kindness, and you’ll better understand how to treat others with compassion.
Overcoming your barriers (we’ve all got ‘em)…
Tired of hearing about self-care: Raise your hand if you’re totally over hearing about self-care strategies. Girl, I am right there with ya! Don’t listen to the clutter. You have every right to care for yourself in whatever way you feel is necessary.
Feeling unmotivated: I’m not going to stand on this soap box and tell you it’s going to be easy or that you’re going to feel super motivated all the time because you aren’t. Take it one day at a time. Try something you know you’ll enjoy and try to do that thing every day or every other day. You get to choose what self-care looks like for you; let that be a motivator for you.
Unrealistic goals and expectations: If your goals are too lofty, you won’t be motivated to accomplish them. Goals should inspire you, not bring you down. Don’t do yourself a disservice by creating unattainable goals. Start small, be consistent, and don’t forget this is all for you!
Overwhelming distractions: Life is full of distractions, and I know your to-do lists are a mile long. Trust me; I get it. Try to get yourself in the zone, turn up the music or turn it off. Don’t let life distract you from enjoying the present moment.
Depression: With overwhelming stress, severe burnout, and maybe a lack of fulfillment, depression can easily slip in and make a home in your body. Maybe your self-care simply means asking for help. It’s okay not to be okay.
Guilt: Take this little nugget of self-sabotage and rid yourself of it. You have nothing to feel guilty about because your needs are just as important as anyone else’s. The only way you can care for others without burnout is to care for yourself. You deserve it!
Lack of time: With the time it took to read this article, I bet you could have done 5 minutes of meditation. You have the time. You just have to change your perspective and maybe get a little creative.
No more of that dreaded B* word, okay?
Being a nurse usually means prioritizing other people’s health over your own, which can lead to overwhelming stress, anxiety, compassion fatigue, and burnout.
If you want to survive burnout as a nurse, you have to learn how to take care of yourself first before taking care of others. You cannot pour from an empty cup. Therefore, make an effort to care for yourself in a meaningful and compassionate way.
Don’t allow the guilt to creep in. Instead, motivate yourself to discover the things you love to do, create healthy habits, and trust your intuition. Be everything you need for yourself so you can turn around and care for others in an equally meaningful and compassionate way.
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