Way before anyone not in the medical and healthcare profession had ever heard of the disease coronavirus, nurses and other healthcare professionals who work daily on the ‘front line’ of healthcare were under an immense amount of pressure which often leaked into their personal life as well.

Now, more than ever before, as a professional and working nurse, it is crucial to ensure that you are taking care of your levels of emotional health and wellbeing as much as you are looking after the individual patients on your ward.

So, continue reading for a comprehensive guide on how to improve your emotional health and wellbeing as a professional nurse.

Always Try to Take Your Assigned Breaks

Being a nurse means that, as much as you want to take your breaks as and when they are assigned to you, it is often the reality that you are simply unable to due to your workload, or if your team that day is once again understaffed.

Understaffing is a real issue when it comes to nurses, both across the length and breadth of the country and beyond, and if you are someone who is looking to become a nurse, then you should look into online absn programs, which will accelerate the time it takes to achieve your desired career.

However, to protect your mental health and indeed, to not let your levels of fatigue and tiredness impede your quality and duty of care to your patients, it is essential to at least take a small section of your break when you can. Even stepping outside for five or ten minutes can make a real difference to how you feel and, remember, there is absolutely nothing to feel guilty about in doing so.

Consider Your Life/Work Balance

Part and parcel of becoming a professional and qualified working nurse is that you will inevitably be working long and arduous shift patterns. Indeed, if you have been working on the front line for many years now and are looking to change the direction of your career path to more of a leadership role.

Furthermore, when you do finally return home from a busy and often physically and mentally demanding day, you have no energy to do anything other than make yourself some fast food and go to bed, ready to start again the next day.

However, you should, from now on, actively try to at least do something every day that makes time for you and your personal growth, or indeed relaxation, even if that is sitting outside in your garden with a glass of wine in the evening.

Try to Leave Work Where it Belongs: At Work

Especially over the last two and a half years, you would have to be a robot to not feel emotionally hurt and even in some cases, especially with nurses who were involved with looking after Covid-19 patients directly, traumatized, by your daily working life.

However, it is essential for your levels of emotional health and wellbeing to at least try to leave your work issues, worries, concerns, and feelings inside the hospital or medical facility where they belong and to try not to bring those feelings home with you.

You will probably be used to at least attempting to separate and distance yourself from your work, but you must try even harder to draw the line as soon as your shift is over.

Look After Yourself Physically Too

It is certainly not just your emotional health and well-being which you should be paying attention to, and it is accurate to say that if you are not feeling well physically, this will quickly start to affect your mind and behavior.

Preparing healthy meals the night before to heat up in the hospital staffroom sounds easy and simple enough, but in reality, when you are tired and want nothing more than to go to sleep after a busy shift, this can be a lot harder in practice.

Instead, try to bulk buy healthier ready meals and either store them at work or else place them in a cool bag the night before, so you can grab the bag when you are ready to head out of the door the following morning. If you are someone who understandably often forgets to take extra bags and pack-ups with you to work, instead remember to put your car keys inside the bag so you cannot help but remember your lunch and dinners in the morning.

Engage in Mind Exercises Before You Enter the Hospital

Finally, but perhaps most effectively of all, one of the best ways to strive to improve and strengthen your levels of emotional health and wellbeing as a busy, stressed and working professional nurse is to engage in mental exercises before you start your shift.

There is a plethora of ways to calm your mind, attempt to banish feelings of low mood and boost your energy levels, all with the power of your mind, including, but certainly in no way limited to, the following:

• Deep breathing exercises
• Admit to yourself that today is going to be a hard day and that it is ok to feel anxious or agitated
• Challenge your thoughts and feelings surrounding the issue which is causing you stress and frustration and try and apply logic and rationality to the situation
• Engage in physical activity to try to encourage the release of serotonin into the brain, as well as make your body feel more relaxed. Stretching after a workout is likely to help with this
• Picture yourself in a calm and peaceful environment, such as a green field on a sunny day, or at your favorite place to visit
• Google mantras and simple quotes which you can relate to and repeat them to yourself over and over in your head, out loud or both
• Create a playlist of your favorite tunes which serve to make you happy, relax you or make you think of happy and contented times