Nurse Supervisor Jobs >> Browse Articles >> Work-Life Balance
4 Cures for Busy Nurses
Featured Author:
Joyce Harrell, RN
Joyce has been a registered nurse for over 20 years, specializing in Oncology Nursing for the past 12 years. She is a wellness coach with training from Wellcoaches and Wellness Inventory Assessment programs. Joyce continues to work on an inpatient Oncology unit as a nurse utilizing and promoting Dr. Jean Watson’s “caring” model. Joyce is also the owner of Power Up Health Coaching and coaches nurses, caregivers, and cancer patients to find balance in the midst of unbalanced lives. In addition to writing for her own wellness website, Joyce is a contributing writer for several health, wellness, and caregiver related websites and is the lead nurse project manager for a wellness nurse project.
More articles from this author:
Wellness Nurses
December 17, 2010
If you’re like most nurses, there are never enough hours in a day. You’re constantly juggling your career, spouse, kids, friends, your entrepreneur opportunities and volunteer work. If the Moms of the 50′s, Mrs. Cleaver for instance, could see all the technology we have now, she’s wonder why we aren’t relaxing 10 hours a day! But many of us have a bad habit of busyness – trying to be Superwoman w/o asking for help or being too afraid to slow down. Here are five quick steps to managing stress and your career so you can stay out of this trap that steals our time and personal wellness.
1. Quit Some Commitments
This obvious…however we rarely follow through on it. Just because we volunteered to decorate the trees or collect frozen turkeys last year doesn’t mean we have to do it for the rest of our lives. Sometimes, finding life balance means we have to say no from time to time. One of the reasons we don’t say no is that we don’t like to let people down. But people resign, get promoted and move every day. This reluctance for change is just in our minds. It is also hard to quit something that you find meaningful or that you know helps others.
That’s one of the reasons most of us got into nursing in the first place – the feeling we get from helping others. So some registered nurses find this especially challenging. Volunteering can be seen as looking at a menu from your favorite restaurant. Yes, you want the Spinach Artichoke dip and the Spicy Chicken Skewers. They’re both so yummy! But it’s foolish to order both.
2. Make a Plan
When we get to work or we think about or day each morning, we should plan out the tasks that should have our priority. You can do this mentally, but you may find stronger results if you write them down. Think about these tasks and make priorities based on your job and of course your personal health and wellness if it’s a day off. Do the ones that are the highest priority first! If you find yourself on Facebook before your priorities are done, take a moment to think about your tasks that day and log out! You can see what ridiculous outfits your girlfriend put her kids in for Halloween later.
Want to take it a step further? Do one or two of your priority tasks BEFORE you even check your Inbox in the morning. Whoa….now that’s a challenge! But you can do it!
