Nursing Work/Life Balance

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Who You’ll Hear

Kati Kleber, MSN RN – Nurse educator, former cardiac med-surg/stepdown and neurocritical care nurse, author, speaker

Elizabeth Mills, BSN RN CCRN – Highly experienced neurocritical care nurse, current Stroke Navigator for a Primary Stroke Center

What You’ll Learn

• Being Prepared
• Communication
• Advocating for yourself
• Giving grace

“Putting the wants of yourself over the needs of others is selfish.
“Putting the needs of yourself over the wants of others is self-care”
-Unknown

Be practically prepared

• Do laundry ahead of time
• Plan meals, or at least your meals and snacks for work
• Set out what you need to so that you’re not frantically searching for things right before leaving – starting a shift frazzled is too much stress
• Have a back-up set of scrubs at work
• Prioritize sleep + Eat well + Exercise
• Create a sleep-friendly environment (good sheets, supportive mattress, dark room)
• You must take extra time and care to get quality sleep before 12 hour shifts – go to bed when you need to, even if it’s early
• Don’t mistake exhaustion as something to be proud of – it’s not! “Ugh I only got 2 hours of sleep last night…”
• You can easily make a mistake if you are not well-rested – your mental clarity will be compromised if you are sleep-deprived. Seriously.
• Set yourself up for success for eating well

Communication

• Essential to communicate expectations to those with whom you share life
• Easy to get frustrated when someone fails to meet unsaid expectations
• Even really good communicators mess up and miscommunicate
• Share the work so you’re not in a constant state of being overwhelmed, meeting the wants of others before the needs of yourself
• Be quick to forgive and slow to anger

Advocate for yourself

• No one will do this for you – you must do this for yourself
• You may need to tell people no, which is challenging for people-pleasers
  • As nurses, we live our lives to care for others so it can be challenging for us to advocate for ourselves sometimes
• You may get called for overtime or to come in and help on your day off, but know your limits and don’t be afraid to say no
• Think about sustainability
• Know when to say no, know when to say yes

Give yourself some grace

• Transitioning from nursing school to bedside nurse is challenging mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually
• You are learning a large amount of new information quickly, want to make a good impression, and your body is adjusting to shift work
• At the beginning, work will be more exhausting because you are unable to quickly do things independently
• You can’t chart, start an IV, hang meds, draw labs, bathe a patient, round with an MD, etc. all quickly like your experienced coworkers can
• Don’t compare yourself to them as you’re learning – they are experienced and can do many things fluidly. It’s frustrating when it takes forever to do simple things but it will get easier. You will get faster.
• Being disciplined early in your career will make it easier in the long run; you won’t have to break yourself of bad habits
• Have people around you who support you that you can go to when you need to process work situations

Resources

• The Simply Reason Nurses Should Put Themselves Before Their Patients by Nacole Riccaboni, BSN RN CCRN-CMC
• Should Young Doctors Be Allowed to Work 24-Hour Shifts? by Healthline

• Why Working Three Days a Week is Utterly Exhausting by Brie Gowen, RN (this is not to scare you, but to let you know how intense working 3 days/week and you truly need to take time for yourself)
• Self-Care Strategies for Nurses by Marsha Battee RN (aka the Bossy Nurse)