Nurse Self-Care: Meal Prep, Night Shift Tips & Top Podcasts

Mylocum

Self-Care for Nurses

Mylocum recognises the significance of Self-Care for Nurses, particularly when it concerns our cherished nursing professionals. It could be really hard to maintain a healthy lifestyle as a nurse. Hospital patients need to be taken care of 24/7 and therefore it can be complex and tough to work and have enough time for yourself. That’s why we always aim to promote physical and mental health importance by providing different tips and advice for you, nurses.

Throughout our previous blogs we managed to gather some useful information which was appreciated by many nurses. Here we have gathered a few of our previous blogs. In this article you will find meal prep ideas for your busy shifts, tips around dealing with night shifts and some inspirational content for nurses like podcasts and TED talks. Looking after yourself is important and should stay in your priorities along with caring for your patients. Hope you find it practical and enjoy reading it!

Meal Prep Ideas for Busy Healthcare Professionals

Should I eat nutritious home-cooked meals or save time by stopping for fast food on the way? It’s as if we have to pick between our health and our time all of the time. Healthcare workers are even more familiar with this issue. Meal preps for the resque! Popular saying nowadays is ‘’Meal prepping is becoming the new fast food! Healthy fast food.’’ So let us take a look at some meal prep ideas for you, busy healthcare professionals! As this is important to your Self-Care for Nurses routine on a daily basis.

  • Write down your weekly meals plan day by day. Do your research. What meals can you cook in big amounts and maybe freeze? Above in the blog, we have shared with you a few ideas if you would like to take as an example.
  • Shop smart – Do your grocery shopping according to your meal plan. Usually when you go to the shop you get distracted by so many things which you ‘may use for something’. No, you don’t need that oyster just in case. Focus on the ingredients you need for the planned dishes and snacks.
  • Think about cooking time -Once again, do your research. Roasting the vegetables will take around half an hour. Let’s say that you’re boiling lentils – another half an hour to one hour depending on the type and half an hour for your snacks. This takes one hour in total. You can find different cooking instructions with approximate timing online. It will give you a clearer idea of how much time you need to put aside on the selected day.
Check the rest of the tips on How to Plan Your Meal Preps for the Week here.

Self-Care for Nurses

How to adjust the Circadian Clock and have a Good Day’s Sleep?

Patients in hospitals must be cared for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so night shift nursing is just as critical as day shift nursing. Working a night shift while knowing that it is your sweet dream time can be complicated and difficult, so you must understand why you are doing it and stay motivated and awake as much as possible.

Night shifts are rarely enjoyable, so here are some suggestions for making them more bearable. Below you can find tips on how to adjust your sleep pattern when you are doing a Self-Care for Nurses night shift edition.

During the night your body is programmed to believe it should be asleep. This is because of the natural human’s perception of the 24-hour cycle, also called a Circadian Clock, where the light during the day is an indicator of activeness while night times are for relaxation and sleep. A nurse can try to trick the brain and make the life of a night time nurse better. Force it to believe it is night time during the day and the opposite. During the day nurses can try to make their rooms at home darker by getting thicker and darker colour blinds. It gives you the illusion that it is time to sleep and gives your body some semblance of normality.

Caffeinated drinks are quick but not always the best solution to keep yourself awake. Especially if you decide to drink it at the end of your shift. It will probably give you an immediate boost, but let’s not forget that usually coffee kicks in later and it could affect your sleep once you get home. Try drinking your coffee at the beginning of your shift and after that rely on other methods and activities as we will discuss below.

You can find a few insights on how to stay awake and productive during your night shifts in our blog.

Self-Care for Nurses

Nurse Podcasts & TED Talk for a positive start of the day

We understand that Self-Care for Nurses may be overworked due to long shifts. As a result, most nurses are uninterested in going through social media, viewing news, or watching movies. Nurses require useful content delivered in a user-friendly format.

There are many inspiring podcasts available for nurses to listen to. We’ve compiled a list of noteworthy podcasts – from nurses to other nurses – that may lighten your day, provide insight into critical nursing themes, and more.

Below are shown 10 Nursing Podcasts which you might consider. Just choose your field and topic you show interest in and play in your earphones.

Understand more about each of these podcasts here

We have also gathered some of the most inspirational videos on TED talk suitable for nurses below. You can get your nurse inspiration dose by listening to them on your way back home, while preparing for a long day at work or even before bed time. Especially now during the times of Covid-19 pandemic the healthcare staff needs a boost of motivation. Here are some of the powerful and motivational TED talks which could be used as good sources of daily motivation in the nursing career.

On being present, not perfect – by Elaine Meyer

With her real-life stories within the healthcare field, the speech of Elaine Meyer is subtle yet touching for some Nurse Inspiration. Her personal experience in clinicals is presenting us the importance of being real in your workplace. Opening up and having emotional and real talks with patients is of great importance. She shares that being genuine and open towards patients and their families is as important as the medicine treatment that you give them. Motivation for the nursing profession could be found in the small things.

What makes us get sick? Look upstream – Rishi Manchanda

While working with patients, Rishi Manchanda realized the importance of finding the root of the health problems. Before treating the after effect with medicines he prefers to understand the core trigger of the sickness. It could be an irregular or unhealthy diet, increased stress levels and other problems which occur from the environmental and the social aspects. He believes in the holistic approach.

There are three more TED Talks we have gathered for you, nurses – check them here.

Mylocum will continue to share valuable data and advice as we believe that every single effort we make could positively impact at least one nurse. Your constant care and compassion do not go unnoticed. We do ask you to take less pressure on your shoulders (figuratively and literally) and continue being guardian angels on the Earth.

Remember, your patients need you to be healthy! So please follow these Self-Care for Nurses.

Self-Care for Nurses


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