We all know the pressure of working in a busy healthcare environment.
Coming up with New Year’s resolutions is a great way to start the year right and with a positive outlook. We have put together a list of five realistic new year’s resolutions that every healthcare professional should try to keep.
1) Drink more water.
You’re always pestering your patients to drink more, well you should be drinking more too! It’s too often that Nurses get to the end of their 12-hour shift only to realise they have not had a drink all day! Try to replace the coffee on night shifts with water – you’ll feel a lot better overall and you’ll sleep better when you finally get to bed too.
Take a look at the best water bottles for healthcare professionals.
2) Sleep for more than 4 hours.
You are not a superhero, your body needs to rest and to recuperate especially from 12 hours on your feet. You may be tempted to sleep whenever and wherever you can but it has been proven than 6 hours of continuous sleep is better for your body than smaller ‘power-naps’. This is especially important in-between shifts – you can’t be on your game if you’ve only had 4 hours sleep.
3) Look after your hands.
Your hands are the ‘tools of your trade’, constant washing means they can easily get dry, cracked and blistered. Make sure you take a few moments to apply moisturiser. Your organisation may already provide moisturiser, but let me honest – it’s not the best. Pick some of the good stuff up from your local chemist.
Take a look at the 5 beat hand creams for healthcare professionals.
4) See your own Doctor.
We look after other people all day long but sometimes you forget to look after yourself. Your health is just as important. If you have health niggles – go and see your Doctor – I’ve seen too many Nurses wait until it’s too late and end up off work sick instead. It’s no good for you and it’s no good for your patients.
5) Go for a wee!
By the end of a 12-hour shift, your EWS is sometimes higher than your patients. Try and take a few moments every few hours for yourself, drink stop, toilet break and back to work. These few moments are essential for you to be on your A-game.
Basically, Look after Yourself!
The moral of this post is simply this; LOOK AFTER YOURSELF – you’re important too!
Many of you are going to be doing this job for the next 40 years, you need to look after and respect your body. I know all too well about the pressures of working within healthcare but I also know about getting ill due to self-neglect. You wouldn’t put your patients through it – so why put yourself through it?