TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE FOR TRAVCON 2025 CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS TODAY!

By Kevin Devoto

January 29, 2022

2278 Views

ADVERTISEMENT

Staying Healthy As a Busy Nurse

As a nurse, it’s second nature for you to take care of everyone around you. No matter how busy you get with helping other people, you need to support your health. If your health isn’t at its best, it’ll be far harder for you to succeed at work. Before you go to work for the week, take some time to care for yourself. Supporting your health will help you succeed, both at work and home. 

Getting Proper Nutrition

One of the most important aspects of taking care of yourself is your nutrition. When you’re busy with work, it can be hard to focus on what you’re putting in your body. As a nurse, you know that everything you eat becomes your body’s fuel, so it’s important to have healthy, balanced nutrition. When your diet suffers, your body will slow, and your energy levels will drop, making nursing all the more difficult. Ensuring your nutrition is balanced and complete is the first step in keeping your body healthy. 

Of course, it can be hard to find time to sit down for full meals as a nurse. Depending on where you’re working, a meal break is a luxury that comes rarely. Even if you don’t get a full meal break every shift, it’s still important to take care of your nutrition; this is where things such as meal replacement shakes come in. While these shakes aren’t as nutrient-rich as a full meal, they provide the protein and fats your body needs to keep its energy up, allowing you to continue working without exhaustion. If you’re unsure of how to balance your nutrition and your busy schedule, look into these meal replacement solutions. No matter how you do it, keeping your nutrition right is vital to your overall health. 

Ensuring High-Quality Sleep

Another major component of your overall health is sleep. When you sleep, your body heals from the stress and damage it has encountered that day. If the quality of your sleep is poor, you’ll be exhausted and sluggish the next day. Making sure you get both enough sleep and good quality sleep is crucial to maintaining your health. When you get high-quality sleep, your immune system will get a boost, and your health will improve. The question is, how do you improve your sleep as a busy nurse? 

One of the best things you can do for your sleep is getting a good mattress. A supportive mattress will cradle your pressure points and reduce pain in your joints while you sleep. This reduction in pain and swelling will help you sleep deeper and wake up refreshed every morning. Another way you can improve your sleep is by having a routine. While this isn’t the easiest thing to do as a busy nurse, having a general set time that you go to bed and wake up every day will help you fall and stay asleep easier. This leads to less tossing and turning and deeper and more restorative sleep. The better sleep you get, the healthier your body will be. 

Staying Mentally Healthy

Finally, it’s important to keep your mental health up as well. It’s no secret that nursing is an incredibly taxing profession, and it can take a severe toll on your mental health at times. If you want to stay healthy as a nurse, it’s crucial to take care of your mind as well. Take time to decompress after work and rejuvenate your psyche. No matter how stressful your job gets, you should be able to come home and relax. Make the effort to keep your mind healthy, and you’ll be able to avoid work stress getting the better of you. 

When you’re feeling overwhelmed from work, take some time for self-care. How you do this depends on your tastes, but it’s the effort that will make the difference. Giving yourself a space to relax and unwind without any expectations will keep you mentally healthy as well as physically. 

Overall, you need to take care of yourself as a nurse. The healthier you are, the better you’ll be able to protect and nurture others. 

We hope you found these tips for staying healthy as a busy nu e helpful. Do you have any health tips for busy tr el nurses? Comment them below.

Are you looking for your next travel nurse assignment? Click here to view our job board. Do you need housing for your assignment? Click here to search our housing page.

If you are a new travel nurse or looking into becoming a travel nurse:

Travel Nurse Guide: Step-by-Step (now offered in a PDF Downloadable version!)

Join The Gypsy Nurse Nation

Discover new travel nurse jobs, subscribe to customized job alerts and unlock unlimited resources for FREE.

Since just recently joining The Gypsy Nurse, I have had so many questions answered about the world of travel nursing. This has been an excellent resource!
—Meagan L. | Cath Lab