| Discipline: | Nursing | | Subject Definition: | Nurses-Psychology; Self Care; Burnout, Professional-Prev&Ctl | | NLM Class: | WY 87 | | LC Class: | RT86 | | Abstract: | These are among today's self-help buzzwords. There are countless books, articles, and podcasts on these topics, and many of them are essential resources for anyone seeking solid footing in the world today. Self-care remains an imperative for nurses and other healthcare professionals as burnout, high attrition rates, emotional fatigue, and moral distress loom large over us, especially in the age of COVID-19. The people who so compassionately care for others are in dire need of care themselves. We need all the gifts that you bring to the nursing profession. Your future patients need you. Your future colleagues need you. We need you to become the best nurse you can possibly be so that you can support other young nurses as they, too, enter this profession. Nursing will afford you daily interactions that will change the lives of your patients, strengthen the resolve of your colleagues, and ripple beyond your immediate circle to surprising places. The gifts that you bring are beyond measure. Imagine for a moment a patient who is a young mother. Perhaps she is facing her health challenges while trying to be strong for her children and partner. The kindness, wisdom, and support that you bring to your interactions with her will have a downstream impact on her children and family. Even her children's children. Think about yourself or your nursing school peers who, when asked why they wanted to become a nurse, tell a story about growing up and seeing a nurse who cared for them or a loved one during a health crisis. So many nurses are nurses because they experienced the compassion of someone like you when they were in need. These nurses' compassion may have started you on your own journey to nursing, even though they may never know the impact they had on you. That is one of the superpowers of nursing: the impact you have on others. You will matter in ways big and small, in ways that the universe may never even be able to reveal to you. We welcome you on this journey, and we hope you welcome the opportunity to explore the concept of self-care, what it means, what works best for you, and how it can help you flourish in good times and help you grow in difficult ones. We are especially grateful, and humbled, that we can do it with you. |
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