The Importance of Self-Care for Nurses

Physical and emotional self-care could be the deciding factor between a good nurse and great nurse. Without taking care of ones self, a nurse cannot take on the responsibility of caring for others. This topic is important to address and is essential for a healthy population, in nursing or not. Self care helps you become more proactive and productive by preventing burn out, reducing stress, and refocusing. This paper will contain the benefit of self-care to your emotional state of well being, as well as the attention to this topic including the problem with self-care, in that it is misunderstood and underused. Nursing and self-care should go hand and hand; therefore this paper will dive in to the current research, insight, and discussions on this topic, in hopes for a healthier and improved nursing career as well as personal life.

“Nursing is the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, facilitation of healing, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations”. (American Nurses Association website, n.d.) At its core, nursing is a profession that is in the business of providing care to people. These people are diverse in a variety of different ways from common

Regrettably, the existence of nursing depends on the medical inadequacy of others. Unfortunately, nursing exists because people get hurt, cannot care for themselves, or need assistance with daily activities. Carol Taylor (2011), author of Fundamentals of Nursing: The Art and Science of Nursing Care, writes, “Nursing care involves any number of activities, from carrying out complicated technical procedures to something as seemingly as holding a hand” (p. 5). Taylor explains it is the duty of a nurse not only to learn the pertinent skills but also to bond with and comfort others. Nurses have to do and become many things: They must be stern when necessary, compassionate when needed, open minded

Nursing care incorporates not only a compassionate attitude but passion for care of patients. The caring component of nursing cannot be measured, rather dissected through theory within the clarification of what nurses do. Systemically this is all supported through abundant theories and theorist. The nursing profession emphasizes on holistic care which is defined as treatment of the whole person. Within this skill is the admittance of problems that are biomedical but also opportune clarification of the well-being and health of a human that introduces added indicators of disease that are non-visualized (Powers, 2011).

Nursing revolves, not merely about looking after patients, but creating awareness in the society about self care nursing and prevention strategies and to communicate with their patients in a holistic manner, so as to satisfy their physical, mental and spiritual health needs. Various nursing theorists have repeatedly

When entering the healthcare system, accommodating patients should be a top priority for any nurse. A nursing job can be emotionally and physically exhausting. Because patients are in hospitals and home care facilities throughout the year, it never closes. This forces nurses to be away from their families on weekends and holidays. When having a heart of a nurse, the patient’s health outweighs

Nursing goes beyond caring for a patient during their illness and managing their disease process. Nursing includes adapting to a patient’s and their family’s physical, social, spiritual, environmental and psychological needs. I believe in treating the whole patient and being supportive of the family’s needs as well. Shelly & Miller (2006) asserts “while critical thinking, decision-making, and leadership skills are extremely important, the characteristics nurses need most are compassion, competence, faith, integrity and responsibility” (p. 291).

“Good self-care for nurses includes eating well, getting enough sleep, avoiding harmful substances and staying physically active. You may be on your feet all day at work, but the rest of your body needs a different kind of workout. Maintaining strong mental and spiritual health (if appropriate) is also essential. Whether it is meditation, yoga or prayer, set aside a part of the day to find a calming moment that belongs only to

Second, Blum (2014) utilizes a review of Practicing Self-Care for Nurses: a Nursing Program Initiative, using the “Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)” (Blum, 2014, p 2). The PSS tool was originally authored by Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., and Merelstein, R. (1983) (as cited in Blum, 2014). Comparatively, Blum (2014) explains the PSS as a series of 14 questions measuring the frequency of participant’s feeling a certain way within a set timeframe of the PSS scale’s usage. Likewise, this academic course defining “self-care”, as focusing on stress reduction techniques for nursing students at available the Florida Atlantic University (as cited in Blum, 2014, p.3). Furthermore, lectures examine “various self-care modalities… [such] as journaling (a review

The nursing process does not merely treat the patient as a physical body, but rather treats the patient holistically. The central philosophy of Dorothea Orem's self-care deficit nursing theory "is that all patients want to care for themselves, and they are able to recover more quickly and holistically by performing their own self-care as much as they're able" (Dorothea Orem, 2012, Nursing Theory). However, although self-care may be the core of Orem's theory, the decision to engage in self-care must be facilitated by the patient's social and physical environment, of which the family can play a critical role in shaping.

There is no denying that the profession of nursing is considered challenging. From the first day of nursing school, throughout their career, nurses are told how difficult, yet rewarding, their chosen profession is. The care, consideration and work ethic that goes into any medical profession is evident, but with nursing there’s seems to be a little more. Whether it be the fact that nurses have more interaction with the patients, or that nurses are taught on a holistic model, the stories of nurses’ dedication are never ending. In the midst of patient advocacy and representation, it is no wonder that nurses often lose sight of themselves. The stress stars in nursing school, continues throughout their career, and seems to be constantly present in a nurse’s life. Nurse’s often struggle with addiction and substance abuse because of the high amounts of stress and lack of self-care. It’s ironic that in a profession that educates and promotes self-health, that these lessons are often disregarded by the nurses themselves. In this paper I am going to discuss the necessity of self-care maintenance in nursing school and my later nursing profession by utilizing proper sleep as well as owning a pet.

Dorothea Orem created the self-care theory in 1959 and continued to build upon her theory until 2001. The purpose of Orem’s theory was to define nursing, discuss the relationship among the nurse and the patient, and to promote a clear understanding of the scope of nursing (Taylor, Self-Care Deficit Theory of Nursing, 2006). Today, Orem’s theory is widely known and is utilized in nursing curriculum, as well as continuing education topics for healthcare providers.

Dorothea E. Orem devoted her life to defining nursing and the nurse’s role in improving the patient’s overall health, which she coined the Self-Care Deficit Theory. Orem’s theory is quite a complex one, which can be simplified by identifying that it is three theories in one: self-care theory, self-care deficit theory and nursing systems theory. In 1959, as Orem first began the evolution of the Self-Care Deficit Theory, she defined the nurse’s role as another self. This nursing theory is the foundation for nursing as it actually defines the art of nursing, the actions that drive the nurse and the nurse’s provision of care through the nursing systems theory. To place in simplistic terms, Orem assumes that all humans desire to care for self. In the self-care theory, she states that individuals are meant to care for themselves and their basic needs by promoting life, health, development and well-being (Banfield, 2011). When something happens that does not allow the human to care for self, a deficit occurs. This deficit drives the need for specialized nursing care to restore the human’s health so they can resume self-care.

On the front page of the American Nurses Association’s webpage, you see their complete definition of what being a professional nurse is, “Nursing is the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations.” They explain that nurses take care of others, but to take care of others they must take care of one’s self first as a nurse. It is like the analogy that is consistently used, “ put the oxygen mask on yourself” before you help any other person (Nurse Together, 2014). The purpose of this paper is understand that mindfulness is living in the present and taking care of one’s self first before they are trusted to take care of others, whether it is a physical or psychological standpoint. To be a nurse they have to judge other’s mental and physical state, but nurses have to take a look in the mirror once and a while.

My values about self-care have shifted since entering the nursing program. Since I have become a mother, my self-care has shifted from me to my children. This behavior continued into my first semester of nursing school where we started to learn about the impacts of neglecting ourselves. I now understand that in order to care for others I must care for myself first. This has been hard since I am a mother and deal with putting the needs of others before my own needs daily. Now I understand more clearly that if I do not take care of myself than everyone suffers. Nursing requires constant renewal of body, mind, and spirit (Jackson, 2004).