In Australia, nurses work a seven/four day cycle. Our Union award allows for 1 day accrual per

month, which we can take as a "mental Health" day", tag into onto our days off, or collect them

over the year and add them to our holiday (6 weeks a year)..... We are still understaffed, over

worked, under appreciated (by management) over appreciated by our patients (no worries), but, at the end of the day, the buzz I get from helping people is worth the angst.

The nursing profession is hard work and stress rolled into one. Taking care of the patients is the nurse’s main responsibility.

Wrong.

Nurses must take care of their health first. It’s so easy to drown yourself with hospital stuffs like difficult patients, unhappy colleagues, short staffing, budget cuts, and more. Start swimming now to safety.

Use your healthcare services to discover hidden ailments. Join a health community or a yoga club. The important thing is you must have fun doing self-care.

We must take care of our health. Both Mentally and physically. How else can we do our patients any good if we ourselves are rundown and requiring medical attention.

Taking care of ourselves is important, what's hard is finding the time to do it. I am a member at a fitness center close to my home. It's easy for me. Now lets take a look at a typical day. Lets say I've just finished a 12 hour shift. Now I have to report off and finish up anything I left. After 12 1/2 hours I'm ready to go home. It Takes me about 20 min to drive home. So now I'm up to 13 hours. Now that I'm home I need to walk my best friend (Dizzle) my dog. Ok there goes another 15 to 25 minutes. I also take care of my elderly father who has really bad dementia. I dont mind though but after cooking breakfast for him then unwinding a little I'M at about 14-15 hours awake. Time to take a nap and I use the term loosely because thats what I get a nap. I usually have to get up a couple of times during the day to talk with the visiting nurses who come help me with my father during the day. Then it's time to get ready to go back to work and start all over again. The best part is that I work a set schedule so Im on for three days then off for four. Its on my days off that I go to the Gym, mostly do cardio to try and keep my weight down. So as anyone can see it's hard to keep healthy other than eating healthy and doing cardio four days a week if I'm not called out to fill in an empty shift which happens quite frequently.

Francis McMahon RN

I began to feel as though I was burning out in nursing, which made me really sad. Then I realized, I was the one that had to stop and step back and realize, I had let nursing consume me. I was doing 8-12 hour shift, volunteering for nursing jobs in the community and then trying to manage nursing school. I finally taught myself a NICE way of saying NO. I started working on my health, doing fun activities with my friends, and sewing! Now I look forward to work again, my attitude has changed! I wasn't burnt out...I just wasn't taking care of myself!

Moral of my story....TAKE CARE OF THAT PRECIOUS PERSON THAT YOU ARE!

I know the feeling, you lack the energy to work out after a 10-12hr shift and put off exercise. Once you get home it's like awe man I don't feel like cooking lets go out get something quick. Next thing you know you are reaching 200lbs and look in the mirror and don't recognize yourself. I found a solution www.5linx2fitness.weebly.com I actually shared the Hi5 Boost and Hi5 Edge supplement with a nurse I work with who returned after hip replacement surgery. She was complaining of back pain due to wearing lead aprons for the procedures we do in radiology. She was so happy with the results she ordered them and even said her family has recognized improvements in her mobility.