Working in healthcare is an incredibly rewarding job, and helping others to recover from illness, injury, and offering them comfort through a difficult time is a very noble thing to do. However, it’s no secret that working in healthcare can also takes its toll, especially as there are a lot of pressures to deal with each day. It can be easy to neglect your self-care when you’re busy taking care of others, but it’s important to look after yourself just as much as your patients. Here are some basic self-care tips for healthcare professionals to help improve your well-being and keep you performing at your best.
Get Some Rest
If you’re a doctor or nurse who is working long shifts or is on call, it is likely your sleep cycle will not be the best. However, ensuring that you get enough rest each night, or as frequently as possible, is key. Not only will this help to improve your cognitive functions and performance at work, but it’ll also help to boost your mood and keep your body fighting fit. If you struggle to get to sleep at night, try to do something relaxing before bed to help you drift off easier, such as reading a book, having a hot shower or bath, or another activity that soothes you.
Meal Prep
It can be difficult to find time to prepare nutritious meals every day, particularly if you have a hectic working schedule. This is why spending some time planning your meals for each week and batch cooking some nutritious dishes could be beneficial. Simply get them out of the freezer so you can heat them when you get home from work or take food in with you rather than buying fast food or ready meals for your lunches.
Have Regular Health Checks
As a healthcare professional, you’ll be aware of how certain illnesses can go undetected for a long time, sometimes leading to more complicated treatment or a lower chance of recovery. This is why having regular health checks is important, even if you don’t feel particularly ill or have any obvious symptoms. You can even use a self referral MRI service for a more in-depth check-up to see if there are any underlying health issues that you need to know about.
Pay Attention to Your Mental Health
Working in a high-pressure environment doesn’t only take a toll on your physical health but can also lead to mental health struggles, too. If you are working in a frontline role such as a doctor or a nurse, you are likely to experience difficult situations including the deaths of patients, which will always be hard to cope with. If you are feeling burned out or under pressure, speak to your supervisor to let them know how you’re feeling as they might be able to find ways to help you cope. You should also consider speaking to a counselor who can help you talk through how you’re feeling and teach you coping mechanisms that might be useful for you in the future.
Working in healthcare can get tough sometimes, which is why you must lead by example and make sure that you’re taking care of yourself as well as the patients you work with.
Throughout the year, our writers feature fresh, in-depth, and relevant information for our audience of 40,000+ healthcare leaders and professionals. As a healthcare business publication, we cover and cherish our relationship with the entire health care industry including administrators, nurses, physicians, physical therapists, pharmacists, and more. We cover a broad spectrum from hospitals to medical offices to outpatient services to eye surgery centers to university settings. We focus on rehabilitation, nursing homes, home care, hospice as well as men’s health, women’s heath, and pediatrics.
