Developing organizational skills and patience and utilizing well-needed short breaks can eliminate many of the normal stressors that others might not be able to overcome. This allows a nurse to flourish in all the tasks that get piled up during a shift.
Here are some skills, personality characteristics, and other tips that can help nurses manage their workload and their home lives — hopefully be happier and more productive in both areas.
Have Fun
Nursing can be a very intense and focused career, so picking the right times to just goof off or blow off steam in a pleasurable way can help relieve that tension.
Prioritize Tasks
Time management is all about critical thinking and how to prioritize your time and efforts as a nurse. To get to that point of comfort in prioritizing, she says that nurses need to ask these four questions that can help put everything in its place in your mind and in your schedule:
What am I going to do first and why?
Which is more important to do, and why is it the most important?
What’s the worst thing that could happen if I don’t do it now?
What is most important to the patient?
Balance work with life
Nurses don’t always get the luxury of a 9 to 5 shift all the time; some work 12 hour shifts for four days straight or even longer. Hopefully, your family can be supportive of your weird hours, and accommodate by helping out around the house and scheduling family events when you are available.
Quick Stress Relievers During Work
Everyone has their breaking point, along with their own ways of not getting to that breaking point. It’s important to take those simple five minute breaks for peace of mind.
Anticipation of Needs
Sometimes, experience just allows nurses to know what will come next and what is needed to save trips back and forth. For instance, if you are is dealing with a newborn and her mother, try and schedule assessments at the same time so you do not have to return within a short time frame.
Being a nurse can be a rewarding career, but with an unending stream of responsibilities, stressful situations, and demands. By learning and using time management skills every day, nurses can get through their shifts successfully and live fuller and happier lives.