Nursing is not an easy job. After working 10-12 hour hospital shifts, chances are you’re stressed. Many things can cause nurse burnout, including sick patients, unreasonable patient-to-nurse ratios, cost cutting, or high administrative demands on customer service. But mostly it happens when nurses don’t take care of themselves in the end.

There are ways to prevent nursing burnout. Here are strategies to reduce nurse burnout:

1.) Stress reduction classes: Many organizations/hospitals offer stress management classes for nurses. Nurses learn a variety of strategies to prevent burnout, including easy-to-use stress-relieving exercises.

2.) Recognition and compensation: There is a research result that burnout decreases as nursing satisfaction increases. Simple recognition and rewards boost your morale and provide job satisfaction.

3.) Training and education: Regular training and education help nurses feel competent in their jobs. You feel more confident, less anxious, and more flexible when dealing with patients. Confident and competent nurses are less likely to experience burnout.

4.) Coaching: On a long and stressful work day, employees need frequent coaching to motivate them. Staff assistance programs can provide support to prevent nurse burnout.

5.) Manager Commitment: Establishing a healthy work environment always reduces stress for nurses. Management should organize meetings and meet with nurses to share issues and problems. They need to feel heard and supported by their manager or senior doctor.

6.) Scope of breaks: There should be room for nurses to relax and take breaks from their busy schedules. Nurses should be encouraged to take breaks to relax and interact with other nurses. Relaxation at work and home should be encouraged as an essential aspect of every nurse’s lifestyle.

Listing the points to prevent nursing burnout is easier than doing it. Proper expert guidance and regular practice are often very beneficial. Getting a yoga DVD or seeking expert advice can be a start to reducing fatigue, stress, or nursing burnout.

Beware of burnout nurses

Any nurse who has ever worked in an acute care hospital or nursing home is probably familiar with nurse burnout. You may not have experienced it yet, but unless you are vigilant and take precautions, you eventually will.

There are commonalities that tend to permeate the personalities of almost all nurses. These traits are the same ones known to mothers of young children. The features are those of a martyr. People who sacrifice for the good of others, people who are too busy taking care of others to take care of themselves.

Mothers of young children have been doing this since the beginning of time and are usually fine, but many nurses are not. Of course, mothers of very young babies don’t stay at that stage of life for long. In 5 years, your child has grown enough to be able to go to school for a significant amount of time every day. Even if mothers continue to have many children during their reproductive years, this stage of life only lasts for about 15 years at most, and there are no young children at home all day. A nurse, on the other hand, can remain in this ruthless sacrificial martyr mode for more than 20 years throughout her career. And in other professions outside of healthcare, we are faced with potentially life-threatening situations every day.

A nurse is a giver. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have entered the profession in the first place. Sometimes we don’t know when it’s time to stop the cycle and take time for ourselves. Intellectually we know. At 3 o’clock or 7 o’clock, or when the shift has to end, we know we have to get the job done. But the call light is off, someone is in pain, someone needs help going to the bathroom, or another patient’s IV is leaking. How many of us can get on with our work and commit to the next shift, especially when there is no one to take care of our pager light needs because other patients have already called? Will this new patient have to wait longer at the traffic light because he has been patient and worked hard? Of course not. So we stay long enough to make sure everything is stable and calm again, often after we’ve gotten off work. After all, we want others to do the same for us, right?

In nursing school, we are always taught to put ourselves in the patient’s place. The nursing shift is over and we don’t want to be left in pain as the next shift is already taken. We are compassionate and loving beings, but if we continue like this every day, returning home often to others in need, we will surely burn out.

We must take care of ourselves if we want to continue caring for others. It is disinterested and obligatory. When a flight attendant walks up to the public address system and tells everyone what to do in an emergency, it’s similar to the start of an airplane flight. If you’ve ever been on a plane, you probably know it by heart. Parents and people without disabilities should always put on an oxygen mask first and then have their children or others who cannot do it themselves help put it on. This makes sense and we know it.

If you’re feeling drained and exhausted, treat yourself to some TLC. If you’ve gone too far for too long, do something about it. Contact Employee Health. Trust me. They won’t think you’re weak. They see it every day. Most health center employers offer some type of employee assistance program. These types of programs allow you to get counseling or other needed services at no cost. Counselors are not hospital staff but are generally separate entities paid by hospitals to covertly care for staff when necessary. There is no way for employers to know what is going on there. Patient confidentiality is maintained.

If you feel like you don’t need that kind of help, take a break. Most agencies would rather take the time to rejuvenate themselves and come back fresh to become super nurses and super staff.