Nurses are the backbone of long-term care homes. They provide essential medical and emotional support to residents every day.
However, in almost all healthcare residences, nurses are often overworked and the facility is understaffed. Often, many nurses can experience a lot of stress with the job, which can lead to mental health issues.
To help nurses in long-term care homes maintain and improve their mental health, we put together 3 simple tips to follow for nurses and long-term care homes!
Content Outline
1. Create time for Selfcare.
2. Join a nurse community.
3. Reduce workload by working with a nurse staffing agency.
1. Create time for Selfcare.
For nurses, there are three things you need to make a mental health plan for yourself: exercise, hobbies, and restorative sleep. Many nurses in long-term care homes, work 12-hour shifts all the time which can lead to stress and burnout.
To avoid this problem altogether, you should create time and implement these three tasks into your routine.
Exercise: You might not have time to go for a run or walk because of work, but on your off days make time!
Make sure to get in some exercise before or after your shift. A little stretching and breathing exercises are good forms of exercise; it does not have to be complex. It will help with how you feel mentally as well as physically.
Hobbies: Hobbies are another vital part of your mental health plan.
Consider what you enjoy doing for fun or as a hobby, and try to do it occasionally. It will help take care of any pent-up stress, especially when paired with exercise!
Restorative sleep: As a hard-working nurse, you should prioritize sleep to make sure that you are always mentally prepared for the job. Sleep saves lives!
Be sure to follow the nurse’s mantra: “Five hours of sleep is fine; eight hours is better.”, so get more sleep when you can!
2. Join a nurse community.
One of the incredible benefits of being part of a community in your field is sharing similar experiences and being able to talk about them easily, with a group of people that understands.
Joining nurse organizations is a great way to stay connected and engaged with other nurses in the field and share experiences. They also provide opportunities for you to network, learn new things about nursing care, or vent about work-related issues and encourage each other!
We suggest looking around online and finding a good nurse community that’s near you and is a good fit for you.
3. Reduce workload by working with a nurse staffing agency.
By engaging the service of a nurse staffing agency like HealthOPM, healthcare facilities can benefit their staff and help alleviate some of the stress felt by nurses working in long-term care homes.
Due to understaffing, nurses are forced to work overtime with little to no breaks. Instead of working their normal shift, a nurse may have to cover and do the job of 2 nurses. This creates high levels of stress and exhaustion, which overtime will certainly lead to lowered performance.
By working with a nurse staffing agency, long-term care homes can reduce the workload of their nurses by delegating tasks to the skilled nurse professionals from HealthOPM. This allows them to focus on the most essential, high-need tasks while still being able to provide quality care for residents at long-term care homes.
This will also help long-term care home nurses gain more control over their work schedule, which is often unpredictable and demanding due to a shortage of staff.
As a result of the reduced workload, nurses can have more vacation days and rest before returning to work.
Also, outsourcing to a nurse staffing agency, such as HealthOPM, allows permanent staff nurses to have some much-needed time for self-care to improve their mental health.
In Conclusion
Nursing can be one of the most mentally draining professions to work in because they are often overworked and understaffed. There is a lot of stress that goes into this job, which can lead to mental health issues.
To help nurses in long-term care homes maintain and improve their mental health, these tips we put together if followed can help:
- Selfcare.
- Join a nurse community.
- Reduce workload by working with a nurse staffing agency.
As a nurse in a long-term care home, always remember to prioritize and take care of your mental health!
Need nurse staffing agency support?
Contact HealthOPM! We provide Registered Nurses, Registered Practical Nurses, Personal Support Workers, and other healthcare professionals to support healthcare facilities in Ontario. We help curb understaffing issues that cause burnout and affect the mental health of nurses. All our staff are highly trained and certified nurses that have experience working in every situation. For more information and immediate support contact HealthOPM today!