People are notorious for not following through with their New Year’s resolutions. Luckily, nurses are notorious for being determined and strong-willed. So whether you see a clear need to focus in on your work-life balance and make a resolution to shut your phone off when you are, or you think the new year is a perfect time for an equally new and perfect you and make the resolution to amp up your appearance or abilities, it’s important as a nurse (for you, your patients and even for the healthcare landscape as a whole) to curate New Year’s resolutions that you’re capable of crushing.
Boost Your Confidence
Confidence is key for nurses. That being said, a lack of confidence could stem from many areas. You’ll want to identify if:
- The way you look plays a part. If so, consider simple steps like investing in stylish women’s scrubs that make you feel confident, practicing yoga to improve your posture and tone your body, and even taking the time to watch yourself in front of the mirror more often to get a better sense of how to hold and move yourself.
- The way you feel plays a part. If you’re always feeling stiff, sore, fatigued, or just generally unwell or unhappy, you should strongly consider adjusting your focus onto adding regular exercise, healthy food, lots of water, and quality rest to your routine this year.
- You’re only losing confidence while you actively practice, as it could be due to unreliable tools and equipment, or gray areas in your knowledge. Approach this by making sure you have the best tools possible, clarifying everything and anything, and even potentially making a resolution to enroll in a helpful course or seminar.
Project a New Professional Identity
Instead of thinking about what you want to wear or what you want to project, it’s best practice to identify what you wear most often and what you project most naturally and aim to amplify and improve THAT. As a nurse, you likely find yourself in scrubs and non-slip shoes more often than not, so this should be your main focus as far as your image goes! Improving your look through a better fit and new style, and upgrading your look with Med Couture scrubs and modern colors, can make for a great base or be boasted as the focus of your new image.
Reformat Your Finances
It’s no secret that your schooling was expensive as a nurse, and no surprise that it’s hard to get ahead financially in today’s world — no matter what your occupation. That being said, it should also come as no shock that it can be simple to make a significant impact in this area. And whether you make it a resolution to save money by dedicating time every month to scope out the best deals on discount scrubs, or you make it a resolution to save money and save the environment by walking to work a couple of days of the week, you can easily save some dollars by using some sense!
Find Your Work-Life Balance
This will depend on what your balance is like currently, but it could range from making a resolution to turn your phone and email off when YOU’RE off, to transitioning onto a newly requested schedule that will offer you a better balance. Either way, this is important and likely to be encouraged by the people around you — which should make it that much easier to follow through with.
Realize What Relaxes You
This should be a fun round of trial and error, at least! Once you find it, though, incorporating what relaxes you into your daily or nightly routine will be the next and most important part. And from lighting a candle after dinner to taking a bubble bath before bed, these should be things that can be incorporated into your daily routine WITHOUT causing you additional stress. If you have more grand relaxation ideas in mind (for instance, getting a massage or doing a full home-spa day), consider adding them into your schedule once a week or as a treat once a month.
Expand Your Network
Expanding your professional network is a good career move, a good move for your work-life balance, a good move for your personal and professional growth and is normally more fun and interesting to do than we tend to give it credit for! Consider expanding your network by being more social at work, joining an organization online, embracing a mentor for new skills and new circles, becoming a mentor to share your skills, shape new nurses and gain special connections, or even just joining LinkedIn and creating a professional public profile.
Advance Your Education
In the ever-changing landscape of healthcare, the nurse’s role is diverse and always adapting to new advancements, changing environments, and shifting patterns. It’s important as a nurse, then, to consider completing courses, attending seminar series or even self-studying to not only keep your skills sharp but your brain and confidence, too. Along with this, any of these options will make great opportunities to form like-minded friends in the field.
Adjust the Way You Eat
You know better as a nurse than to fuel yourself with fast foods and vending machine variety munchies, but, unfortunately, heavy workloads and limited break schedules tend to drive most nurses to a heavy diet of exactly that. For an overall health and wellness boost, though, or if you’ve been able to identify an actual issue that should be addressed, it may be time to look at your diet.
- Foods for an overall boost in well-being will amplify and encourage your healthy eating habits by offering as many flavors and as much flavor as possible. Superfoods that do this best include berries, leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables, nuts, legumes, fish, and olive oil.
- Foods for energy DO NOT include high sugar and low fiber intakes, which will lead to a sugar rush and spike, yes, but also a quick crash that will result in decreased alertness and awakeness. Instead, consider complex carbs and nutrient-rich foods like oats, spinach, eggs, fruit, nuts, fish, and seeds — and find a good balance!
- Foods for warmth are generally ones that are high in healthy fats, proteins, and carbohydrates, as they’re more complex and take longer to digest. Ingredients like ginger, oats, red meats, sweet potatoes, brown rice, and coffee will all be beneficial.
Hitting the Ground Running in 2022
2021 has been a particularly tough time for nurses in the field, but with the year almost behind us, our New Year’s resolutions for the one ahead should promote a more positive outlook as we continue to move forward. They’re a great way to start the year right. So, what’s your resolution?
Resources:
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