Tips For Relaxing After a Nursing Shift
Tips For Relaxing After a Nursing Shift - Travel Nurse Source Blog

Tips For Relaxing After a Nursing Shift

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Picture it. You’ve just finished a 12-hour nursing shift. Your feet are killing you as you sit in traffic on your way home. You spend another half an hour on your feet while you stand in the shower and wash of the blood, sweat, and tears from another grueling shift. Finally, after taking a few minutes to grab a bite to eat do you get to finally sit down. At this point, your eyes should grow heavy, and the tension from the day should finally work its way out of your system. Unfortunately for many nurses, it’s just not that easy. In fact, there is a large number of nurse professionals who find it difficult to relax after work. Whether you’re dwelling on a tough patient, or simply too wired to unwind, not being able to relax is a huge issue. Luckily, we’ve outlined a handful of tips for relaxing after a nursing shift.

Tips For Relaxing After a Nursing Shift

Meditation and Yoga

We know what you might be thinking. When you think of meditation, you might be thinking of sitting on the floor and humming to yourself. While this is certainly one form of meditation that some enjoy, there are numerous other forms of mediation that could be the key to relaxing after a nursing shift. Sometimes all it takes is a little mindfulness, which can be done by focusing on the present. This can be done by simply taking a seat and going through each of your five sense and paying extra attention to what you’re feeling, hearing, seeing, smelling, and tasting.

relaxing after a nursing shift

A companion of meditation is yoga, which has become quite popular over the last few decades. Yoga involves stretches that will help relieve the body of tension as well as provide a great workout. Taking a few minutes after work to do a few yoga poses could be the key to relaxing after a nursing shift.

Eat Healthy

The last thing you want to do after getting home from a long shift is to break out the pots and pans at start whipping up a full dinner filled with healthy ingredients. However, there are other ways to enjoy a healthy meal while you’re relaxing after a nursing shift. One of the best ways to get your food fix is by meal prepping. Meal prepping is when you cook a large amount of food, and then portion it out for the entire week. This could be done on your day off so all you have to do when you get home is heat it up!

There are also going to be days when you just want to snag something on the way home. Luckily, you can still find healthier alternatives. For example, instead of opting for that large fry, why not grab a small side salad? Or, instead of that fountain soda, grab a bottled water instead. You’ll be at home enjoying a healthy meal while you’re relaxing after a nursing shift.

Exercise

Sometimes even though your body is feeling worn out, a good 30 to 60 minutes of exercise could be exactly what you need. Exercising is also a great way to clear your mind of all the stressors that happened during the day. While you are working out your body, your mind will be processing the events and emotions of the day. Exercise also releases endorphins, which will put you in a better mood, to begin with. It will also tire you out, so you can expect to get a good night’s rest as well!

Relaxing after a nursing shift is incredibly important, and we hope the tips above have given you some great ideas! If you’ve got any other tips when it comes to relaxing after a nursing shift, feel free to comment below! Also, if you’re looking for a nursing assignment, feel free to check out the thousands of opportunities we have available.

Author: Travel Nurse Source

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