I was eager to become a nurse and help other people. My mother has shared with me that even as early as pre-school, I was eager to help others in the classroom. Fast forward a few decades, and the desire to help others continues in a variety of ways. While I am no longer in direct patient care, I have always felt that the roles that I have taken on have been with the purpose of helping other nurses and healthcare professionals.
As a nursing student, you learn how to care for others. You are trained on how to assess another person across all body systems while also applying the science of nursing to the care delivery process. From nursing diagnoses of knowledge deficit that often apply to most if not all patients, to something more specific that applies to the admitting diagnosis for the patient, nurses are continually thinking about how to improve the health of others.
Yet, over the last several years, I have had the opportunity to reflect on caring for oneself while also caring for others. I realized that in many ways, I had to learn how to care for myself. I had spent so many years thinking like a nurse and putting the needs of others ahead of my own. “I would be fine”, I would often think to myself. Whether it was cutting corners on sleep or exercise, or other areas, surely the other person needed that time more than I did.
Today, I see the limitations in that thinking pattern. I am not a machine nor are you. Even if we were, machines need downtime to recharge and full the battery again or be upgraded with the newest updates and fixes to the software platform. Vehicles need gas or an electric charge to run.
Why would we not think that we also need that time to recharge, reboot, upgrade, and more simply put, care for ourselves?
We are soon approaching 2025. The last five years have been both long and fast in terms of seeing time pass us by. In the last 5 years, I learned how to care for myself and I will continue to do so while also caring for others. You can accomplish both.
I have found this has started with one small act of caring for myself on a regular basis that turns into another and another. Over time, you begin to see the results of those self investments.
I encourage everyone to consider ways they can reflect on what it means to care for oneself and know that this can be done while also caring for others. For nurses, this may require a new person to focus on, yourself.
Sincerely,
Tiffany Kelley
